The Immigrant in the College

Marc Prensky once noted that online there are digital natives and digital immigrants. I am a student living in a 21st Century world but I have never been or ever will be a native of particular groups.

It does not matter what citizenship I take and offline I am a dual citizen of Britain and Canada - I am and will always be an immigrant, no matter how native it is I look. Being that I was born in Europe and now live in North America, I am good with the POWER OF AND. In online citizenship I am an immigrant of LinkedIn (America) and an immigrant of BeBee (Europe). I think nationality is what divides us but our ethnicity is what gives us diversity - so again it is about the AND.

At college I have never been a native student, I never chose any particular clique or grouping, instead I would buzz between groups, invading their hives but not stay long enough to go native. Perhaps this is what makes me a natural fit in the world of consultancy because an external business partner requires to be discerning, maintain privacy of privileged relationship and most of all not go native in the organizations that they are partnering.

I have so far quit Toastmasters far more than I have joined this organization, but it is the only learning laboratory that provides a genuine shot for someone who is a lifetime learner.  The great thing about the program is that it is not a qualification,  even though egotistical Toastmasters wear their designations as a matter of professional honour.  I do not possess that kind of military type thinking or hierarchy.

Of all the three types of Toastmasters Club, I do have a natural affinity for the one's now beginning to evolve in the campus environment.  While Marc Prensky is an educator who talks about kids he wants educators to work with and not do things to,  he still talks from a perspective of educator to learner.   The reality of education should be is WE ARE ALL STUDENTS - because that is the emerging reality of a life-time learner.

This is what I like most about the hive of college toastmasters and why I am buzzing about it and I hope eventually to meet other educator bee's who are not simply the drones that operate in a college environment but who are ready to create a hive of college toastmasters clubs under a dual charter relationship, where the student club relationship is the real opportunity to build upon the existing toastmasters club charter.