What Is an Educator?

So, Ning is planning to remain free for educators.

Which begs the question: what's an educator?

I guess in the past it's been easy enough to say that an educator is a classroom teacher. But, as the role of both classrooms and teachers are finding themselves caught in the upheaval of change, we might ask if that definition really cuts it anymore.

Is a homeschooler an educator?

Is a private tutor an educator? (Isn't that what Aristotle did?)

Is a private online teacher/mentor/guru an educator?

What about school librarians?

Coaches?

Enrichment coordinators?

Folks working in the education departments of museums? archives? new media and digital collections?

DIY teachers who post how-to videos on YouTube?

What is an educator? How do we define this role? And not just so that we can score (or maintain) free Ning accounts, but so that we know more about what we are talking about when we are talking about education.