{"id":169,"date":"2019-05-01T21:53:33","date_gmt":"2019-05-02T03:53:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/malat-webspace.royalroads.ca\/rru0111\/?p=169"},"modified":"2019-05-01T21:56:27","modified_gmt":"2019-05-02T03:56:27","slug":"a-plan-to-develop-a-digital-presence","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/malat-webspace.royalroads.ca\/rru0111\/a-plan-to-develop-a-digital-presence\/","title":{"rendered":"A Plan to Develop a Digital Presence"},"content":{"rendered":"

My motivation and goals for cultivating my digital presence and identity:<\/p>\n

\u2018Those who share their content publicly have the ability to set the agenda of public discussions and debates\u2019 (Hargittai & Walejko 2008, p. 2). It is this passage, more so than anything else I\u2019ve heard or read in the past weeks, that has \u2018sold\u2019 me on the idea that I should want<\/em> to develop and hone my online identity in a meaningful way. My reason for the work I do as an instructor, and even in the pursuit of my master\u2019s degree, is to have a voice, a platform, and the opportunity to affect change. The awareness that this possibility could be reduced, or lost by choosing to remain a lurker in the digital world, gives me purpose to push forward in practicing and improving my digital literacies. My goal, is to see noticeable, positive change in my own use of networked technologies, and to absorb as much experience as I can during my time as an RRU student. By the by the end of this program, I hope to have set myself up to be an ongoing contributor, and content creator, with audiences that are meaningful to me.<\/p>\n

Skills, gaps, and a plan:<\/p>\n

I intend to dive head on and immerse myself in digital technologies and spaces throughout the MALAT program. Ryberg & Georgsen made a strong case for positive learning outcomes that can arise from a problem-based learning pedagogical approach; where there are noticeable improvements in digital literacy when the use of technologies are built-in as being necessary to complete a given task, as opposed to the technologies being explicitly taught as \u2018discernable, operational and functional skills\u2019 in their own right (2010, p. 26). It is my hope that by taking this approach, a personal increase in digital competence will emerge as a by-product of solving the greater problem; in this case \u2013 achieving the learning outcomes of the MALAT program.<\/p>\n

Examples of this immersion will be challenging myself to embrace functional online tools. Currently, when hearing lectures, or reading academic literature, my instinct is to grab a binder, a pen and a paper. I intend to push past my need for familiarity, and challenge myself to make use of digital tools (that I\u2019m told will make things easier), such as Excel and a citation manager to organize my literary references, and Feedly to stay on top of my reading.<\/p>\n

I also imminently intend to create a LinkedIn profile. After considering the thought provoking questions brought up by Kelly Schryver, in \u201cWho are you online? Considering issues of web identity\u201d, I feel that LinkedIn will be a good place to start experimenting with my own digital identity and participate in a professional networked public (Boyd, 2011) that might fall outside my circle of Facebook \u2018friends\u2019 (which is where my digital participation is currently limited too). \u00a0It will also allow me to challenge my own preconceived notion that social networking should be reserved for personal use, in light of all of the knowledge I have taken in thus far in the program.<\/p>\n

Apart form these immediate plans, and combined with making regular use of my own ‘personal cyberstrucure’ (Campbell, 2009) that is my MALAT student blog, I intend to set myself up challenges on an ongoing basis. By being persistent in pushing my own boundaries, I hope to explore the potential of mobility on the visitor-resident continuum (White & LeCornu, 2011). I will keep in the back of my mind a newly learned belief that digital residentship can<\/em> be acquired, and that being a resident is indeed not<\/em> something that you either are or are not.<\/p>\n

How will I know when I\u2019m there?<\/p>\n

In the near future, that is by the end of this course, I will know I\u2019ve met some goals by observing the following outcomes:<\/p>\n