Email 'tips' are Too distracting?

I recently heard from a person who works in a public school and who is sorta like a tech integrator person. (Trying hard not to identify even the gender to protect the innocent.) As such, this person had been sending out emails to the other faculty members in which were tips, or websites to check out, etc. I don't know how often those emails went out, but I can't imagine they were more than one a day - but I don't know that, for sure. The intent of those emails was to help keep the faculty aware of new sites and ideas, and to try to generate a discussion. It was meant as a passive way to provide professional development in a time when PD hours are so limited and so precious.

But, the person was recently told that those emails were "too distracting" and that they were to stop.

*pause for that to sink in a bit*

Too distracting, eh? Did you hear me screaming? Now this person is starting a blog in which to post all those items that normally would have gone out in the emails. That's perfect, of course, because now nobody has to see them. Nobody has to be bothered anymore with those pesky emails about the great debate site, deepdebate.org, now moving to OnlineTownhalls.com. Or, about a wonderful site for social studies teachers, Mapping Worlds, that does a fantastic job showing relationships between countries based upon either their relative data. (Hard to describe, but a great site) Or, maybe it was a site that allows collaborative mind mapping, or a tip about how to manage resources, or a tip about how to do something in Moodle. "Don't bother us with that stuff!"

So, instead of thanking this person for the work that went into finding and writing those email tips, this person was told to stop bothering the staff. Yes, maybe a "thank you" was offered, but only in the "Thanks, but no thanks" sense. "Take it somewhere else!" That's the message.

What a shame that the decision was made to give in to the whiners who probably complained that they can't keep their inbox empty as it is, let alone with all THAT stuff. Instead of showing them how to set up folders and filtering rules so that they could have kept those tips for later, they stopped the tips. Instead of saying, "I hope you will let us show you how to manage those tips, because we feel that they're very important to the professional development of our faculty", the message became, "Sorry to have bothered you."

What a shame. Now back to "Business as usual."