This morning after our church service, I recorded and shared four videos on YouTube and Twitter relating to our current budget crisis in the Oklahoma legislature. In the first video, “A Transformed Political Culture in Oklahoma,” I encouraged other Oklahomans to:
- Use a smartphone to record short videos for elected officials, sharing an opinion and specific recommendations for action you want the official to take
- Get a family member or friend who is more tech savvy to help with this process, if you are unfamiliar or not comfortable with sharing videos on YouTube and social media
- Identify yourself at the start of the video by name and the neighborhood where you live, helping the official understand you are their voting constituent
- Post the video to YouTube with a title which includes the name of the elected official as well as your name
- Share the link to the video on social media websites, including Twitter, using the elected official’s Twitter handle as well as the hashtag #transformOK.
I’m not sure if there will be any other feedback from this series of four videos, but I was delighted to engage with Oklahoma Senator David Holt later in the afternoon after he watched my video. I’ve archived both his tweets and mine from this afternoon in a Storify archive, which I will also embed below. This exchange of ideas is EXACTLY what I was hoping to achieve in recording and sharing these videos. I haven’t had or made time to go to the Oklahoma capitol building in recent weeks to talk with my elected representatives… but I DID make time to record and post a short video today on Sunday morning. The result was a great series of shared ideas, and I’m feeling very thankful as well as supportive to have David Holt as my Oklahoma state senator fighting to change our tax code and allocate more funds for our public schools as well as vital public services.
Consider using YouTube and social media to communicate with your own elected state representatives. As I noted in my post this morning about these videos and this advocacy strategy:
We live in a representative democracy. Let’s exercise our rights of speech, assembly, and full participation as citizens in the political process. Let’s transform our Oklahoma political culture together.
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On this day..
- A Transformed Political Culture in Oklahoma #transformOK #OklaEd – 2016
- Set Your Default YouTube Upload Channel – 2015
- Why Your School Needs a Scratch Club [VIDEO] – 2013
- Help My Son’s Debate Teacher Whose Home Was Destroyed by the Moore Tornado – 2013
- Scratch Camp in Edmond, Oklahoma: June 8-9, 2012 – 2012
- iPad Notetaking: NOT Impressed with PaperPort Notes App – 2012
- Passion Projects, Learning and Innovation – 2011
- Dropped iPad – 2010
- Why Storychasing is relevant for all educators – Contextual learning about copyright is important – 2009
- Burning a DVD of a web-based video quick – 2009