The concept of plotting my engagement with the web is both a challenging and foreign idea for me. According the Dave White, there is a fluid continuum between visitor and resident, and thus has a different meaning for each individual. The visitor mindset is to use the web as a tool with a specific purpose in mind. The visitor will leave no trace of their activity behind, whereas the resident views the web as a series of spaces and places where they can post comments and share opinions. (White, D, 2011). The resident is clearly leaving a trace of their activity behind and is seeking engagement from the digital environments in which they engage. In this respect, the notions of open culture, open education and open questions, referred to by David Cormier, are truly reflective of a resident level of interaction. The resident is engaging in an open culture with limitless cultural boundaries, sharing open education, and seeking open questions. It is difficult to compartmentalize between the visitor and resident, and many people may find they shift from one to the other based on the task at hand.

With this in mind, I will formulate a plan to cultivate my digital presence and digital identity. My overall goal for cultivating my digital presence is to become more involved in educational digital communities and networks. I plan on using LinkedIn to achieve this goal.  I already have a digital presence on LinkedIn, and it is a platform where I am most visible. (White, D, 2011) Twitter is not a platform in which I have ever identified with. As a matter of fact, in beginning this assignment I visited Twitter, assuming I had an account, only to realize that I have never actually set up an account. I wanted to see when the last time I had “tweeted” or logged in, only to discover I never have.

I use Facebook in more of a resident capacity. On this platform I leave a trace of my actions in the form of status updates, messaging friends, organizing events, posting images and media clips, and “checking-in”. In my view contributing to digital communities will require a different skill set. The part that makes social media social is that technical skills need to be exercised in concert with others: encoding, decoding, and community. (Rheingold, H., 2010, p. 14) These knowledge gaps will be acquired in this pursuit of cultivating my digital presence. Finally, success will be measure by tracking all the communities I have joined, the digital environments I have contributed to, and the increase in connections as a result of these interactions.

 

References

 

Cormier, D. (2018, March 31). Digital Practices Mapping – Intro activity for digital literacies course. [blog post]. Retrieved from http://davecormier.com/edblog/2018/03/31/digital-practices-mapping-intro-activity-for-digital-literacies-course/

Rheingold, H. (2010). Attention, and other 21st-century social media literaciesEducause Review45(5), 14

White, D. S., & Le Cornu, A. (2011). Visitors and residents: A new typology for online engagement. First Monday, 16(9).