Without community, we would not have somewhere to exchange ideas about what we are working on or what we are learning. Learning happens every day, and while it is, primarily, an individualized activity, the connections between learning and life happens in communities as stated by Dron and Anderson, “knowledge is information that has been contextualized, made relevant, and owned” Dron & Anderson, 2014, p. 16). Until we can take the information we have received and work with it in a community, it cannot truly become knowledge (Dron & Anderson, 2016). This idea resonated with me in regards to my plan to grow my digital presence. I have always been a hands-on learner and building a digital presence will not be different.
Overall, the readings helped me realize there are different groups, communities, and collectives available to help grow my digital presence. When I wrote my original plan, I was thinking I had to build my presence on social media, and now I want to explore other areas where I can join topic related communities. By creating my blog, I have starting to create a community and now in order to follow through with my plan; it is now time to share it with my network. Johnson (as cited in vanOostveen, DiGiuseppe, Barber, Blayone, & Childs) states “…reality, including virtual reality, is something that is created, rather than discovered” (Johnson as cited in vanOostveen, DiGiuseppe, Barber, Blayone, & Childs, 2016, para. 6), I think my digital presence will be a combination of what I create and what I discover; I cannot create an entire reality of my own – there is not enough learning in that. Sharing knowledge is how it gets stronger (Dron & Anderson, 2014), these readings have made me what to go out and share the knowledge!
References
Blayone, Todd & van Oostveen, Roland & Barber, Wendy & DiGiuseppe, Maurice & Childs, Elizabeth. (2016). Developing Learning Communities in Fully Online Spaces: Positioning the Fully Online Learning Community Model. Retrieved from https://www.researchgate.net/publication/312087765_Developing_Learning_Communities_in_Fully_Online_Spaces_Positioning_the_Fully_Online_Learning_Community_Model
Dron, J, & Anderson, T. (2014). Teaching Crowds. doi:10.15215/aupress/9781927356807.01