I was really interested in hearing different perspectives of this topic in my PBL group as I have just started to work in a project concerning participation of students and teachers in digital learning environments at university. We realized quickly during our discussions in the group how important it is to define and grasp the terms participation and digital literacy and how interconnected the two are when it comes to education. We finally broke the scenario down to three key questions and I especially focused on the definition and prerequisites for safe online learning spaces. When starting to read on the subject, I found myself thinking about my own life online. The webinar about the concepts of visitor or resident in different areas also brought me to reflect on my own professional online identity. I read literature on the phenomenon of social media fatigue and realized how much time I myself had spent on social networks during the pandemic. At the same time, I enjoyed the online meetings with my group much more than I had anticipated and did not feel overwhelmed by too many virtual contacts. This is something I’m definitely taking home for me personally from the first topic of the course: reflecting more and more on my own time spend online, leaving enough offline time and space for making notes, thinking and sorting of information the old-fashioned way, with pen and paper. Establishment of my own personal professional online identity is also a personal goal I’ll be focusing on during the ONL course.
Coming back to the first topic, I have realized through the work of the first two weeks how important digital literacy courses are for students and teachers at university. We just assume that young people are digital natives, but digital literacy is not just about using a mobile phone or an app. The variety of different aspects of digital competencies is described in the European Digital Competence framework (Carretero, S., Vuorikari, R., and Punie, Y. (2017). DigComp 2.1. The Digital Competence Framework for Citizens with Eight Proficiency Levels and Examples of Use. Luxembourg: Publications Office of the European Union. doi: 10.2760/ 38842) and should be integrated in the design of online courses. Effective and successful digital learning requires self-management, the ability for critical thinking and data analysis, and adoption of an inclusive online behaviour to make everyone feel safe and appreciated. Before the pandemic, courses on digital competencies were rarely taught at German universities, however, there is a positive correlation between formal education on the topic and the respective competences (König, J., Doll, J., Buchholtz, N., Förster, S., Kaspar, K., Rühl, A.-M., et al. (2018). Pädagogisches wissen versus fachdidaktisches wissen? [General pedagogical knowledge versus pedagogical content knowledge?]. Z. Erziehungswiss. 21, 1–38. doi: 10.1007/s11618-017-0765-z). I gained a lot of valuable insights in the first part of the course and will highlight the need for digital literacy courses for students and teachers at my university. We are planning to offer courses and materials for students right at the start of studying. Tools like digital treasure hunts in groups will highlight the social aspect of E-learning, another important topic that should always be considered when using digital teaching concepts. I think the different views and opinions of participants of the ONL course will definitely help me with the creation of inclusive and participative learning and teaching environments.