Prior to starting the ONL 2020 course, I was clearly in the camp of keeping my private life separate from my professional life. In my mind, that equated to not maintaining much of a professional digital presence online, and thinking about interactions with students in the traditional forms of contact through lectures, tutorials and personal conferences in physical settings such as seminar rooms, lecture theatres and classrooms (with the occasional email). My personal life is mine, and I can be a competent educator without sharing any online version of me with my students. This divide has always been clear and simple, though perhaps in hindsight now, simplistic.
Unsurprisingly, when I did up my very own visitor/resident/personal/institution chart [1], my entries were predominantly weighted in the visitor and personal quadrants. Being now made aware of the various quadrants, I realise I do have some minimal presence on the “resident” side of the chart. I am also open to the possibilities of creating and cultivating a more deliberate presence in the resident/institution quadrant without violating my personal preference of keeping my personal and professional life separate.
[1] White, D. & Le Cornu, A. (2011) Visitors and residents: A new typology for online engagement. First Monday, 16(9).
The questions I grapple with is whether it is necessary or beneficial to do so (and for whom). Do I want to have a more deliberate “resident” presence online as an educator, and regardless of my own inclinations and comfort zone, is it better for my students for me to create a more deliberate “resident” presence online. I also wonder what exactly it will take to create an authentic online persona without it descending into a public relations exercise.
The literature [2] suggests that teachers themselves perceive that it is important to maintain a social presence in an online learning environment as part of one’s teaching presence. This social presence refers broadly to how one projects oneself as a “real person” online and the degree of connectedness to others that participants feel in an online environment. It does not have to refer to personal oversharing but can refer to something as simple as sharing personal experiences on the content in question. Some students do also mimic the behaviours displayed by their teachers – presumably that means the more the teacher engages deliberately online, the more the students will too.
[2] Richardson J et al (2016) Instructors’ Perceptions of Instructor Presence in Online Learning Environments, Intl Rev of Research in Open and Distributed Learning, 17(4); White, D. & Le Cornu, A. (2011) Visitors and residents: A new typology for online engagement. First Monday, 16(9).
The literature also suggests that “resident” status is not necessarily superior to “visitor” status [3].
[3] White, D. & Le Cornu, A. (2011) Visitors and residents: A new typology for online engagement. First Monday, 16(9).
I wonder therefore if social presence can be effectively maintained through utilizing “visitor” status alone (albeit perhaps frequently). I’m guessing not, or perhaps frequent “visitor” status could in fact substantively equate to a “resident” status.
Regardless, I am game to take on a temporary “resident” status for the ONL 2020 course and to see where that takes me. Wish me luck!