Time flies! The first four weeks of the course “Open Networked Learning” have passed with Topic 1 completed. The first topic of the course comprised aspects of online participation and digital literacies (https://www.opennetworkedlearning.se/). A useful topic to reflect on, both in relation to myself and the students I meet.
In order to understand a complex issue such as “online participation and digital literacies”, metaphors such as the “visitor and residents” are helpful (White & Le Cornu, 2011). I understand this metaphor as more flexible than other examples where the focus is to categorize people in to certain types, having certain styles or behavior. According to the authors learning and behavior is difficult to categorize without flexibility. It is refreshing to read the notions regarding the need of a more flexible understanding of online participation and behavior. An understanding where engagement and context are seen as fundamental aspects to online participation and digital literacy and not age or background of an individual (http://daveowhite.com/; White & Le Cornu, 2011). This understanding is in line with my own notions of the phenomenon of engagement. I have studied engagement and the process of engagement when testing and using eHealth solutions in health care. In my research factors such as technological literacy, age or even technological errors and difficulties are inferior to genuine engagement, motivation and the context. With, for example, motivation – technological challenges can be mastered. With support from colleagues and management, a shortcoming in digital literacies can be conquered.
A course like Open Networked Learning enables me to reflect on my own online participation and digital literacies. When reading about various aspects and discussing with colleagues from around the world, I get a chance to “mirror” my own experiences and literacies. In addition, my course participation also happens to collide with the COVID-19 pandemic. A situation that forces many of my colleagues to change their teaching from a more traditional campus based teaching, to completely web based. A challenge for many, I am sure. The majority of my teaching was already web based, so the change was not too hard for me. Applying digital tools on-line in teaching is not new to me, but I still have much to learn. In some areas I take after the visitor, in others the resident. I am probably more residential as a professional, compared to my personal life. Logical in some way, since most of my personal life is focused on real life interactions with my family.