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In the first topic we had interesting discussions about digital literacies and I’ll reflect on 3 things:  

1) The scenario got me thinking about the anxiety of being professionally visible online and how we manage the boundaries between private and professional lives. While I am generally cautiously active online, the visitors and residents model presented by David White provided a good way to map where overlaps can occur between online private and professional presence. Additionally, thinking of digital residence, I realised that residency rather than visiting is ever growing, considering that many sites and applications require that one creates a profile, holds activity histories, and algorithms are reading into one’s behaviour online to generate more “understanding” about an individual, so it is more than whether one posts or comments. One also has to make good choices regarding privacy settings. But when it comes to professional and personal boundaries, my unease arises because our institutions now encourage visibility online, with people posting about their research on Instagram, LinkedIn, etc. This is where I feel I do not want my private and professional lives mingling, and on these platforms, there are friends and acquaintances. It’s not about whether what you are doing is great or not; it can just be about not wanting to expose that much of your life to everyone. Even creating a separate profile doesn’t help much. Meta, for example, links profiles. Besides, you then have to manage two profiles, and secondly, the app suggests the very profile you create for a different purpose to people you’d rather only knew your private one. On the other hand, the activity of colleagues on some of the recommended platforms while you aren’t, may create an impression that you are no match. Don’t believe me? See how people have started to judge professional competence through one’s LinkedIn

2) In our discussions, we talked about inclusivity. Without inclusivity, efforts to develop digital literacies risk excluding many of those who need them. Many tend to focus on the technology and what it enables us to do. It’s often about using different media and information access and sharing. However, there is often less focus on being considerate and inclusive, especially as teachers, and sometimes the challenge is whether digital resources serve those who need them effectively. Good practice would be to make accessibility part of the design of materials and educational resources rather than an afterthought. Additionally, we need to keep in mind that, as Carmi and Yates (2020) highlight, inclusion is not just about access, but also the ability to critically understand and navigate the digital world. Inclusion enables diversity in participation.

3)  AI adds another dimension to digital literacies, which requires individuals not just to understand and use AI tools, but also to assess their outputs critically. Along with this, we have to consider integrity and ethics. AI offers creativity, quick turnarounds, and clarification of a wide range of topics, which can benefit both teachers and students.  The paradox is that, despite it actually being linked to adverse cognitive effects on students (Singh et al., 2025), educators require students to engage in more critical thinking in class to demonstrate their gained knowledge. On a positive note, Zhang and Zhang (2024) findings suggest that through giving educators the possibility to cater to diverse needs, AI promotes inclusivity and equity. Additionally, they find a strong correlation between AI use and teachers’ digital literacy and computer skills.

The topic is broad, and we really have a lot to consider regarding digital literacies, and having group discussions around such topics is quite enlightening. 

 

References

  • Carmi, E., & Yates, S. J. (2020). What do digital inclusion and data literacy mean today?. Internet Policy Review, 9(2).
  • Singh, A., Taneja, K., Guan, Z., & Ghosh, A. (2025). Protecting human cognition in the age of AI. arXiv preprint arXiv:2502.12447.
  • Zhang, J., & Zhang, Z. (2024). AI in teacher education: Unlocking new dimensions in teaching support, inclusive learning, and digital literacy. Journal of Computer Assisted Learning, 40(4), 1871-1885.