Cultivating my digital presence, identity, and literacy. Journey. Patience.
These past two weeks of diving, well-being thrust into, albeit with the warmest welcome, to create an online presence, has been interesting. I have always been present on the web, as a visitor but have yet to reside in an online community. It makes me nervous. It is the void of the unknown. Maybe due to my prior profession in law enforcement, I prefer to keep my life private. This being said, I love to share pictures and stories of my family overseas through iCloud sharing, but it is by invite only. I am in a gray area. Or am I hypocritical?? Yikes.
Exploring professionally my digital presence interests me more, than personally. In a previous blog, and akin to many others in MALAT, the fear of being “out there” to be discovered by those you don’t want to be is not appealing. I have lived by the statement “if I want you to know, I will tell you”—through direct conversation or email, but not through mass media.
Goals and purpose for creating my digital presence and identity:
I reread that last paragraph and realized the strength in my tone, which I am blaming my ignorance of the boundaries to help keep life semi-private on social media. I need more knowledge and understanding to dissolve my fear. I have nothing to hide, but I don’t think everyone needs to know that. Movement in my personal digital presence will be slow and cautious, I think.
However, professionally – this is a different arena. I have been more open to this in the last few years, as I learn and discover what online communities and resources offer my trade. International education encourages and organically develops networks. Connections are necessary.
I have a strong desire to push my students to provide them with skills that will prepare them for the knowledge-based economy when they graduate. I seek ways to demonstrate their tech agility is a life-skill, and it is transferable from personal to an academic context. I would love them to create and build a digital presence that they are proud of when they leave our high school. Gardener Campbell’s (2005) idea of a ‘cyberinfrastructure’ is brilliant and a worthy challenge.
How will I achieve these goals?
Achieving these goals will be a thoughtful process and a lot of fun. The experimentation will add excitement and rejuvenation to teaching. Honing my practice to better support students learning always drives my practice. I will examine ways to improve self-directed learning, fostering intrinsic motivation, and curiosity in learning. Having to keep current in my methods and content, on par with students tech skill and media consumption, is a big task.
I will continue to browse and troll fundamental aspects of digital literacy, frameworks, and tools for a better learning environment. Trial by fire. And rather than being a consumer myself, I hope to actively participate, tweeting, retweeting and blogging about the pedagogical shifts that need to occur to help students develop into digitally immersed learners. I plan to seek out a few other like-minded people and follow them on social media, gaining insight and hopeful to discover a community. Above all else, I will experiment with my kids, helping them construct their knowledge in a collaborative setting. If I expect them to be active producers, I need to model it.
Where are my gaps in knowledge in skills in this area and how will I overcome them?
I am not aware of all the tools at my fingertips. I feel that I am not curious enough to explore the many other platforms and opportunities that can help me professionally develop. I have researched and tried frameworks for reading and writing, enhancing learning. Currently, my friend and I are trying to bring back to life the ‘cool’ factor in reading and writing through Instagram and tweeting. My gaps are in knowledge for tools but also the understanding of how tools and apps, LMS and other frameworks work. I will continue to be interested and grow my curiosity. I will not give up when frustrated in learning the many clicks and toggles to find the way to a useful tool. I will also continue to learn—read, troll, surf, and explore. I hope to post, and re-post, write and read on digital platforms from other people in my same boat or others who are further along in their journey.
How will when I have completed my plan?
Good question and always when planning, you should know the end and plan for success. But in this case, I am not sure if I when I feel I will be successful. If I distinguish between the achievements, this is how I would see it:
– My use online of a variety of 2.0 web tools will be with fluency and ease. I will refrain from choice words when frustrated and will be able to share my skill and suggestions with other people. I will be present online, still as a consumer, but also apart of an online community that I am contributing and receiving in. My students are benefiting from my learning where I have a collaborative learning environment where students are constructing learning, I am facilitating their learning, and they too will have a digital portfolio.
– The continual learning and building knowledge on my part will be an endless journey. I think that once I jump in, I may be in for the long haul. The web world is forever changing, updating, and loading of information. This will never be complete. If it ever is … press reset, please.