It is impossible to speak in such a way that you cannot be misunderstood.
~Karl Popper, Unended Quest
This week I became a bad digital citizen and put my virtual foot in my mouth and offended people who I regard as mentors and role models, specifically, Leslie Fisher, Patrick Crispen and Kathy Schrock.
To my horror I was informed of my gross error regarding a few tweets. Yes, The Twitvangelist sent out some highly offensive tweets during the Georgia Educational Technology Conference in Atlanta, GA.
For this I sincerely apologize and hope to explain what the intention of these offending tweets were from my perspective when I tweeted them. I'm not even sure exactly the wording of the tweets called into question because I deleted them as soon as I realized what a gross error in judgement I had made. It was certainly never my intention to be insulting, degrading, disrespectful and a handful of other synonyms. My perspective was just different.
Let's take for instance the saying, "Break a leg". Said in the context of an actor getting ready to go on stage those words are completely appropriate. The same words, "Break a leg", said to the cheating b*st*rd of an ex-husband as he leaves for an Aspen ski vacation with his 20 something year old hottie means something else entirely. Same words...different meanings.
So by now you are probably wonder what was the horrific thing I tweeted and... as I mentioned earlier I deleted the tweets but they went something like this: Want to learn everything @lesliefisher knows without having to wait to see her at a conference? Attend my session in Boardroom 3 at #gaetc2011
(Substitute the other names where you see Leslie Fisher's name.)
My intention when I sent these tweets was not to undermine the fantastic job they do in disseminating information to top educators, rather, it was to let these same educators know what I had discovered....Leslie Fisher, Patrick Crispen, and Kathy Schrock are not aliens placed on Earth and fed special top secret information from the Mother Ship they then pass along to an unsuspecting public until our brains can be eaten and Earth can be taken over by alien invaders. Rather, my message (tweets) was to inform other educators where, when, why, what & how these fantastic presenters know the wealth of information they so freely share with the rest us and that they could find this information out at my Hands On Session in Boardroom 3 at 1:00 on Thursday, November 3, 2011.
So, again, I sincerely apologize to Leslie Fisher, Patrick Crispen, Kathy Schrock and the organizational committee for the Georgia Educational Technology Conference who had the unpleasant job of bringing my social media faux pas to my attention. I'd like to promise it won't ever happen again but I am human and until aliens take over the Earth with a less fallible species we are stuck with human frailties and my foot periodically planted in my mouth (thank goodness for pedicures).
