Building a Networked Identity: How to Become a Connected Educator

Building a Networked Identity !!!!!!!!

How to Become a Connected Educator #wweopen13

Who do you want to be when you grow up?

Wrong question.

What do you want to contribute?  

•  What are your strengths?

•  What brought you into education?

•  What kind of work puts you in a state of flow?  

•  What do you want to be known for? h#p://www.flickr.com/photos/2nker-­‐tailor/8378048032/sizes/z/  

“Knowledge emerges only through invention and re-invention, through the restless,

impatient, continuing, hopeful inquiry human beings pursue in the world, with the world, and

with each other.” - Friere, The ‘Banking’ Concept of Education, p. 244

Education = Multiple axes of change

knowledge scarcity

knowledge abundance

open

public funding

markets

closed

Increasing pressure to go online

h#p://www.flickr.com/photos/cambodia4kidsorg/10728008326  

Twitter = currently the most open network

Personal/Professional Learning Networks

Image:  @Courosa  

Networks are not about online/offline binaries

h#p://www.flickr.com/photos/zigazou76/5824384001/sizes/z/  

Networked identities are hybrid identities

Networks are not just about new tools, but new literacies

h#p://www.flickr.com/photos/rofi/2647699204/    

Differing sensibilities & legitimacy practices

Institutions Networks product-focused process-focused mastery participation bounded by time/space always accessible hierarchical ties peer-to-peer ties plagiarism crowdsourcing authority in role authority in reputation audience = teacher audience = world                      

Who are we when we’re online? …

Ourselves. Amplified.

Engaged in visible identity work.

Always Multiple

http://www.flickr.com/photos/thelotuscarroll/6842167375/

Always Faceted

A personal/professional hybrid does NOT mean

no public/private distinction personal  

professional   private  

public  

0  10  20  30  40  50  60  70  80  90  

100  

2006   2008   2010   2012   present  

personal/professional  

public/private  

The Performative Self

Bring identity into being: lather, rinse, repeat your contributions

The Quantified Self

The Participatory Self

(connections and comments build ties: ties are persistent, replicable, scalable & searchable)

The Asynchronous Self

http://www.flickr.com/photos/vylen/6158720720/

The Augmented Self “The mistake of early internet theorists was their assumption that The Web provided an alternate

space in which social actors were free to be who they wanted, rather than who they were...

In addition to knowing who we are by seeing what we do, we also know who we are by seeing how others

respond to us. As such, our ideal selves can only manifest to the extent to which our networks allow it. ”

-  Jenny Davis    h#p://thesocietypages.org/cyborgology/2013/11/04/re-­‐imagined-­‐authen2city/  

The Surveilled Self

“The internet is on principle a system that you reveal yourself to in order to fully enjoy, which differentiates it from, say, a music player. It is a TV that watches you.”

- Edward Snowden, in The Washington Post 

The Branded “Me, Inc.” Self

http://www.flickr.com/photos/mikebaird/4880623547

…that awkward moment when you remember you friended your grandma on Facebook.

Or that your students – or your VP, or your new boss – follow you on Twitter.

Context Collapse

Digital Selves = Public

l  Aware of being watched

l  Aware of scale of attention

l  Build identity by repetition

l  Build ties by visible communications

http://www.flickr.com/photos/wolfgangfoto/2755774089/

Benefits as learner & scholar: access, engagement, profile

Benefits as teacher: opportunities to connect & convey info in new media

Benefits as writer: real audiences

Benefits as thinker: emergent, choral conversation

•  Signal intentionally •  Signal to build up others, not just yourself

•  Signal broadly •  Signal patiently

•  Signal what you want to contribute

What Do Your Signals Say?