Here is my map of my online presence as described by White (2014a):

I didn’t get so much directly out of this exercise. I use quite a lot of online applications and I’m not so much a producer of content or comments, which I already knew. I found it a bit unclear if the x-axis was about visibility or interactivity or if it’s public or all of it.

However, it made me reflect on the purpose of online exercises and the distinction, which was nice. Does the exercise give me any new insights about myself? Do I feel inspired? Have I learned anything new? Can I use this? How?

In education, we can move more towards engaging students digitally, which is something they are used to. This is especially interesting how with Covid-19 and all the digital education we have. This can be done through gamification, which I have used in my system of Bonus Assignments, Pettersson & Bolldén (2020, p 167). Another way is to use online collaboration tools such as Google docs, Mural, Padlet or Miro.

White (2014b) discusses how open education could eventually replace the traditional education system. I agree that it’s possible, but there are several components currently missing before that can become a reality. I educate engineers and that is a whole package of carefully composed courses.  This is currently not available in open education, which mostly offers individual courses. There are also laboratories and a social and collaborative component that would be difficult to reproduce online. There is also the quality stamp that an engineering exam from a university offers.

I agree with Belshaw (2012) that there are many forms of digital literacies, which are context dependent. For example, most student can use Google Docs, but most cannot use Overleaf. If you want to have a simple collaborative document, Google Docs is fine, but if you want to make a more elegant document, Overleaf is better.

As discussed by Belshaw (2012), memes is an important part of the internet. Fortunately, there are memes in most subjects and I use them occasionally to lighten the mood in my courses.

References

Pettersson, L., & Bolldén, K. (Eds.). (2020). Bidrag från 7:e utvecklingskonferensen för sveriges ingenjörsutbildningar. Presented at the 7:e utvecklingskonferensen för sveriges ingenjörsutbildningar, Luleå: Luleå tekniska universitet. Retrieved from http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:ltu:diva-79996

White, D. S. (2014b). Visitors and Residents: Credibility. [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kO569eknM6U