The first topic of this course was online participation and digital literacies. That included one webinar and a tweetchat hosted by David White and Jörg Pareigis. In the webinar White put us to think about our online presence: are we visitors or residents? What tools do we use often or rarely and in what context? We drew a matrix and added the applications and digital tools there, according to our way and regularity to use them both in work and private life. You can check out the video on White’s concept of Visitors and Residents below.
As we had a comparatively short moment to think about our own matrixes, I realised that there would be a lot more to do. During the discussion, I found out that there were many digital tools and services I had totally forgotten from my matrix. In a webinar, I traditionally drew mine with a pen and paper, but for sure it would need moveable and scalable elements to be easier to build and edit. I think I’m gonna use Miro or Mural for that later on.
During our PBL groups meetings, we discussed the scenario and used excel first to find out concepts or questions that rose from it. Peer support and peer learning was one strong theme that was visible in our mapping. Next, we took a look at our digital skillsets using the vertical axis from Personal to Institutional and Teaching space. We all put two dots on the matrix and then we discussed our findings in the next meeting.
As we had raised peer support as a theme in our primary investigation on the scenario, we decided to add a new team member to the matrix as well. As our official submission for this topic, we created a padlet with a narrative timeline where we welcome a new member to our team and tell them how we as individuals can support them in a digital world. You are very welcome to visit the padlet and go through the process!
For me as some kind of peer support person, this topic offered a great way to take a look at my own skills and also reflect them with our group. This is something that would be very useful to repeat every now and then. Actually, this is also something that is required if you are about to apply for an open badge, for example. You must be able to describe your skills in a way that tells a person who reads the applications that you have achieved the learning objectives in a certain theme. And of course, even if you are not familiar with badges, you must be able to describe your skills and knowledge in many other situations in working life.
