Introduction

Technology stewardship is a leadership role that almost any practitioner can assume. In this role, a technology steward is someone who works with a community of practice (COP) to encourage the adoption and use of digital technologies for communications, training, and knowledge transfer.

Technology Stewards need to know how to engage their community members to identify opportunities and challenges; they need to be able to acquire and configure appropriate digital information and communication technologies (ICT) platforms to support innovative practices; and they need to be able to evaluate and report the outcome of their efforts back to the community and to organizational sponsors. Technology stewardship is not the same as ‘IT support’.  It is a leadership role intended to help members of a community of practice to better understand and make informed choices when incorporating ICT for communication and knowledge sharing.

This course is designed to introduce you to a leadership strategy that will help you understand and assume the role of a technology steward with your COP. The course sessions will present a process and set of activities that will equip you with the means necessary to analyze the communication challenges facing a COP, identify and assess a range of technology choices to address those challenges, and undertake an exploratory campaign to respond to those challenges using low-cost ICTs.

The medium-range goal of implementing a Technology Stewardship program is to promote experimentation with digital ICTs and to build capacity for innovation within a community of practice.  Technology Stewards should aim to cultivate a culture of innovative thinking among their community members with the long term objective of enhancing the range of real choices available to practitioners when it comes to sharing information and mobilizing knowledge with digital ICTs.

For textbook errors or omissions, please email Gordon A. Gow at ggow@ualberta.ca.