I am not sure who I am in this digital era; I guess I just try to keep the pace or catch up lately. I am not a digital native, but I started playing with digital devices and software when I was a kid, as it was relatively common to have a computer at home. Probably, I am old-fashioned: for example, I do not have my starting browser page opening on Facebook, but on Google, because I want to search or hunt for something rather than reading the life of other people. Now, I am writing my first blog; that is ironic considering what I mentioned in the previous sentence. I found myself using very elementary digital tools, both in my job and personal life. I am not twitting…, and maybe, I should take the chance of this course to try and play with it.

Nonetheless, professional-wise, there are so many “socials” (such as ResearchGate, etc.) that I am somehow forced into them. It appears that self-advertising and visibility are never enough… assuming everybody has time to read this enormous amount of information. In the end, I am having a hard time separating personal and professional identity, with the first aspect losing to the latter. I enrolled in the ONL course as an elective class in the Aalto University pedagogical program. I hope that the ONL course can support me in developing my digital skill in a sort of learning by doing experience and through a structured path toward achieving this goal. In addition, I expect more opportunities to interact with colleagues worldwide to share expertise, concerns, fear, or enthusiasm on the possibility the digital environment offers to us in higher education and our professional lives. So far, in this first part of the course, and more intensively, in the two weeks dedicated to topic 1 – Online participation and digital literacies, I have the impression of a positive learning environment with collaborative teamwork. Exchange of ideas, discussion, and diversity of vision are the ingredients propedeutic to the “hand-on digital experience” and the completion of the group activity.

Reconnecting to the concept of digital identity, I am somehow between a visitor and a resident in the classification proposed in the first YouTube video by David White. Still, I am not confident if what we currently publish or make public on the web will be valuable in the future in education and research fields as citations are now (second YouTube video by David White). Publicizing might help a wider educational/research community acknowledge our work. Nevertheless, I should ask myself if I am maximizing the use and benefits of the available digital tools. In this sense, the need for promoting digital literacy is evident at all university levels starting from staff, faculty, research, and students. This effort should provide the tools for supporting a “culture of change” and developing what I would name a safe and balanced digital identity (Developing digital literacies, 2014, JISC guide).