Why Ontario Matters…

A few days ago, Donna Fry reblogged one of my “This Week in Ontario Edublogs” posts to the OSSEMOOC blog.

“Doug Peterson works tirelessly to connect Ontario educators.  He actively promotes the thinking and writing of those working in the field of education in Ontario, and shares his own personal experiences to help push our thinking forward.  For all you do to inspire us to keep writing and sharing, Doug, here’s to you!”

I’m not sure that “tirelessly” is the right word but I’ll take it.

If you hang around in my online circles, undoubtedly, you’ve read one of my Friday posts or, as Brandon Grasley said at the Sudbury eLO Symposium, “been spammed by my FollowFriday posts” on Twitter. 

All of this stuff started a while back when an Ontario teacher had blogged about the dangers of how No Child Left Behind was being implemented in Ontario Schools.   It was at that moment that I realized firsthand some of the dangers of being overly connected.  Goodness knows that we’re growing and learning in Ontario – we need to celebrate and learn from that.  It’s not that I don’t appreciate my connections world-wide – I do and enjoy the learning that it affords but I think that it’s important to realize what’s directly applicable in Ontario and what isn’t.

I’ll admit to having, and am proud of, my rural roots.  We learned to support those within our community.  Without them, the community fails.  To this date, we will visit roadside stands to purchase fruits and vegetables to support our neighbours.  Perhaps it was first moving into the city of Windsor near the Chrysler plant, but we’ve bought into the concept of “buy the cars your neighbours build” although it means less in today’s global economy.  But, we did own a couple of minivans during our baseball transportation years.  I honestly believe that we need to support those in our communities.

In the OSSEMOOC, Donna has tried to build a community of educational bloggers from Ontario sharing their daily learnings.  That’s the bigger message than any silly little blog post that I might write.  I’ve been thoroughly enjoying the posts as they have become available.  Congratulations to those who contributed but even more hearty congratulations to those who might have started or revived a blog because of it.

It’s important that those in Ontario continue to have their voices heard about education and about education things. 

Like I said at edcampSWO and edcampldn, “If you want to know about education, follow an educator.  If you want to know about Ontario education, follow an Ontario educator.”  In a connected world, we need to find a way to do both.

On a personal note, I’d like to sincerely congratulate Donna for the work she put into this blogging connection initiative.  I hope that it continues to grow.