Author: Michelle

Digital Identity: Personal vs. Professional

Definition: Digital identity refers to who you are online, it is your internet footprint.

One can have both a personal and professional digital identity and your particular footprint can both work for you or against you depending on how you are perceived by those engaging with your content.

There are several ways to maintain a clear separation between personal and professional identities

• Consider your message/image before posting.
• Consider your audience before posting.
• Maintain your digital spaces.
• Decide which people should have access to one or both spaces.
• Maintain your privacy and user settings.

While cancel culture is an incredibly old concept, we have entered an age of almost constant surveillance and this comes with risks and benefits. Having found ourselves deeply in a new breed of cancel culture it is important to remember that despite best efforts and boundary implementation one can quickly find themselves reaping professional consequences for personal interactions that do not reflect the values of their workplace. For this reason, I tent to error on the side of less is more when it comes to my personal online identity. Click here for a Brief History of Cancel Culture.

Privacy, Surveillance, and Digital Footprint Awareness

I found reading Ethical Challenges of Edtech, Big Data and Personalzied Learing really interesting given the current landscape of data in my spicific area. In early January, PowerSchool (a company named in this article) was hacked and data for several districts in Canada and The U.S was comprimised. My partner, my four children, and I have all had our data comprimised. It left me with a host of questions.

• How much data do they need?
• What kinds of data do they need?
• How much is too much?
• Who has access and for what?
• How long is this data stored?
• Do they need to store all the data?

@knittyknits

UPDATE

♬ original sound – Knitty

Digital Visitor and Resident Map

Definition: The visitor resident map is a dynamic tool used to help one understand their personal digital footprint. When you are accessing the internet to complete a goal and you leave little evidence that you were there, you are classified as a visitor. When accessing the internet and interacting in such a way that information is left behind (leaving comments or posting pictures) you are classified as a resident.

Definition: Learning Literacy – the ability to critically and meaningfully engage with Net resources

Interesting to think that had I competed my Digital Visitor and Resident Map prior to beginning my tenure at UVic it would have looked very different. Engaging in digital technology has vastly improved my learning literacy, and as I become more competent, I am willing and able to continue to engage with these technologies to further extend my learning literacy.   

Theories of Personalized Learning

Definition: A teaching model that is that tailors the modes of education to each individual child.

As a child and youth counselor I have worked with at risk youth in both element schools and highs schools. Recently I have seen a shift the understanding of the term neurodivergent. Where as in the past a student that was neurodivergent was thought to have brain functioning that outside of “typical” functioning, now educators and professionals are recognising that every human is neurodivergent. That is to say that each individual has their own unique way of intaking and manipulating information. Due to technology, there has been a shift towards personalized learning for all students making a more inclusive environment for youth and adults.

With globalization technology has become the only way that an individual can stay relevant in the labor market and this is done through digital literacy. Without understanding digital tools, how to engage, and how to stay safe online one will quickly find themselves unemployable and increasingly isolated.

As I work in a hospital, I am expected to engage with several field specific platforms for documenting, referring, communicating etcetera. Maintaining my digital literacy through employment aided in adapting and transitioning to applying to UVic and engaging in the courses through BrightSpace. While I found those tasks challenging at first, they aided in my ability to learn WordPress and set up my EDCI 338 site for this course. Digital literacy consists of building blocks of knowledge and to miss one block/stage can quickly result in digital illiteracy. Personally, maintaining my digital literacy has aided in my ability to stay connected to peers after my 2007 graduation and having access to the relentless progression of the most up to date information has aided in my career and maintained my motivation.

Digital literacy means, in part, being a wear and adept at using different social media platforms. By using social media to build a community and providing opportunities to become the content creator, learning becomes more engaging at any age. The beauty of social media and one of its biggest benefits is that representation barriers become miniscule. One is typically able to quickly find themselves represented in the work, learning, and cultural content. Social media also offers resource sharing, and opportunities for collaboration. However, this representation does come with risks as well.

I currently work with youth who have been diagnosed with eating disorders. The majority of the youth I work with have actively built PLNs (Personal Learning Network) filled with resources that aid in their disorder. Instructional accounts, how to blogs, calorie counting/regulating accounts and apps are all part of their ability to stay motivated to maintain their illness. Their PLN’s act as a reminder, a prompt, and external accountability monitor.

Personally, social media has played a fluctuating role in my life since the early 2000’s. While at Humber Collage I created a Facebook account that was used daily and since having children I have created an Instagram account. These platforms aided in keeping me connected to friends as we moved from one phase of life to another and my use of them ebbs and flows. I used Instagram to network with collogues and one friend from collage referred me to my current job at a local hospital. My social media presence became a professional networking platform and because of this it has been important to be mindful of how I build my digital identity and who I build it with. To make the most out of my platforms I try to post semiregularly, I try to share resources as well as ask for resources, and I ensure that I am in the right spaces to meet my needs. Ones digital identity is has long-term consequences (both positive and negative) and that is why it is so important to cultivate a respectful online community. It is so important, that most online platforms have a code of conduct. Click here to check out UVics online conduct page.

If you, or if you suspect someone you know, may have an eating disorder find some Current Information here. If you prefer, you can click here to live chat with a professional online or call 1-866-NEDIC-20 toll free.