by Robert Leneway
I have been asked why I named this blog Educating the Digital Tribe? The concept of a digital tribe was taken from a keynote address that I attended at the 2005 Skillsoft Perspectives Conference in Orlando, Fl by Online Learning Guru, Elliott Masie.
After graduating from XYZ Technical College, Katie Smith got her first job as a web master with Masie Consulting Company. After six months, her boss, Internet guru, Elliott Massey conducted Katie first evaluation. Dr. Masie tells her what amazing job, she was doing in her brief time with the company. But, during this evaluation, they were continually being interrupted by her desk top personal computer beeping. When asked what all of the beeping was about, Katie replied it was her "digital tribe". This is a digital tribe of virtual classmates and friends who she regularly communicates and collaborates with. Masie says he realized that he had not only hired Katie, but also her "digital tribe". A personal learning and support network from around the world, that she could call upon any time to both help her with technical problems and keep her well informed. Thanks to her well developed network, Katie can look forward to a long successful career supported by her digital tribe.
There is considerable research to support the use of personal and virtual network to improve work attainment and advancement (Reily, 2010; Humphries,2007; and Saedi and Nyugen,2009. Graduates and the unemployed are often excoriated to call upon their personal and online networks to help with their job search. Students graduating from high school without the opportunity to develop appropriate online supportive networks are at a definite disadvantage when competing with their social networking digitally competent peers who are also entering higher education.
4 comments:
I can relate to what Katie Smith talked about. Some people at my school like to call me the “Technology Guru” because I seem to have an answer to all of their technology problems. I tell them it’s not me that knows everything; it’s all the experts that are out there on the Internet. I simply know where to find those experts (web sites, discussion boards, computer technician friends).
So it not what you know or who you know any more to get ahead, but knowing where to look. That is a great perspective!
I can also relate with Katie Smith. Though I am not as technologically advanced as Katie, I too have a sort of "digital tribe" of people who help me to integrate technology into the classroom My tribe consists mainly of people who have gone before me in the MA in Educational Technology, and teachers who are currently teaching the latest technology in their classroom. When one can't be an expert on all things technology, it's great to know who to turn to for specific answers. Hopefully, I will be able to return the favor some day or share my creative energy in return!
I was curious as to why you named your blog, “Educating the Digital Tribe?” The idea of a professional network, at your fingertips, has interesting implications for the workforce of the future, for humanity in general. Co-teaching and job sharing could be a “tribe” experience. Being able to communicate, network and incorporate multiple viewpoints, at an instant, will be the norm, To be competitive in the future job markets, having that network will be required. I am curious about the future of humanity in general. We will continue to see a split or technological divide, between those that have access to technology and those that don’t. I wonder what the other tribes will do. I envision their world consisting of, communicating through storytelling and life experiences, developing one on one relationship and using their five senses to continue to communicate. Not having the digital tribe, experience, does not doom them to failure. It is perhaps what the original Indian Tribes envisioned, living in harmony with nature, in a close network of humanity, in the physical sense.
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