The Topic 1 of the Open Networked Learning (ONL) course 211 found me somewhat puzzled, and especially so for the second part of the topic. By now we are all familiar with online meetings, but I came to learn that online participation can mean much more than joining a Microsoft Teams or Zoom meeting. I worked as part of the problem-based learning (PBL) group that approached the topic from the point of view of FISh (focus-Investigate-Share). We reviewed several digital literacy self-assessment tests and summarized our findings in an interactive Prezi presentation (a new tool for me, see www.prezi.com/).
One of the conclusions that we made is that Youtube has become an indispensable resource for digital learning. I recognize this change in information search from my own experience. I’ve been searching a good second hand camera for quite some time, and watched numerous Youtube video reviews of pros and cons of different models. In contrast, when I bought my current camera some ten years ago, I mainly relied on written reviews that took much longer time to read compared to 5-10 minutes spent in Youtube (per video). Despite this evolution of my own internet usage patterns, I have a feeling that I am not the early adapter type of person what comes to digital tools.
For inspiration and to understand the level of my own digital literacy, I watched a webinar given by David White from University of the Arts London (www.youtube.com/watch?v=w9Eiz3DRzhs). David White’s presentation itself was a nice lesson of digital engagement. He asked question like “what is digital native?” and urged the participants to map their digital presence in a cross map that spans from “Visitor” to “Resident” on the horizontal axis, and “Personal” to “Institutional” on the vertical axis. This online mapping is based on work by Donna Lanclos (University of North Carolina, Charlotte), Lawrie Phipps (Jisc), and David White (University of the Arts London).
Such a mapping approach is an attractive tool that can help understand my own digital literacy and identity in personal and professional life. In fact, I constantly feel that my ideal “superhero” digital identity would be more open and productive in many new social media platforms. On the other hand, I am aware of my limitations in digital presence, especially compared to the generation X who are communicating in TikTok and Instagram that constitute ground onto which I have left a near-zero footprint (for the good and bad of it, I suppose).
Another eye-opener from this topic was the framework developed by Beetham and Sharpe (2010). Their triangular model describes digital literacy as a process through one starts from access and awareness and develop skills that enable one to establish practices and eventually digital identity. Reflecting my own digital literacy from this angle, I feel that I may have over-emphasized the three underlying levels and ignored the last – and perhaps the most important – step of building digital identity. Sure, I have professional profiles in LinkedIn, Researchgate (forgotten password and lazy to retrieve, sorry), Stockholm University, etc., but much remains to be done to improve my online presence and identity what comes to digital literacy.
Beetham and Sharpe’s framework (2010) for digital literacy development.
Back to the online participation. The PBL group meetings definitely enriched my awareness of digital tools that are available for online participation. For example, Miro (www.miro.com) offers a low entry barrier digital whiteboard that will be useful to activate students and collect feedback during team meetings. Moreover, Canva (www.canva.com) is a great source of templates for data visualization useful for enriching research presentations and lecture slides. I was even introduced to Sway from MicroSoft (https://sway.office.com/) but haven’t yet started exploring its possibilities.
The ONL course has so far been a refreshing, occasionally bumpy ride. It has made me aware of new resources and opportunities out there, and owing to great peer support, allowed me to gain first experience in their use. Looking towards the coming two weeks, it seems that the learning will continue and this time from a slightly different angle as I will be co-leading the work on the Topic 2 – Open Learning – sharing and openness.
