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I think the answer is yes. Also, knowing the people in the DEN FM postitions I think they would be discouraged if what they created ended. The community and the work they did has value. Let’s not kill it in spite.

My humble thoughts,

Jim

Neither Jeff or I were Field Managers. Those were paid, full-time employees of Discovery Education. The Field Managers were let go because (according to the Washington Post article) they were considered redundant or overlapping. They were let go on Thursday afternoon and were not allowed to come back Friday. They are shopping for jobs as we shop for gifts.

We were definitely not in it for the prestige, title, or money. We actually gave up much of our personal time to work with the DEN and its members - we loved it too, and intend to keep in contact with all of those we met.

We intend to work closely with GPB’s new Technology In Education network (TIE), which hopes to achieve similar goals as the DEN, but without the strings of the corporate machine.

We were shocked about Discovery’s decision because it had successfully convinced us that it was NOT your typical corporate presence. Maybe if I use a folk tale as an example, it will help me explain the dismay many of us felt.

Discovery was a wolf (typical corporation) that convinced the flock (educators) that it really wanted to be a shepherd. It lead us to some very green pastures, and for a while, we were smitten. We even recruited more sheep, telling them all about this wonderful wolf that was really a shepherd. Really!

Then it “wolfed out” and bit a couple of the sheep (the Field Managers) and yet it continues to say, “Follow me, I’m a shepherd! We have come so far, and there are more green fields over yonder!”

Well, we still talk to that bitten friend, and many of us sheep are kinda scared that maybe this shepherd really IS just a wolf.

Jeff and I are looking to another shepherd, Georgia Public Broadcasting, to lead us in a good direction - only this one was never a wolf. With some heavy hearts, we leave the DEN flock - hoping they will be fine, but certain that we would rather not take our chances - no matter how green the grass might be. Heck, maybe we might become shepherds of our own.

First, I want to say that the DEN was the best organization I have ever belonged to. It still is, probably. I wish it well. I hope that everyone in the DEN continues to carry out the idea that it was based on: networking teachers with each other and using technology to help students understand more.

Jeff and I haven’t given up on that. We are in schools, helping teachers 4+ days out of the week (we rarely get a day in the office). We offer face-to-face training, guidance, and mentoring to our 12 school systems we serve. Somewhere along the way, we find time to post every day on SEGA Tech something that will benefit educators. We don’t do it for profit - we work as a contracted agency for the DOE, but we have passion for helping students and teachers every day. My only real professional goal is to reform education - to fix this terrible funk that our kids are learning in.

We believe in the DEN. But we also know that the methods Discovery used to cut “redundant” staff were wrong. There were many avenues they could have taken, especially considering that Discovery Education division’s revenue has jumped 350 percent since 2004.

Read the Washington Post article:

We wish everyone the best, and we will continue to help DEN members and the remaining staff. Just email us! We have absolutely NO hard feelings towards the DEN or it’s remaining heroes. We just felt that we couldn’t play with Corporate Discovery anymore.

First and foremost, the DEN is a COMMERCIAL product; despite any number of good intentions, wishes to spread the word of educational technology, any member of the DEN or teacher aware of the DEN should have realized that the community was formed as a commercial entity. Why would a company as large as Discovery, undertake such a large project without some type of financial reward in the future? Sure, there are lots of people out there evangelizing and spreading the word about educational technology like Will Richardson and David Warlick that present a very altruistic vision of spreading ed tech, but they’re still trying to make a living doing it. All of the major prognosticators of the Edublogosphere are either working in an institution, earning money, spreading the word, or being paid to travel the country and speak at major conventions in order to spread the word.

Why should Discovery be any different? In fact, as a large corporation, I would expect that the bottom line was always a high priority. So why is it that there’s so much shock about what has happened? Did these former managers believe so much in the DEN’s philosophy that they were truly trying to help teachers? If so, then why shutdown the Discover This wiki and other resources? You’ve put time, energy, blood, sweat, and tears into creating some amazing materials for teachers. Don’t let the raw emotions, that are admitedly justifiable, make you trash all of the hard work you’ve done. Prove to Discovery, and more importantly the teachers you love, that you were in it for the adventure, the discvoery, the learning, and not just the prestige, the title, or the money (if field managers were compensated, which I am not privy to).

I could type on and on, but not knowing the specifics of why the FMs were shutdown, and not knowing the personal history of the Field Managers I believe I’ve ranted on long enough.

A shame that so many bright educators are looking at this as a defeat, and not a way to take the DEN model and improve upon it in a non-commercial way.