Some time ago I discussed the idea of the Human Library and how it is something geeks should join and duplicate. Little did I know someone had had a similar idea – only taking it digital.
That’s when I found the Digital Human Library. It’s not affiliated with the Human Library, but it’s just as awesome.
Founded in Canada, the Digital Human library is an education tool (currently for k-12 teachers and students). The idea is to have people easily available to chat digitally in video conference, Skype, and other technology. Think of it as a kind of virtual field trip or easy way to get a speaker no matter the distance.
It’s fast. It’s affordable. It’s something that lets people get involved in education.
It’s really, really something we geeks should be paying attention to.
We should join this. Canadian or not, let’s face it a lot of us have specialized knowledge that can help people out, and you can share it remotely. This is a great way to do it!
You get to help students (who need all the help they can get these days). You make connections. You improve your communications skills. You get ideas you can use in other projects, you learn technology, you get inspired. What’s not to love.
We should promote this and help this grow. Look, it’s a great idea. Let’s suggest it to schools, teachers, and others. If you are en educator, consider using this idea. Get them to join up and help expand this.
Right now this is in Canada. I’ve suggested to the founder she could expand into other countries – so why not yours? Drop her a line and help out.
We should do something like this in our communities. Think what you can do when you take the Digital Human Library idea farther into the geekosphere:
- Could you build virtual events at and for conventions? You could simulcast an event at several cons.
- Could you build a Digital Human Library for conventions where people can share resources? This would be excellent for things like art training, writing, etc.
- Why not recruit for things like this at a convention? Sounds awful useful . . .
I’m completely behind this Digital Human Library idea. I think we, the technophiles and communicators, the creative types and the coders, really should encourage this and see what we can do, and how the idea helps our own communities.
Steven Savage is a Geek 2.0 writer, speaker, blogger, and job coach. He blogs on careers at http://www.fantopro.com/, nerd and geek culture at http://www.nerdcaliber.com/, and does a site of creative tools at http://www.seventhsanctum.com/. He can be reached at https://www.stevensavage.com/.