Vote for Gary

One of the most persistently vexing barriers that we face is the lack of awareness realized outside the education community about strains that change is having on schooling and the challenges to keep up. This lack of vision owes itself to several factors, but getting the message out — especially to other message makers — is essential to expanding the education conversation.

One of the most passionate and hard to ignore voices is Gary Stager, and Gary is trying to expand the audience for his passion by proposing a presentation at the next South by Southwest Conference (SXSW) to be held in March.  SXSW selects its speaker by crowdsourcing the activities of potential attendees, asking people to vote on the presenters they want to hear.  Gary is asking that we go and give him a vote.  He writes about in a blog post, Help Me Change People’s Minds!, and includes instructions for voting.  I’m including them here for your convenience.

In order for me to be invited to speak at South-by-Southwest, (SXSW), I need for you and your colleagues, friends, relatives and students to spend a few minutes voting for my session. I apologize for how clumsy the web site is. That’s why I’ve included the following step-by-step instructions below:

1. Go to: http://bit.ly/cxq78J
2. Follow the instructions for creating an account
3. An email will be sent to you containing a link to click that will return you to the voting site
4. Click the link in the email
5. Login using the email address and password you just created
6. Click on the Explore the Interactive Proposals » link (http://bit.ly/bk31Hl)
7. Type Stager into the Organizer field
8. Click the SEARCH PANELS button
9. My session, The Best Educational Ideas in the World, should appear
10. Click the icon of the THUMBS UP to vote for my session.
11. If you wish, click on the title of the session, scroll to the bottom of the page and leave a message of support. Every bit helps!

I am really grateful to each and every one of you who takes the time to follow the steps outlined above and votes for my session. Reaching multiple and varied audiences is the most effective way I can influence public opinion and help kids.

Great luck to Gary Stager!