Mom, wife, daughter, sister, friend, colleague, employee, student, coach … the many persona’s of DOROTHY in a world of digital presence.
Image: Dorothy Sidhu
LRNT521 Unit 2 Activity 3
As the learning unfolds, the image of who I am and who I want to be in the digital space becomes clearer. The early onset as an early adopter and the chaotic absence of structure begins to make more sense to what it all means with the many roles I play.
How much effort, desire, want and need to participate and collaborate to how much do I just want to stay at arms length and use it as nothing more than a temporary tool, as a means to an end, is telling of being a visitor or resident. How much value and emphasis I am placing in the different digital spaces, forces me to reconsider and rethink my approach … asking WHY?
As I continue to explore my digital presence and what the significance of creating and cultivating this space for me means, I feel this is the first time I am applying it with strategy, discipline, commitment and refinement of who I want to be online.
Purpose
I want to be seen as an advocate of a growth mindset, life long learner and educator in the space of Adult Education, constantly learning, stretching and growing. I want to show my passion and creativity through these spaces. I want to be relevant and current through the technological revolution and era we are in as we see the shift of learning and technology. I want to be seen as an early adopter and one that doesn’t fear the disruption and immediacy of change.
I also want the digital spaces and my presence in these different environments to connect, collaborate, express points of view, and knowledge share with colleagues, professionals, networks, alongside with friends and families. Increase awareness and elevate my presence to a larger and wider audience, by finding my digital, academic voice, where I can influence and bring my though leadership to the forefront.
Approach
- Continue to seek and maintain accessibility to the variety of digital spaces through the use of current technology and various mobile devices and computers
- Learn about the new platforms, sites, apps, software and how it can serve and feed into my purpose
- Be committed to contribute and dedicate time and effort in posts, collaborative discussions, as routine and habitual, not just a task and or chore
- Respect and continue to work on the pendulum swing of personal and professional boundaries / visitor and resident shifts (White & Le Cornu, 2011)
- Using the tool when available.; recently attending the ATD2018 in San Diego, highly encourage to use the app by creating an identity and cascading learning’s via the app and Twitter
- Leveraging the talents of my digital native colleagues and friends and especially my kids
Skills Knowledge & Gaps
I do feel like I am comfortable with technology, embracing it versus running away from it. I do tend to be an early adopter, at least wanting to try it out once! I am comfortable with the unknown and typically just figure things out with just trying as most of these technologies have easy end user interfaces that are simple and straight forward.
I would identify my skill and knowledge gap as I am consciously incompetent in several of the applications that are ‘newer’ for example recently trying to learn SLACK. I was able to get on it and participate, however knew I was not as confident and fluid in the use of it as my colleagues. So, knowing and being okay with the consciously incompetence is OK and trying t move along to being consciously competent.
Another area of opportunity would be for be is to more thoughtful in my approach on when to use certain digital spaces for what. I know sometimes I have used the wrong digital space for what I am trying to promote or advocate, and it hasn’t been as impactful.
Strategies & Approaches
Not to be afraid to ask for help, being patient while I learn and reminding myself failing forward is part of the learning process. I will also make sure to remove any personal barriers of time, accessibility, and/or systems. I also have to make a commitment and put effort and energy to practice, sustain, and make it routine so it becomes easy and effortless. Of course continuing to learn by doing, be curious, seek out experts and learn from those that are pros in this space. Perhaps take advantage of free webinars and YouTube videos.
Success Measures
- See my confidence increase. Completing a self assessment of where I am today and assessing myself periodically on a scale of 1-10, seeing I have moved the dial on any areas
- I will be able to see more posts, blog entries and hopefully comments which will support the quality versus quantity; more boards on Pinterest and videos on YouTube
- See my stress levels lower when approaching the use of these digital spaces, that I may not be so comfortable with
- Increased confidence in my conversations
- Moving from consciously incompetent to consciously competent
- Teaching it within my organization, friends and family members
- Increased creativity, moving in spaces I am comfortable to push it to advanced and beyond just the basics
References
White, D., & Le Cornu, A. (2011). Visitors and Residents: A new typology for online engagement. First Monday, 16(9).
Boyd, D. (2010). Social Network Sites as Networked Publics: Affordances, Dynamics, and Implications. In Networked Self: Identity, Community, and Culture on Social Network Sites (ed. Zizi Papacharissi), pp. 39-58.