Go for a little hike one morning, and you end up in the paper. So just to set the record straight – I didn’t put up or tear down a flag pole at the top of Mount Olympus. I was simply an innocent bystander after the incident. Really!
Photo from http://www.ksl.com/?nid=148&sid=30473797
For more on the story about how several missionaries cemented a flag pole into the boulders at the summit of Mount Olympus, and a caring hiker removed the pole, check out the full story at The Salt Lake Tribune website.
How is this related to educational technology? Here you go… YouTube, Facebook, or even Twitter could have served the purpose of sharing the missionaries’ dedication and accomplishment much better than a sack of concrete and a flagpole erected in the wrong place.
Mount Olympus is on U.S. Forest Service property. It isn’t a place for putting up permanent manmade structures. The broken off remains of the aluminum flag pole now stick up as a hazard to anyone walking along the boulder field that is the summit of Olympus. One wrong move can now mean not only a fall, but also being impaled on jagged metal protruding from the rock.
At the same time, it’s a very difficult hike that requires stamina, endurance, and some basic mountaineering skills. Climbing Olympus is something to celebrate. So how could this group of young people celebrated their accomplishment in a less intrusive and more appropriate way? Use social media.
Climb the mountain. Experience the team work and camaraderie. And when you’ve reached the summit record it for all posterity’s sake with a picture – you can even take a flag with you, just don’t cement it into the rocks. Hold the flag, and post it online where it will be permanent and public. People around the world can see it without having to hike up 3,000+ feet in a few short, steep miles of rocky trail.
That’s what I did.
EdTecHakk 