After watching the videos made by David White I wonder where I want to be on the scale. I have been, and still am, naive in regards to my digital presence. I have learned a lot since my kids started to use social media and am now very concerned of what digital traces I leave and how they are used today and might be used in the future. I wonder if Beetham and Sharpe’s (2010) pyramid is something to strive for as they promote to move towards creative appropriation. In order to learn you have to make full use of digital technology. In other words, this pyramid forces someone to become a resident.

I was once a resident of Facebook posting everything and nothing. It was/is a way for me to connect with long lost friends from near and far. The usage of FB and other social media is a way to relax and think of something else. (The problem is that instead of feeling relaxed, it stresses me and is a black whole in regards to time – time just disappears.)

I have lately been thinking of getting on “old” phone with only dialing- and texting-possibilities so I don’t spend time on social media and other time consuming apps. It is so easy to get stuck and when you are stuck, you constantly leave traces. The traces are also left when you use g-mail, coggle.it, search the web for relevant research, google drive, WordPress… the list never ends. But if I change from an old fashion mobile, or reduce the number of digital tools I currently have to use, I loose the possibility to do banking, pay for parking the car, take good pictures, check out YouTube videos, read work mail, look for relevant literature etc… I also loose the possibility to “hang” with my kids in their “rooms” on the internet. So, my concerns is how to balance the resident and the visitor status. In my private life I need to become a resident in order to keep up with my kids and do ordinary things like banking or pay for parking. In my professional life I also need to be resident. I sometimes feel like internet and technology is taking over my identity and forcing me to be someone I don’t want to be (Schultze, 2014).

My digital presence is a part of me, however not very nuanced and I think it is easy to be misunderstood or misinterpreted. This is also what I am concerned about in regards to online learning. Nuanced capabilities, such as judgment and collaborative reflection, are left out.

References

Schultze, Ulrike. “Performing embodied identity in virtual worlds.” European Journal of Information Systems 23.1 (2014): 84-95.

Sharpe, R., & Beetham, H. (2010). Understanding students’ uses of technology for learning: towards creative appropriation. Rethinking learning for the digital age: How learners shape their experiences, 85-99.