Until now, I have worked at having a small footprint online.  I do not have many social media sites, only Facebook and even there I keep my posts light and positive.  I do not see online communities as somewhere to go to express my frustrations, ask hard questions, or get into emotional or philosophical discussions.  When I applied to the MALAT program, I realized that my digital imprint would not only change but also increase.

My overall goal in cultivating my digital presence is to not change from who I am offline.  According to Schryver, “texting and email and posting let us present the self we want to be” (Schryver, 2013, para. 7), when cultivating my online identity I want to stay true to myself.  As I write my posts and other online contributions, I will review them to ensure my true personality comes through.  I also would like to include examples from my life to support my posts.

My purpose for cultivating a stronger online presence is to build credibility.  Part of my philosophy, both at work and at home, is that we need to move to more of a digital lifestyle.  As I move through the program and on to my next career, I need to move to a more digital presence as I would like to teach or create courses that feature software or are in an online environment.

These are my three main gaps in building my online presence:

• Lack of knowledge of online spaces
• Minimal network
• Moving out of my comfort zone

In order to fill these gaps, I will look at online spaces and create new accounts or take accounts out of hibernation and start to use them, accept people into my network, try to be open to joining new networks, and know that leaving my comfort zone is not a bad thing, as it will help me grown and learn.  Jenkins said, “children need a safe space within which they can master the skills they need as citizens and consumers” (Jenkins, 2009, p. 24), I think it is safe to say we are all children when it comes to learning, not in the way of age, but in the way of innocence.

I will know I am successful in my goal by seeing my network grow as well as change, and I will see the number of spaces I participant in increase, becoming more of a resident online versus  the visitor I am now.  I will be able to measure my success in being out of my comfort zone by becoming calmer when looking at new online spaces.

References

Jenkins, H. (2009). Confronting the challenges of participatory culture: Media education for the 21st century. MIT Press. Retrieved from https://www.dropbox.com/s/co9mdasoh8r1ew7/8435.pdf?dl=0

Schryver, K. (2013, February 5). Who are you online? Considering issues of web identity. The New York Times. Retrieved from https://learning.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/02/05/guest-post-who-are-you-online-considering-issues-of-web-identity/?_r=0

I feel that I spend a lot of time on the computer working on one thing or another.  Reading the article Visitors and Residents:  A new typology for online engagement by David S. White and Alison Le Cornu, I became curious to whether I was a resident or a visitor online, I suspected my map would indicate that I am a visitor.  My map contains the online locations that I use regularly, assigning each one a different colour.  I placed each box on the map by considering how I use that site, whether I go there to talk to others or go there to find something.  I also considered how much I leave behind when I am inactive on the site.  While creating my map, I had to remind myself of White’s definition of tool and place “‘Tool’ is functional …. ‘Place’, on the other hand, is social” (White & Le Cornu, 2011, para. 16), by thinking of each site as a tool or a place, I was able to put them in the appropriate location on the map.  As I expected, my map indicates that I am more of a visitor online than a resident.

References

White, D., & Le Cornu, A. (2011). Visitors and Residents: A new typology for online engagement. First Monday, 16(9). doi:https://doi.org/10.5210/fm.v16i9.3171

Going back to school is primarily about the learning, but it is also about realigning your stars; at least it is for me.  Since realigning my stars is a large part of my goals of being in the Master of Arts in Learning and Technology (MALAT) program, then this week started me on the right path.  Before the program started, my only goal was to start teaching full time.  While that does remain a goal, the presentations from this week have opened my eyes to a whole world of possibilities in working in academia and the domain of open learning.

The session by Carolyn Levy highlighted the variety of projects and locations that Open Learning can take a career.  She presented her current projects that take her to other countries and each project has unique elements yet hold true to the scope of open learning.  The term Instructional Designer was new to me and this week certainly introduced me to the field.  Carolyn asked, “how do you guide as oppose to impose?” (Levy, 2019, 19:57) when working with clients who know the content very well, but maybe do not have the ability to structure content that is relevant and current.  It is the instructional designer’s role to understand where the client is in terms of the project and guide him or her towards the final goal without forcing the plan upon him or her.

Something that I deal with consistently is the existence of, figurative, silos between groups within one company.  I found that this issue came up throughout the symposium sessions.  Elizabeth Childs talked about this in one of her sessions; the fact that open has the potential of reducing walls between groups who have either similar or identical goals (Childs, 2019, 9:07).  This idea gave me both feelings of hope and despair.  I believe strongly that an organization should work as a whole and not create a “them and us” structure within, if open can help create a united environment and move us closer to working as a team then let’s do it!  The feeling of despair comes from the fact that many of these silos have been in place for decades and it seems that experience employees teach the new employees to keep them in place.  I fear that changes will take a long time to implement allowing the reinforcement of existing silos.

Dave Cormier linked the idea of rhizomes and open learning (Cormier, 2017, 14:31) and the effect on learners.  At first glance it seems that a rhizome learner would be an ideal leaner, someone who is bound only by their environments (physical or emotional), but in an open learning environment learners can wander off and it may be difficult to get them back on track (Cormier, 2017, 14:58).  As wonderful as open learning looks, it is important to remember that there are challenges as well.  Dave tied this together very well.

Overall, I found the week every enlightening.  I managed to attend all the sessions live, except for one.  While the recordings offered a great way to listen to the session I missed and the sessions from previous years, I did find that I got more from the live sessions.  I am an interactive learner and I find that if I can get my hands dirty and really dig into the topic, I retain more and have more fun in the process.  As Dave Cormier says “open gets messy, you get the learning all over you” (Cormier, 2017, 26:54), I cannot think of a better way to learn!

References

Childs, E. (2019, April 15). Openness and Networked learning in a MA degree. Retrieve from http://ow.ly/fFHu50qnns9

Cormier, D. (2017, April 18). Intentional messiness of online communities. Retrieved from https://ca-sas.bbcollab.com/site/external/jwsdetect/playback.jnlp?psid=2017-04-18.0934.M.260AD3030AD273255B9B9C087E6864.vcr&sid=2009211

Levy, C. (2019, April 15). Designing Learning Environments for a Global Context. Retrieved from http://ow.ly/PSyN50qn5QV.