Digitally Distinct?

With so much changing in the e-world, it is worth checking out how you personally fair in the digital stakes. Building your digital brand is now as important as having an email address or website. Generation Y are particularly clued into how their digital brand affects their interactions with the world and their opportunities for success, but I think everyone could benefit from learning how to connect to and connect through digital media.
 
Dan Schawbel, a leading personal branding expert for Gen-Y discusses how we market ourselves to others in his best selling book “Me 2.0: Build a Powerful Brand to Achieve Career Success”. He discusses how blogs, podcasting, and social networks can position individuals to find careers based on their passion and experience. As an extension to this, I think educators can tap into these same tools to extend their connection with their audience. Traditional education is all about what happens in boundaries of the classroom. Today, I think those boundaries are much broader and the notion of the teacher as a conduit of learning, rather than the custodian of knowledge is a greater truth.
 
The old “water cooler conversations” are now happening online on twitter and myspace and rather than feeling displaced by this emerging social media, we should find a place for it to complement our other methods of learning.
 
Click the icon above this post to see how robust is your digital brand is. I am happy to say that I am Digitally Distinct!