TechCHAT: Jean Dobey

The TechCHAT series invites teachers, media specialists and other educators from across the country and around the world to share how they’re using technology to enhance instruction and student learning. Contact us about sharing your classroom tech ideas and lessons learned.

Jean Dobey is the founder and CEO of Hibe, a company that develops personal networking and social engagement technologies. An entrepreneur with more than 15 years of experience building e-commerce and social media companies, Jean is committed to enabling people and organizations to communicate and engage online in ways that meet their needs.

What’s the biggest way you’re seeing social media being used in K-12 education? What are the benefits? What are the limitations? 

The benefit is that there is a wealth of information available online and in social media. This takes students beyond their communities and schools, and allows them to learn about practically any topic. With this new way of learning, information is always available, and there is no question whose answer can’t be found online. This “have-it-now” information empowers our children to open their minds and make their own opinions, which is powerful. In terms of limitations, we need to be sure of the credibility of the source and the information, because it can be difficult to tell what is true and what is not.

Out of the trends that you’ve seen, are educators using mobile devices or traditional computers more often while teaching with social media? What are the differences in educational value between the two? 

When it comes to education, you are empowered to learn from anywhere. Information is always available, and there is no one destination where you have to go to learn. In fact, because of mobile devices and the ability to learn anything, at any time, in any place, learning becomes a way of life. You can learn on the go. For example, you can be walking in a park and see a beautiful butterfly that you’ve not seen before. With a simple search on your mobile device, you can see more pictures of that butterfly, learn of its life cycle and get an understanding of its habits and so much more—all at the very moment you first discovered it. We live in a mobile world where learning has never been more accessible.

What social media platform(s) are most important to educators? Why?

Twitter, Pinterest and YouTube are likely the most important platforms to educators because they are more communications media platforms than just social networks. Compared to that on other social networks, information on Twitter is more focused and accessible. With Pinterest and Twitter, you can choose what you want to learn about, because both are interest and topic-based. On YouTube, information is easily found and consumed, because there is wealth of educational content on almost any topic. Finally, we should not forget about the power of forums, which help us learn from others and their experiences.

What are some predictions that you could make on EdTech overall through the educational methods (specifically in social media) that are being used today? 

A prediction or trend that I see moving forward in EdTech is that people will want to use social media platforms for more than just connecting with others. If they are on Facebook, they should have the ability to advance their education. Education should be an application installed and found everywhere. Everyone should have access to the program s/he’s taking, his/her professors and other students in a protected digital environment. With the popularity of mobile devices, education needs to be there as well—mobile gives you the freedom to learn wherever and whenever you want.

How is Hibe factoring into the EdTech space? Are educators using it with students? 

Hibe’s vision is allowing people and organizations to create micro-social networks that ride atop the other social networks, so that like-minded people can share content and ideas with each other no matter which network they’re on. With the Hibe technology, we create networks where education can take place in a private and secured environment and we can connect with our classmates and professors, as we do in real life.

We’ve created a highly collaborative environment accessible by mobile devices. The community itself can be extracted and repurposed on the university Web site, where members can sign in to participate from there as well. This gives students the ability to log in and study their courses, no matter where they are in their digital or real lives.

Article by Jason Cunningham, EducationWorld Social Media Editor
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