Last February a small tempest erupted in our little corner of the edtech world. Ostensibly what sparked it was a post and an accompanying image by Leigh Blackall (which I won’t link to here, not to hide anything, just that the purpose of this post isn’t to stir anything more up or inflict further harm) which led to a string of responses, including mine, which only seemed to add to whatever hurt those initial posts might have created.
Too often we I haven’t admitted when we’ve made mistakes and apologize, and this is not a practice I want to continue in. After many months reflection I am able to acknowledge that I was not practicing deep listening or mindful speech, but simply reacting defensively, and did so in a way that compound the problem. I am sorry for this.
I don’t expect that this will heal the rifts that were created over those few days; trust is something that is difficult to build, easy to break. The greater shame too is that, as a few wise folks like Chris Lott and Nancy White tried to flush out, underneath the poorly framed/badly received post & images were issues, about public personas and their importance for catalyzing communities, amongst other things, that are indeed worthy of discussion. I am sorry for the role I had in derailing that potential outgrowth too. – SWL