I’ve been challenging many of my assumptions about my digital presence and identity over the past two weeks. I’ve learned that how you show up online should change, and as online educators it should be purposeful.
In cultivating my digital presence during the course of this programme, I’ve identified the following goal for myself:
I aspire to evolve my digital presence from simply content consumer and promoter to content creator and curator. I see my digital presence as a powerful professional tool to be meaningfully cultivated.
Will this goal shift and evolve over the next couple of years (and even weeks and months)? I hope it does as a changing goal will show I’m open to growth. At this point in time here how I considered when I came to this current goal, at the very beginning of my graduate journey:
- My professional presence must Google well
I want to be critical about where and how I share my professional identity online, and the best way for me to do that is to critically evaluate both the messages I’m sharing and the platform I’m using. In considering a shift in my digital presence, I’m looking to be more meaningful in how I learn, make connections, and present my professional self online. In their article Who are you online? Considering issues of web identity, Kelly Schryver (2013, para. 16) questions how well someone would be presented by Googling their name. I’m fortunate that I have a unique full name, so the first result is my LinkedIn profile (good!). Secondly comes my professional twitter account (which is so dead it may as well have been cremated), and the third result is a Facebook account belonging to a bikini-clad Andrea Evans-Smith (I choose not to hyphenate my surnames). In building my personal presence I want those second and third results to be more reflective of my personal persona.
Of note, I am currently considering deactivating my professional twitter account. Save for a few tweets when starting this program I haven’t been active on the platform in years, and given recent instability of the platform I don’t know if that’s somewhere that I want my digital presence to live. I also intend to continue to keep my personal social media accounts private so only my professional identity is prominent on Google, but more on that privacy choice later.
- My digital presence must challenge me to be more influential
I am not currently using social media networks to their fullest potential, and shifting my focus in this area will help me to reach my first goal above. In his article Who are you online? Considering issues of web identity., Howard Rheingold outlines five key social media literacies to be leveraged by savvy online personas (2010, para. 3). In considering my social media presence I believe I am already leveraging three (digital attention, collaboration, and critical consumption) relatively well. My network awareness can probably be graded as fair (more on that in the next point), but my greatest opportunity is in the sphere of participation with lots of opportunities to increase my influence. Instead of being a “passive consumer” online I want to move into the sphere of an “active citizen” (Reingold, 2010, para. 10). Simply looking at my professional networks of choice – LinkedIn publicly and the private Jive space at my global organization – there are plenty of opportunities for me to write my own articles, blogs, or infographics to exert my EdTech influence in my networks. I am especially intrigued by educators, eLearning developers, and instructional designers who go further and share their expertise on TikTok, YouTube, or their personal sites. Am I that brave? I’m not sure yet, but I’d like to start small on my current networking sites.
- My network is an incredible asset
I’ve been specializing in Online Learning since 2015, and in Adult Learning for 10 years previous. In that time I’ve been so privileged to work alongside so many talented and passionate learning professionals, from local and global colleagues, to university and college instructors, through to several learning consultants. Online I regularly share their content, but don’t create my own. If I were to shift to more purposeful content creation I would have an active audience, especially on LinkedIn. In Social Network Sites as Networked Publics: Affordances,
Dynamics, and Implications, Danah Boyd convincingly explains the benefit of carefully-curated social networks: “they allow people to gather for social, cultural, and civic purposes and they help people connect with a world beyond their close friends and family.” (2011). I know that my professional social network would listen to what I have to say and would help me to promote my ideas, I just need to be brave enough to share them.
Conclusion:
I’m feeling confident about the three goals I’ve set for myself above, and that I’ve assessed myself fairly in terms of where my opportunities lie. To tie this back to my blog post My Technology Mind Map (Evans Smith, 2023) as well as David White & Alison Le Cornu’s models of online “Visitors” and “Residents” (2011), I want to be a Resident – someone who actively cultivates and creates their professional identity online. I will also likely continue to keep my personal identity private, behind my private instagram account. I am choosing to keep this private side of myself out of respect for my family members and my teenager from whom I always ask permission before sharing online, as well as for my personal safety. In becoming more active professionally online, I also suspect this personal-professional divide will help my mental health and allow me to have a sustainable work-life balance.
References
Boyd, Danah. “Social Network Sites as Networked Publics: Affordances, Dynamics, and Implications.” In Z. Papacharissi (Ed.), A Networked Self (Pp. 39–58). New York, NY: Rutledge., 2011, https://www.danah.org/papers/2010/SNSasNetworkedPublics.pdf.
Evans Smith, Andrea. Resident or Visitor? Personal or Institutional? My Technology Mind Map – Andrea’s Learning Space. 23 Apr. 2023, https://malat-webspace.royalroads.ca/rru0277/resident-or-visitor-personal-or-institutional-my-technology-mind-map/.
Rheingold, Howard. Attention, and Other 21st-Century Social Media Literacies. 7 Oct. 2010, https://er.educause.edu/articles/2010/10/attention-and-other-21stcentury-social-media-literacies.
Schryver, Kelly. “Guest Post | Who Are You Online? Considering Issues of Web Identity.” The Learning Network, 5 Feb. 2013, https://archive.nytimes.com/learning.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/02/05/guest-post-who-are-you-online-considering-issues-of-web-identity/.
White, David S., and Alison Le Cornu. “Visitors and Residents: A New Typology for Online Engagement.” First Monday, Aug. 2011, https://doi.org/10.5210/fm.v16i9.3171.
Image attributed to:
Articulate Content Library (2023)
Andrea, I loved reading about your goals and how you will achieve them. It really resonated with me about how we sometimes need to be brave when posting online. It really can be difficult to put yourself out there, and you mentioning it shows me that I need to be brave too. I am sure once you do start making content and sharing it, people will really enjoy what you have to say.
Would love to know some strategies of how you plan on creating content and on what specific topics. I’ve never hear of Jive is this something use in companies or can it be used for personal use too?
Thank you for the feedback Catherine! I’m still developing my strategy, but I’m hoping to write more articles for LinkedIn on the topics of instructional design, digital learning enviornments, and inclusive course design. I may start by adapting some of my course blogs into articles for LinkedIn, but I also really enjoy recorded videos and podcasts, so I may look to some of those mediums as well.
Hi Andrea,
I appreciate the points you bring up on your blog as areas of opportunity, and you’ve set some realistic goals to move forward with your curated online persona and the impact you make within your networks. I’m curious about the point of being more of a resident vs. visitor (and I shared that thought!) and wonder what does that mean to you? I know it can be as simple as posting with intent and being cognizant of professional boundaries vs. personal – I am more interested in how you’ll know you’ve achieved your goals. Is it a percent of time spent on those profiles? Number of times you post weekly? etc.
Thanks!
Thanks for the feedback Jessica! I feel like it’s so much easier to be a visitor online and observe from the sidelines, whereas putting your name to an article or statement means opening yourself up for criticism. I haven’t felt like I’m enough of an “expert” to provide an opinion on learning technologies, but what I’m seeing in this program and learning alongside all of you is that you can still have something valuable to share if you’re still learning about a topic.
In terms of what goal I’m hoping to achieve, I really hope that it’s more about the quality of the content I want to produce instead of the quantity. I hope that I can create content that resonates with others, gets their reaction and comments, and which is shared amongst my EdTech contacts. What do you think?
Andrea, your goals are so well stated and focused it’s almost intimidating. I absolutely love that you put so much focus on each step of the way and your SEO value for being able to find it. Thanks for sharing this, the idea of being a passive consumer is something I suspect we all struggle with.
Thank you Chris! I know you are a lot more active in the blogging space than I am, so I suspect there’s a lot I can learn from you in terms of being a creator. Do you have any advice for those of us who are looking to become more confident in content creation?
Six weeks later, how has my perception of my Digital Identity & Digital Presence changed? Here is my response:
https://youtu.be/8FCK0Ypzmfw
And two follow-up questions:
– Is there anything I haven’t considered which you think I should?
– Does this resonate with you, or do you have a different perspective?