Xiaoqi Wang EDCI 338 Class

Month: September 2020

On Digital Identities

September 26, 2020 / / 0 Comments

The concept of Digital Identity is still considered nebulous. Despite this, Eric Stoller, a Social Media expert, simply defined Digital Identity as one’s presence online (University of Derby, 2016). Also, it could refer to how one, shares, interacts, and utilizes digital tools for his/her own benefit. In other words, one’s Digital Identity is basically his/her digital footprint. One could know a lot about a certain person by looking at his/her digital footprints. This is actually the reason that some companies would search for their applicants’ digital footprints to know if they are going to hire a certain applicant or not. Just as Eric Stoller said, looking into the applicant’s digital footprint is like an initial interview. Moreover, one’s Digital Identity could also be viewed as the product of a person’s interaction in the internet. In fact, Spracklen (2015) explained that the internet helps people create their identity.  This explains why one is likely to engage in political activities if he/she belongs in an online community composed of people who frequently share posts and videos on social activism.

The Digital Identity can be changed according to one’s intention. For instance, if one created his/her social media for personal reasons, he/she can share anything that he/she likes. In addition to this, he/she can follow pages and people that simply caught his/her attention. However, if one needed to create a social media because he/she wanted to reach his/her clients or boss, he/she needs to establish a good Digital Professional Identity (DPI). According to Jawed et al. (2019), DPI refers to the personal identity that professionals create online through internet-based interaction. In creating this identity, the professional carefully uses online platforms and communication tools to appear professional. Unlike the personal approach to Digital Identity, the professional approach is more constrained. This is because as a professional, one needs to create an image that will please his/her employers and clients. Hence, in creating Digital Professional Identity, online users leave their “real” identities behind and create Digital Identities that can best fit their profession.

In networked publics, the personal and the professional identities can converge. For instance, Teacher A has two Facebooks accounts, one for his professional account and the other one is his personal account. It is possible for the friends of Teacher A in his professional Facebook account to find his personal account especially when Teacher A did not strategically hide his personal Facebook account. In this case, Teacher A’s friends can check his personal Facebook account, send him a message, or even send a friend request. When Teacher A accepted his students and employers in his personal account, he will have a hard time deciding what to share, what to post, and who to follow in fear of not appearing professional to the clients and students who invaded her personal Facebook account. On the other hand, the good side of this is that Teacher A’s employers and students will feel that they would know Teacher A on a personal level. In connection to this, problems like these will always be part of our daily life. In the World Economic Forum (2019), the economists said that over 60% of the global GDP is expected to be digitized by 2022. This only means that world gets more digitized each year so we need to know how to responsibly create and handle our Digital Identities.

 

References

Mahboob, U., Jawed, S., & Yasmeen, R. (2019). Digital professional identity: Dear internet! Who am I? Education for Health, 32(1), 33. doi:10.4103/efh.efh_232_17

Spracklen, K. (2015). Identity-making and social media. Digital Leisure, the Internet and Popular Culture, 94-112. doi:10.1057/9781137405876_6

University of Derby. (2016). Eric Stoller – What is digital identity? [Video]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u0RryRbJza0&feature=youtu.be

World Economic Forum. (2019, February 5). Davos 2019 – Press conference the value of digital identity for the global economy and society [Video]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=326&v=1-V7lyxrOmw&feature=emb_logo

 

Personal Learning Networks and Digital Identity

September 20, 2020 / / 1 Comment

Personal Learning Networks (PLN) refer to a network of learners who interact with each other for the purpose of learning. According to University of South Hampton (n.d.), the people’s means of learning is not only limited to being in a classroom setting with the presence of a teacher. People also learn when they do something together through social networks, video sharing sites, gaming communities, and forums. Learning in a digitized environment had been the effect of the intimate connection between individuals and their technology (University of South Hampton, n.d.). This means that learners can utilize social networks, video sharing sites and forums in order to create their personal learning network. In this regard, among the means mentioned previously, the learners should focus on how to social media in building their personal learning networks because it is popular and it is also accessible.

Learners can network through social media because social media allows its users to stay connected with others such as their friends, family members, teachers, and even experts in the field. To network using social media means intentionally using the social media to share information, ask for help, and connect with different people for the sake of learning. Even if social media was not originally created for learning, users can manipulate the way they use social media in order to learn in this kind of mediated platform. In fact, Rajagopal et al., (2012) explained that personal learning networks can be activated in social media through communality. This means that people look out for common ground with strangers and this common ground could be topics of interests, organizations, and other common connections. For instance, when the learner’s friends and family members cannot provide the information, social media allows learners to seek for help and connect with strangers who could be expert on the topic that learners is working on. Because the learners have various means to seek out information in the social media, they would not feel helpless and this would motivate them to participate in networked publics. Participating in networked publics may have its advantages but Boyd (2001) warned that learners should be empowered to share information in a way that cannot negatively affect others. Different kinds of people with different beliefs are present in a public network so learners should be polite and they should also observe cultural sensitivity.

In conclusion, social media can be used to create personal learning networks because it allows people to connect with other people and share information. When learners feel that they belong in a community that is made up of learners like them, they will feel that they belong and they would be motivated to participate. Hence, learning through PLN should be promoted because it is convenient and it could be used as a tool for lifelong learning. On a last note, learners should be aware that they need to remain polite when interacting in networked publics so as not to offend other learners.

 

References

Lyon, D. (2001). Networked privacy. In Surveillance society: Monitoring everyday life (pp. 348-250). McGraw-Hill Education (UK). https://ojs.library.queensu.ca/index.php/surveillance-and-society/article/view/networked/networked

Rajagopal, K., Joosten-ten Brinke, D., Van Bruggen, J., & Sloep, P. B. (2012). Understanding personal learning networks: Their structure, content and the networking skills needed to optimally use them. First Monday, 17(1). https://doi.org/10.5210/fm.v17i1.3559

University of South Hampton. (n.d.). What is a personal learning network (PLN)? [Video]. futurelearn.com. https://www.futurelearn.com/courses/learning-network-age/0/steps/24644

Self Introduction

September 20, 2020 / / 0 Comments

Good day everyone! My name is Xiaoqi Wang and I live in China. I am a 3rd year student specializing is Economics. If time and circumstances will permit, I will be able to finish my degree next school year. I am specializing in Economics because some of my interests are economic issues, economic history, and personal finance economics. One of my favorite topics is economic history because I want to know how different countries’ economy evolved into the kind of economy that they have today. I believe that there are significant historical events in the past that resulted present day economies. Recently, I appreciated personal finance economics after reading an article which claims that majority of people today are not financially literate. This made realize that I could use my specialization to help people. Aside from my major ship, I am also pretty much into arts. I like to read literary and historical works and during my spare time, I watch art tutorials. In addition to art tutorials, I also watch educational videos like TedEd and CrashCourse. I am a huge fan of informative videos and I want to learn something new every day. Given that I can be considered as a “digital learner,” I became curious on how technologies can be used in education. For this reason, I took subjects that deal with how technology is used in education like EDCI 335 and EDCI 337. So far, I would say that I enjoyed my education subjects because it gave me the perspective of my teachers. Also, it gave me the idea that if I wanted to venture on teaching someday, I could share my knowledge to others through incorporating what I have learned from my education subjects.

 

 

 

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