Online participation and digital literacies

 

This is my first blog post in the course Open networked learning focused on teaching at universities in an open networked environment. I am attending the course as an open learner, not affiliated to any university. 

There will be five blog topics and this topic is the first one, Online participation and digital literacies. In the course we always have a group task and in addition, write a blog post individually, so sometimes I will be referring to my own reflections and sometimes to discussions in our group as well as literature, which of course can be recordings on Youtube😊.

Part of the literature studies, was to watch David Whites presentation on visitors and residents. It made me reflect on if students should share their point of view publicly early on in their academic studies or wait. Is it in the best interest of students to share their point of view early on or should they await further into their academic studies? It is a decision students should take actively and not just let the decision “happen to them” when they start their studies. Schools should address this issue when students start their courses to make them aware and confident in their decisions.




And personally, I found David White´s model very interesting as I started to reflect on what information I wanted to share in the Resident/Institutional square for this course. Being quite a private person, I am not completely comfortable ”being in the bottom right square”, and I hope attending the course and being part of how to learn digitally in a somewhat private way can be combined without too much difficulty.

Another of David White´s statements that I found very interesting is when he talks about how being young doesn´t automatically mean that one knows how to use “the web effectively for study, for critically evaluating a range of digital resources or even have the capability to formulate and express cogent arguments online. These are examples of learning literacies which don´t come for free with the latest technology”.

In the past, we as teachers, have known how to teach methodology and how to evaluate printed sources, and there has been clear authorities on different topics, but with Internet, the game is changed. Teachers as well as students will need to learn and keep learning how to use the Internet for learning.

And the importance of keeping on learning was the main point for me in the Ted Talk The essential elements of digital literacies by Doug Belshaw where he says that Digital literacies is a lifelong project. So here I am, ready to learn!

References

David White: Visitor and residents (part 1)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sPOG3iThmRI&feature=youtu.be

 

David White: Visitors and residents – Credibility (part 2)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kO569eknM6U&feature=youtu.be

 

Doug Belshaw: The essential elements of digital literacies

The essential elements of digital literacies: Doug Belshaw at TEDxWarwick - YouTube

Kommentarer

  1. Alastair Creelman4 januari 2022 kl. 00:15

    I think it's important that we help students learn how to publish responsibly in public spaces and not try to protect them all the time. As you write that means we have to support that process, showing how to write and share respectfully (respecting copyright etc). Maybe I have been lucky but in 15 years of blogging publicly and using social media every day I have hardly ever had direct contact with any trolls. I have found educational groups and discussions respectful and rewarding. At the same time I'm really careful about entering discussions in the areas where trolls thrive.

    SvaraRadera

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