Image: Chad Flinn
As I sat down to work on my digital map, I thought that I had a pretty good handle on what my digital identity was. I began to move my icons around my digital visitor and resident map I realized that while I had a strong digital presence, I was not at all intentional with it. As new mediums and platforms appear, I would adopt them, try them out and if I could find a way to add them to my digital toolbox I would integrate them into my philosophy. If I couldn’t find a way to incorporate them I wouldn’t necessarily discard them; I would try to make them fit. I was attempting to push square pegs into round holes. I would use technology for technology’s sake, not for the sake of enhancing the educational experience.
As I was going through the readings I found many examples of how I was using digital tools and how I could be using digital tools. Schryver’s article resonated with me the most:
“In general, I tend to use Facebook in a few circumscribed ways: to promote myself (“check out my latest blog post!”), and to inform or entertain, preferably in a self- aggrandizing way that establishes myself as an Intelligent/Witty/Irreverent Person. And so amusing Web videos get posted, as do perceptive articles and infographics, not to mention pop-culture ephemera that solidifies my reputation as a playful (but with edge!) raconteur” (Schryver, n.d.)
I could have written that myself and it does not only apply to Facebook. Any platform that I would come across and try to use in my teaching practice gets used without much thought or intention. I am coming to the realization that I had no real plan for my digital presence. I was in an unintentional reactionary mode.
Plan
My overall goal has now become to become more intentional with my use of digital technology. I know that this can sound like a very vague goal. When I first came up with the idea, it seemed unclear to me as well. I sat down and reflected on the readings and my practice and tried to put a foundation in my plan.
My plan of intentionality has two parts:
When I teach, I still gravitate towards the sage on the stage type of model. I have the knowledge and I am sharing it with my students. I think that for me this has been because it is the way that I learned and it is a model with which that I am very comfortable. This may resonate with some students but it also leaves some students behind. There is a power in becoming actively involved in the lessons. I have always said that the best way to learn something is to teach. Why not translate this to my students as well? “When you participate, you become an active citizen rather than simply a passive consumer of what is sold to you, what is taught to you, and what the government wants you to believe.” (Rheingold, 2010). There is power in becoming a participant in your own education. I want to explore this idea further and how to incorporate it into my practice.
My second area of intentionality derives from the idea of the visitor/resident typology. I have been very comfortable being a resident in my private life. I am a user of social media. I share and engage on a few different platforms. When it comes to my professional life, I find myself more of a resident. When it comes to teaching, I use digital tools to enhance my lessons. Youtube, Google, and our LMS all get used. I use them in the same way I use a textbook. They are not there to propel discussion or create a place to form ideas. Much like David White points out in his paper on Visitors and residents. “Ultimately to visitors the web is simply one of the many tools they can use to achieve certain goals; it is categorized alongside the telephone, book, pen and paper and off-line software. It is not a ‘place’ to think or to develop ideas and to put it crudely, and its most extreme, Visitors do their thinking off-line” (White & Le Cornu, 2009)
Process
My approach to working towards these goals are not as daunting as I would have thought before I started writing out this plan. I have the tools at my disposal and use them daily in my personal life. As the old saying goes, you don’t know what you don’t know. There is a lot about using digital technology in education that I don’t know. I plan to join and participate in online forums on the topic of education. There are many other educators out there that are doing some exciting things. There is no need to reinvent the wheel. By using Facebook groups, Linked In, Twitter, and Reddit I can begin to explore what others are doing. Not only can I get the information I am looking for but I can participate in the discussion. Becoming participatory is not just something that I will expect from my students but will be something that I hope of myself as well.
We use a learning management system called Desire 2 Learn where I work. This platform has a lot of different tools that you can use to interact with your students. Right now I use it as a repository for worksheets and the odd video. I will work towards making it a more dynamic tool. I will use it as a tool to have the students participate rather than just a place to go to for information. As Hargittai and Walejko state “the participation gage may be overcome by a ‘new media literacy’ highlighting the importance of focusing on enhancing people’s creative pursuits and abilities beyond providing technological access” (Hargittai & Walejko, n.d.)
When it comes to technology and the web, I am very comfortable using and learning new tools and platforms. An area of growth for me will be reaching out to a community to see how they may be able to help me. I am more comfortable sitting in the background watching and learning what I can. I am what Danah Boyd would call a “lurker.” “ Lurkers who share the same space but are not visible are one potential audience” (Boyd, n.d.). I plan to join groups, engage in discussion and ask questions. I am also an avid listener of podcasts. I know that there must be some significant resources in the podcast world for educators who are using digital tools.
Measures of success
It is difficult to say precisely how I will know that I have hit my mark, succeeded in what I set out to do. One of the ways that I can see this happening is through accountability. I already meet with a fellow member of our cohort once a week to discuss issues, challenges, and successes. I plan on sharing with her my journey. Also as we progress through this course, I hope to share and learn from other members of the cohort in our mission.
I fully understand that throughout the next two years my plan will most likely change. That is one of the joys of having a plan that is a non-binary model. These types of plans are meant to be iterated and changed. I look forward to what my digital identity will look like on the other side of the MALAT.
References
Boyd, D. (n.d.). Social Network Sites as Networked Publics: Affordances, Dynamics, and Implications. Retrieved from https://www.danah.org/papers/2010/SNSasNetworkedPublics.pdf
Hargittai, E., & Walejko, G. (n.d.). THE PARTICIPATION DIVIDE:Content creation and sharing in the digital age. https://doi.org/10.1080/13691180801946150
Rheingold, B. H. (2010). Attention ,. Retrieved from https://er.educause.edu/~/media/files/article-downloads/erm1050.pdf
Schryver, K. (n.d.). Who Are You Online? Considering Issues of Web Identity – The New York Times. Retrieved April 24, 2018, from https://learning.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/02/05/guest-post-who-are-you-online-considering-issues-of-web-identity/?_r=0
White, D. S., & Le Cornu, A. (2009). Visitors and Residents : A new typology for online engagement | White | First Monday. Barcelona, pp. 1–10. https://doi.org/10.5210/fm.v16i9.3171
May 2, 2018 at 12:26 pm
Chad, Great that you brought up your practice with BCIT’s D2L, and mentioned how you are not fully utilizing all of the offered features there. Many of us are walking in these shoes, that we use a tool, but only scratch its surface.
I am not using D2L in the classroom, in favor of using other tools, what the students will actually use in real industry settings. But still as Hargittai and Walejko (2008) mentioned media literacy will happen hand in hand when we focus on people’s creative abilities as oppose to simply providing access to technology.
Because of this, the last two months in the web development program what I supervise, we do project-based learning (PBL).
I was happy to read Ryberg and Georgsen (2010) article about how to integrate teaching digital literacy into the curriculum: “PBL as a broad concept to cover a wide array of more student-centred learning approaches that feature processes of enquiry, and with a focus on critical knowledge production and dissemination, rather than the acquisition of a given body of knowledge.”
Reference
Hargittai, E., & Walejko, G. (2008). The Participation Divide: Content creation and sharing in the digital age. Information, Community and Society, 11(2), 239-256.
Ryberg. T., & Georgsen, M. (2010). Enabling digital literacy. Nordic Journal of Digital Literacy, 2(5).
May 2, 2018 at 6:29 pm
Hi Beata!
You mentioned you were using other tools? I was curious as to which tools are you using? Right now we are using Absorb as our main platform. It definitely has it’s pros and cons, but I’m wondering what else out there works well.
May 2, 2018 at 8:30 pm
Hi Chad – I had the same feelings reading about Schryver’s use of Facebook. His approach is very intentional though, he cares about others’ perceptions and assumptions as a result of what he would post. From my research on the topic, I came across this article. Perhaps you’d be interested in reading it. Cheers, Dino.
Reference
Walther, J. B., Van Der Heide, B., Hamel, L. M., et al. (2009). Self-generated versus other-generated statements and impressions in computer-mediated communication: A test of the warranting theory using Facebook. Communication Research, 36, 229-252.
May 3, 2018 at 8:32 am
Hi Dino
I agree he was very intentional. I just find that when it came to my use of social media I had no real plan. I would do all the things that Shryver mentioned but without a real plan. If anything it was a vanity project to make me look smart and share some information once and awhile. It really challenged me to look at the “why” behind my use of social media. I think that social media can be an extremely powerful tool when it comes to education and I look forward to digging deeper in how to properly use it. Thanks so much for sharing the article. I look forward to reading it. I will give you some feedback once I have.
May 3, 2018 at 6:00 am
Chad – I wanted to provide additional context regarding the reference above. Walther’s “warranting principle” explains how we form impressions through Internet communications. His experiments demonstrate that perceivers’ judgments about other people rely more heavily on information which these people themselves cannot manipulate than on self-descriptions. Two experiments employed mock-up profiles resembling Facebook to display self-generated clues and to display other-generated clues about Facebook users. Please find herewith the direct link to the article: http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0093650208330251
Regarding your plan, I think it’s pretty solid and I really liked what you said about morphing your plan as you progress with your studies in the MALAT program.
May 14, 2018 at 3:24 pm
I really like how you expressed your plan in with ‘intentions’. I echo what you said about being more intentional in the space of your ‘professional’ spectrum and whether you are a visitor or resident. The self reflection suggested you were more in the space of visitor, where the digital spaces you leveraged with your students and as a professional was really just a ‘tool.’ And seems like you are ready to make the shift to more of a forum for sharing ideas, collaborating, and co-creating.
I seen this shift in our organization recently with the use of Microsoft Teams. Sharing and co-creating documents and having that flow through of ideas and suggestions and synergy of just making it even better collectively.
How do you see yourself shifting some of those digital spaces you expressed from visitor to resident with your students?