{"id":169,"date":"2019-05-01T11:53:29","date_gmt":"2019-05-01T18:53:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/malat-webspace.royalroads.ca\/rru0101\/?p=169"},"modified":"2019-05-01T11:53:29","modified_gmt":"2019-05-01T18:53:29","slug":"cultivation-of-a-digital-presence-and-digital-identity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/malat-webspace.royalroads.ca\/rru0101\/cultivation-of-a-digital-presence-and-digital-identity\/","title":{"rendered":"Cultivation of a Digital Presence and Digital Identity"},"content":{"rendered":"

Have you ever entered a new journey and thought you knew the expectation but when you finally were walking the path you thought, \u2018this is not what I expected\u2019?\u00a0 I have always known that my knowledge of social media was limited and to date, I accepted it and told myself that\u2019s who I am and more importantly, who I wanted to be.\u00a0 On April 1, 2019 if you asked me to describe myself from a social media perspective, I would have said to you that I am a person who uses technology and social media to find information whether that information is about people, places or things.\u00a0 What I came to realize was that I am a visitor of technology.\u00a0 White and Le Cornu (2011) clearly defined, \u201cVisitors understand the Web as akin to an untidy garden tool shed.\u00a0 They have defined a goal or task and go into the shed to select an appropriate tool which they use to attain their goal\u201d (p.5). \u00a0This example of going to the garden shed expresses that people who are visitors of technology seek information without leaving any footprints.\u00a0 They want to go to the Web, get their information and leave again.\u00a0 Perhaps, more importantly, they want to leave it the way they found it.<\/p>\n

On May 1st<\/sup>, 2019, my goal is to cultivate my digital presence and identity through the construction and communication of expressing opinions and perhaps forming relationships as I become a resident of the Web (White and Le Cornu, 2011, p. 6). \u00a0Ultimately, my goal is to have a strong digital identity.\u00a0 My new mantra is to \u201cexpand [my] thinking of [my] digital skills or information literacies to include social media literacies\u201d (Rheingold, 2010, p.14). Expanding my thinking of social media literacies includes getting out of my own way. \u00a0Many times, we put limitations on ourselves because we are not comfortable in an existing environment or we do not have the knowledge, skills or abilities in a specific domain.\u00a0 My goal is to obtain as much information as I can, apply my knowledge and reflect on my missed opportunities and achievements.<\/p>\n

According to Levy (2019) she observed that \u201cwe don\u2019t know what we don\u2019t know\u201d (24:17).\u00a0\u00a0 Opportunities for learning are there \u2013 we just have to find them. \u00a0Enrolling in the MALAT program was the opportunity for me to move from visitor to resident on the Web.\u00a0 The creation of a blog through the MALAT program provides me the chance to experiment, make mistakes and create infrastructure that meets my needs and aligns with the designed learning outcomes.\u00a0 Campbell (2009) emphasized that, \u201clearning won\u2019t happen until each student builds a personal cyberinfrastructure that is as thoughtfully, rigorously, and expressively composed as an excellent essay or an ingenious experiment\u201d (para 13). As I work as the architect and develop my blog and corresponding pages, I see myself as the narrator and curator of what could potentially be the new me with a strong digital identity (Campbell, 2009, para 12). \u00a0\u00a0Although, I am prepared to create and connect, I am not prepared to give up my privacy.\u00a0 As Boyd noted, \u201cjust because people are adopting tools that radically reshare their relationship to privacy [it] does not mean they are interested in giving up their privacy\u201d (p. 12).<\/p>\n

My journey in the MALAT program is personal and whether I have an audience or not, my success is based on knowing that I have achieved a milestone in my life.\u00a0 Boyd claimed that, \u201can increase in people’s ability to contribute to publics does not necessarily result in an increase in their ability to achieve an audience.\u201d (p. 14).\u00a0 My measure of success is the creation of the infrastructure, not in the ability to achieve an audience.\u00a0 In my journey through the MALAT program, I will measure my success based on three criteria:<\/p>\n