Welcome to my blog for #UOSM2008 Living and Working On the Web! If you haven’t already check out my about me page to get an idea of what it’s all about. I hope that you enjoy following me on my journey throughout the module.
Take a look at my introduction and enjoy making your way through each topic!
As outlined in my introduction I decided to enrol on the Living and Working on the web module after “deeming myself wrong footed and unable to step up to the plate” (Kuehn, 2012, p.131 as cited in Topic 1). Like most of my colleague’s I was unsure of what I was letting myself in for and had very limited knowledge of the online world beyond using social media platforms to communicate with friends and family. I was very optimistic and saw beyond just the knowledge I would gain throughout the Five Topics of the module, and more as the opportunity to develop my online skills with the hope of one day being able to utilise them when teaching my very own class.
At the begin of the module I was asked to complete a digital profile self-test rating my level of digital literacy on a scale of 1-5 where 1 is no experience and 5 is very experienced. As illustrated below in my Infographic it is clear how far I have come throughout my time on the module.
As you can see I decided to give Piktochart another go having previously written it off for being too complicated. I think this in itself speaks volumes about my progress on the module…
Furthermore, as this module is all about collaborating with others I wanted to both; showcase the developemt of my digital profile, but also gain feedback from my peers. Therefore on Andrei Angelesci (@andreift9) recommendation I have created a ranked list using playbuzz to demonstarted this while also allowing my peers to rank my development.
In comparison to Topic 3 It is clear to see from the ‘all star’ rating on my LinkedIn profile, number of views, and progression bar on my Tutora page how much my digital profile has developed over the module.
Reflecting on my learning experiences and development of knowledge and digital skills, I would say my biggest learning curve came from Topic 1 in which I was adament I was a digital resident when upon reflection it is evident that I couldn’t have been further from the truth.
Furthermore, while each Topic has provided me with something new and exciting to learn each week (from vistors to residents to privacy and open access) I am most impressed with my ability to work so well independently while also collaborating with my peers in a way that I have never done before.
The ability to develop online has paid dividens already! Not only was I able to create my dissertation poster with Canva, sharing it on Twitter to enhance response rate, but through the use of Indeed.co.uk, in which I uploaded a digital CV I have sucessfully secured myself a role as an Adminstrative Assistant in a local doctors surgery while I plan my next move…
I think the post speaks for itself when I say it is clear my time on the module has been a resounding success, and I couldn’t be more grateful for the opportunity to partake in such a unique learning experince. In my role as a Tutor I will be adding digital literacy (computing literacy) to my Tutora page and I hope to be able to gain invaluable experience from imparting my knowledge into the minds of young kids, before I become a fully qualifed teacher.
I will also endeavour to continue to blog and maybe even try my hand at vlogging now I’ve set up my YouTube channel… watch this space!
References
Kuehn, L. (2012) ‘No More “Digital Natives” and “Digital Immigrants”’, Our Schools, Our Selves, 21(2), pp.129-131. Available at: http://teachandtechassign3.weebly.com/uploads/1/4/2/0/14202725/no_more_digital_natives_and_immigrants.pdf (Accessed: 23 May 2017)
Having initially found Topic 5 challenging I was not only glad I could learn more about the topic from my peers, but also overwhelmed by the positive feedback I received for my contribution.
For me, the biggest learning curve of Topic 5 came from a plethora of discussion with Callum.
Callum’s subsequent comment on my blog allowed for a more in depth discussion in which I could learn of Callum’s troubles with unpaywall.org. I had not come across the same issue; hitting a pay wall, so I decided to give it another go and was horrified to have, like Callum, hit a pay wall.
I have also used Callum’s idea of a screen recording to illustrate this and have uploaded it to my newly created YouTube channel.
Furthermore, my comment on Callum’s post led to a discussion about violation of copyright in repositories. I initially questioned Callum’s argument of this having found a contradicting article online, however Callum quickly responded with an explanation of his reasons to which I developed, bringing the work of Grant, Webb and Bustillo (2015) to his attention. I subsequently proposed the question that is it due to a lack of funding in universities for example, the reason why robust policies cannot be created to avoid this occurrence of violation?
This brings me onto my next point; Rebecca, Callum and Ollie all posed the question as to why more people aren’t using OA. An interesting question, as like I pointed out, it appears that there is more than enough information for an informed decision to be made, however maybe it is due to the concerns raised by Callum regarding copyright violation that more people aren’t using OA?
Since this I have decide to create a Creative Commons License for my work as I would like people to re-use my work and develop on it, however I am not overly enthused by the idea that someone could reproduce it passing it off as their own.
Finally, my comment on Cherie’s post taught me about Intellectual Property (IP) which is something I hadn’t come across in my research. I did however question her disadvantage that it may not reach as wide a, bringing the work of the n audience World Intellectual Property Organisations New Open Access Policy.
“WIPO has adopted an Open Access Policy in support of its commitment to the sharing and dissemination of knowledge, and to make its publications easily available to the widest possible audience”.
Overall, Topic 5 has provided a wide range of critical discussion; both with the points outlined in the post and from my discussion with Will. I have learnt so much more than I ever could have on my own, and the point I made in my comment on Callum’s post regarding his PowToon encapsulates this perfectly.
References
Grant, R., Webb, S. and Bustillo, M. (2015) ‘A consideration of copyright for a national repository of humanities and social science data’, Library Information Research, 39(121), pp. 22-44. Available at: http://www.lirgjournal.org.uk/lir/ojs/index.php/lir/article/viewFile/671/700 (Accessed: 12 May 2017).
While it can be argued that one of the main purposes of the internet is to share, and receive information with ease, it has been noted that the current scientific model, dating back to the 1600s, makes this process somewhat challenging (Tracz and Lawrence, 2016).
According to Mayyasia (2013) scientist follow a ‘consistent pattern’ that has almost become institutionalised.
Although this act of publishing seems to enable people all over the world to gain access to research, often these papers are sat behind a paywall and subscriptions to these have increased massively. This article illustrates some of these horrifying statistics.
As it is impossible to buy access to every journal students must pay the price in losing out on core journals having to use what is available not necessarily what they need (Right to Research, 2010). Many universities are cancelling subscriptions because of this, thus lowering the pool of educational resources rather than increasing it.
As a student, I am all too familiar with that gut wrenching feeling you get when you finally find the perfect journal you have spent hours trying to locate to be told you can’t access it unless you pay an extortionate amount of money.
However, there are several solutions to this increasingly prominent problem; such as, Unpaywall.org, Open Education Recourses and Open Access Mega Journals, which are placed under the term ‘Open Access’.
So, what is Open Access?
Although, open access seems like a notoriously obvious solution to a problem faced by so many, it does however come with both advantages and disadvantages.
Below I have created an Infographic using Venngage recommended by @S2Hewitt on Twitter.
For me, one of the biggest issues with Open Access is its ability to enable another user to republish your work without seeking permission (Tennant et al. 2016).
However, from the above discussion I was able to learn about the NON-PROFIT organisation ‘Creative Commons’ which if used in conjunction with Open Access would enable scientific research to be shared more openly and easily enabling new ideas and creations to happen (Gulley, 2013).
Having said that, I agree with several of the disadvantages outlined by Beall (2015) which are supported by Osbourne (2013) suggesting that while Open Access appears all kosher on the surface there are several hidden issues with the model disguised behind the masses of Internet pings in favour of it. While I agree with both sides of the argument I believe, it goes without saying that regardless of the many issues outlined there are however far more benefits and I agree with several points outlined by Shockey and Eisen (2012) in their YouTube video.
I think the metaphor below neatly sums up these opposing models.
Paywalls
vs
Open Access
Word count: 384
References
Beall, J. (2015) What the Open-Access Movemnet Doesn’t Want You To Know. Available at: https://www.aaup.org/article/what-open-access-movement-doesn’t-want-you-know#.WQ8mPhiZN0t (Accessed: 7 May 2017).
Gulley, N. (2013) ‘Creative Commons: challenges and solutions for researchers; a publisher’s perspective of copyright in an open access enviroment’, Insights, 26(2). Available at: http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:NQs4n_pFDHUJ:insights.uksg.org/articles/10.1629/2048-7754.107/galley/64/download/+&cd=8&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=uk&client=safari (Accessed: 7 May 2017).
Mayyasia, A. (2013) Why is Science Behind a Paywall. Available at: https://priceonomics.com/post/50096804256/why-is-science-behind-a-paywall (Accessed: 7 May 2017).
Osbourne, R. (2013) ‘Why open access makes no sense, The Guardian, 8 July. Available at: https://amp.theguardian.com/higher-education-network/blog/2013/jul/08/open-access-makes-no-sense (Accessed: 7 May 2017).
Right to Research (2010) The Problem: Students can’t access essential research. Available at: http://www.righttoresearch.org/learn/problem/index.shtml (Accessed: 7 May 2017).
Shockley, N. and Eisen, J. (2012) Open Access Explained. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L5rVH1KGBCY&t=4s (Accessed: 7 May 2017).
Tennant, J.P., Waldner, F., Jacques, D.C., Masuzzo, P., Collister, L.B. and Hartgerink, H.J.(2016) ‘The academic, economic and societal impacts of Open Access: an evidence-based review’, F1000Research, 5(632). Available at: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4837983/ (Accessed: 7 May 2017).
Tracz, V. and Lawrence, R. (2016) ‘Towards an open science publishing platform’, F100Research, 5(130). Available at: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4768651/ (Accessed: 7 May 2017).
Wiley. (2014) Understanding Open Access. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o2HMouOV-Lg&t=1s (Accessed: 7 May 2017).
Having pulled out all the stops for Topic 4 through my use of; Canva, Storyboard That, a Poll and Haiku Deck I was somewhat (optimistically) convinced I had explored almost all avenues of the ethical issues raised through using social media in education. However, I was astonished upon reading my colleagues work to realise I had merely scraped the surface!
Firstly, Carolina’s comment highlighted the issue of the boundaries between students and teachers on social media with regard the use of Facebook messenger as a means of communication when a student may feel uncomfortable discussing an issue face-to-face. In my subsequent reply, I suggested the use of email as a more appropriate means of online communication, a point supported by Wei Beh who in her blog post suggests the use of Facebook messenger “blurs the boundaries between personal and professional life”.
Furthermore, from my comment on Raziya’s blog post, I could come to the decision that such issue could be laid out in ‘social media’ guidelines which I once thought would be impossible to implement. A point which is also supported by Wei Beh in her blog post and influenced my change of heart.
My further comment on Rachel’s blog post offers further support for this decision, suggesting it is the teachers or companies responsibility to outline such guidelines to prevent unprofessional and inappropriate communication between students and teachers.
Finally, through reading the work of Wei Beh suggesting people may feel too self-conscious to share information on social media; supporting David Alderman’s point that “social media behaves as a tool for Mass Indiscriminate surveillance” and Festinger Comparison Theory brought to my attention by Eloaneo Rocha Semedo blog post, I solidified my conclusion made in Topic 3 that it is not ethical nor possible to keep your personal and professional life separate, evident through Nicholas Fairs ability to respond to a tweet from my professional Twitter account on my personal Twitter handle;
Professional
Personal
I feel a point made by Sharon Burgin in her blog post: “we could still end up on someone’s radar” neatly encapsulates my conclusion.
As discussed in Topic 1 the use of the Internet in everyday life is becoming increasingly prevalent thus it was arguably only a matter of time before social media became a part of education (Lauby, 2012).
The infographic I have created below using Canva neatly encapsulates these rather pervasive statistics.
#UOSM2008 is a prime example of how social media offers innovative learning both online and in the classroom (Henderson, Auld and Johnson, 2014) and in recent years the increasing use of social media has allowed teachers to deliver the somewhat ‘dull’ national curriculum in more exciting ways that engage those born after the digital immersion (The General Teaching Council for Scotland, 2001; Lawson, 2010). However, while many schools and companies are using ‘eLearning’ and social media to enhance their students and employee’s performance, such as; the Development Zone and Twitter, much like the concerns around separate personal and professional online identities discussed in Topic 2 and 3 there are a number of ethical issues raised by educational use of social media.
From a personal perspective I can testify to the many benefits afforded to education through the use of social media. However, I am also familiarised the many drawback it presents.
The Storyboard I have created below using Storyboard That illustrates just some of these issues. I have also Tweeted my storyboard with #ELHChallenge in an attempt to raise more awareness of these issues.
For myself – an inspiring young teacher. The most pressing ethical issue raised by the use of social media is the boundaries between the personal and professional relationships formed by students and teachers on social networking platforms such as befriending your students or teachers on Facebook (Laliberte, 2017). According to a survey by the NASWUT union one in five teachers have been subjected to abuse by their students on social media (NASUWT, 2016; Adams, 2014).
Furthermore, the case of Elizabeth Scarlett highlights the potential consequences that the misuse use of social media can have on your career. However, in mild cases I would argue that the use of social media does not warrant such extreme punishment. This is illustrated in the case of Katie Nash who was fired following alleged ‘banter’ with one of her pupils on Twitter.
I have created a poll as I do not think it was fair to fire Katie in these circumstances however maybe I’m too liberal and I would love to see your views.
I certainly know Mike Stuchbery does not share the same view as me (BBC, 20141).
In order to combat this rather pervasive issue ‘a code of conduct or legislation is needed’ (Association for Learning Technology, 2014; BBC, 20142). Having done PowToon and Prezi to death I have decided to create a Haiku Deck presentation highlighting some of the existing guidelines.
While there are a number of published guidelines readily disposable to students and teachers we cannot expect everyone to follow them due to the many different ethics and morals instilled within individuals. A prime example of this is the Katie Nash case in which it was alleged she did not feel guilty for her tweet.
Word count: 400
References
Adams, R. (2014) ‘One in five teachers abused online by parents and pupils, survey says’, The Guardian, 21 April. Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/education/2014/apr/21/teachers-abused-online-parents-pupils (Accessed: 26 March 2017).
Association for Learning Technology. (2014) Social media in education: ethical concerns. Available at: https://altc.alt.ac.uk/blog/2014/07/social-media-in-education-ethical-concerns/#gref (Accessed: 26 March 2017).
BBC. (20141) Banter ban Norfolk teacher Mike Stuchbery leaves Lynn Grove High School. Available at: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-norfolk-30222229 (Accessed: 26 March 2017).
BBC. (20142) Teachers need ‘clearer’ social networking rules, union say. Available at: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-26539243 (Accessed: 26 March 2017).
Henderson, M., Auld, G. and Johnson, N.F. (2014) Ethics of Teaching with Social Media. Paper presented at the Australian Computers in Education Confrence 2014, Adelaids, SA. http://acec2014.acce.edu.au/session/ethics-teaching-social-media.
Laliberte, R. (2017) Is Social Media Causing Innappropriate Teacher-Student Relationships? Available at: http://www.familycircle.com/teen/school/issues/teacher-student-relationships-social-media/ (Accessed: 26 March 2017).
Lauby, S. (2012) Ethics and Social Media: Where Should You Draw The Line? Available at: http://mashable.com/2012/03/17/social-media-ethics/#cdCjkuCLAiqq (Accessed: 26 March 2017).
Lawson, (2010) Ethics and Technology Use in Education. Available at: http://ethicsandtechnologyuseineducation.blogspot.co.uk (Accessed: 26 March 2017).
NASUWT. (2016) Social media abuse endemic in schools. Available at: https://www.nasuwt.org.uk/article-listing/social-media-abuse-endemic-in-schools-.html (Accessed: 26 March 2017).
Oxford University Press. (2017) e-learning. Available at: https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/us/e-learning (Accessed: 26 March 2017).
The General Teaching Council for Scotland. (2001) Professional Guidance on the Use of Electronic Communication and Social Media. Available at: http://www.gtcs.org.uk/web/FILES/teacher-regulation/professional-guidance-ecomms-social-media.pdf (Accessed: 26 March 2017).
Upon reflection of Topic 2 whereby I expressed deep concerns and strong views on the need to keep your personal and professional online identity separate, I have since through my own and subsequent reading of my colleagues work on Topic 3 come to the realisation that this is no longer possible nor helpful in anyway and to me is not accountable as an act of the creation of an authentic online professional identity. Oliver and I had a brief discussion about this on my blog post which first began the influence of my change in heart.
My comment on Charley’s post in which I drew the attention of Will’s post illustrates this too. My point was also supported by the Justine Sacco case I touched upon in my blog post and the number of other cases in which Eloane neatly illustrated within her Infographic. For which reason I have decided I will be deleting my ‘personal’ online accounts thus creating transparency through my online identity allowing prospective employers to see the ‘real’ me.
In order to do this I will use the Infographic below to completely eradicate all stupid and nonsensical Tweets and Facebook posts I have done in the past which may have been hindering my chances of getting a grad job.
Additionally, the YouTube video (I am sure you are all familiar with) below further exemplifies this.
Furthermore, through reading Sharon’s blog post I was able to learn how to better develop my LinkedIn profile and have created an Infographic below to illustrate the subsequent changes I have made.
I also found Rachel and Scott’s post very informative and the comparison to Snapchat/ elevation pitch has also enabled me to keep the information I have included on my LinkedIn profile short but informative.
While Carolina’s post expanded my limited knowledge of video resumes that Will and I touched upon in our discussion.
Finally, I would like to draw your attention to this quote I found through one of Rachel’s references; “We may have grown up with the Internet but many of us have failed to utilise it as part of our professional links”(Donnelly, 2014).
This quote is totally relevant to my comment on Louise’s post in which the issues of discrimination were discussed and our subsequent discussion lead us to both be completely perplexed by the discrimination against those digital ‘immigrants’, discussed in Topic 1, who were unable to find themselves a job through LinkedIn due to their age and supposed technical ability even though they had successful created themselves a professional online profile.
References
BBC News. (2017) Children interrupt BBC News interview. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mh4f9AYRCZY (Accessed: 19 March 2017).
Donnelly, D. (2014) Building your professional online profile. Available at: http://www.inspiringinterns.com/blog/2014/04/building-your-professional-online-profile/ (Accessed: 19 March 2017).
Stampler, l. (2014) This Infographic Shows How To Completely Erase Your Identity From The Internet. Available at: http://time.com/13002/this-infographic-show-how-to-completely-erase-your-identity-from-the-internet/ (Accessed: 19 March 2017).
With 77% of employers Googling prospective employees there has never been a better time to develop your online professional profile (Hoffman, 2017).
In Topic 2 both Philip and I touched upon the idea of having a different online personal and professional profile and how the differentiation plays dividends in a successful job application. But how can an authentic online professional profile be developed?
I propose the best way to answer this question is to start by defining ‘authentic’.
(Oxford University Press, 2017)
The question is; are you being ‘authentic’?
Use this authenticity checklist I have created using checkii to find out (Noble, 2017).
This screenshot from my authenticity checklist neatly encapsulates the fine line between being authentic and oversharing (Morin, 2016).
For more information, take a look at this informative YouTube video and subsequent web page.
According to Watkins (no date) your social networking should supplement and support your professional networking the arguably most significant aspect of your online presence.
Furthermore, the BBC (2013) suggests “you need to make sure that anything on social media that can be seen by a potential employer is going to help you get employed”.
Below is a good and bad example of this.
Fortunately for me my innocent and uncalculated Tweet had no consequences. However, the same cannot be said for Justine Sacco who lost her job following a series of ‘stupid’ Tweets (Ronson, 2015).
While Facebook and Twitter are proven and established networking sites with 83% of recruiters using the sites in their recruitment process (JobVite, 2014) they arguably fall under the ‘social’ category and thus the information we choose to share should be filtered in such a way that like Watkins said should ‘support’ our professional networking sites.
There are a number of professional networking platforms out there enabling you to build an authentic online professional profile (Lorang, 2011; Hunt, 2013).
An example of this can be seen below in my Tutora profile.
However, LinkedIn is a good starting point as it covers the basics of professionalism such as past employment and an opportunity to show off key employability skills. A profile can be tailored to a user’s specific requirements but can also be used to show off personal qualities and interests which allow the user to show a well-rounded picture of themselves in a professional platform (Watkins, no date).
Inspired by my research I have decided to set up my own LinkedIn profile using these 6 steps.
It’s not only LinkedIn and other online professional profile builders that can help you get a job. Blogging can too! Take a look at this presentation I have made using Canva to find out more.
Word count: 398
References
BBC (2013) Job hunting: How to promote yourself online. Available at: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-25217962 (Accessed: 12 March 2017).
Dekmezian (2016) Why Do People Blog? The Benefits of Blogging. Available at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/gary-dekmezian/why-do-people-blog-the-be_b_8178624.html (Accessed: 12 March 2017).
Harris (2014) Using social media in your job search. Available at: http://moocs.southampton.ac.uk/websci/2014/03/13/ill-tweet-job-spec-snap-cv/ (Accessed: 12 March 2017).
Hoffman (2017) Job Applicant, Beware: You’re Being Googled. Available at: https://www.monster.com/career-advice/article/hr-googling-job-applicants (Accessed: 12 March 2017).
Hunt (2013) 5 Best Apps to Build Your Online Professional Profile. Available at: https://socialmediaexplorer.com/social-media-marketing/5-best-apps-to-build-your-online-professional-profile/ (Accessed: 12 March 2017).
JobVite (2014) Social Recruiting Survey. Available at: https://www.jobvite.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/Jobvite_SocialRecruiting_Survey2014.pdf (Accessed: 12 March 2017).
Liubarets (2016) Top Blogging Statistics: 45 Reasons to Blog. Available at: http://writtent.com/blog/top-blogging-statistics-45-reasons-to-blog/ (Accessed: 12 March 2017).
Lorang (2011) 7 Free Sites for your Professional Online Profile. Available at: http://www.imagemediapartners.com/blog/bid/48836/7-Free-Sites-for-your-Professional-Online-Profile (Accessed: 12 March 2017).
Morin (2016) There Is A Clear Line Between Oversharing And Being Authentic –Here’s How To Avoid Crossing It. Available at: https://www.forbes.com/sites/amymorin/2016/10/22/there-is-a-clear-line-between-oversharing-and-being-authentic-heres-how-to-avoid-crossing-it/#4905ef6756e3 (Accessed: 12 March 2017).
Noble (2017) Truth Will Out – Why Authenticity is the Key to Growing Your Business. Available at: https://blog.kissmetrics.com/truth-will-out/ (Accessed: 12 March 2017).
Oxford University Press (2017) Authentic. Available at: https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/authentic (Accessed: 12 March 2017).
Ronson (2015) ‘How One Stupid Tweet Blew Up Justine Sacco’s Life’, The New York Times, 12 February. Available at: https://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/15/magazine/how-one-stupid-tweet-ruined-justine-saccos-life.html?_r=3 (Accessed: 12 March 2017).
Salma Jafri Media (2016) Are you being real and vulnerable or oversharing on social media?. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LOWopi7Fvn4 (Accessed: 12 March 2017).
Tapscott (2014) Five ways talent management must change. Available at: https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2014/10/don-tapscott-talent-management-millennials/ (Accessed: 12 March 2017).
The Employable (2014) How blogging can help you get a job. Available at: http://www.theemployable.com/index.php/2014/10/28/blogging-can-help-get-job/ (Accessed: 12 March 2017).
Watkins (no date) Developing Your Professional Online Identity. Available at: https://cstudies.ubc.ca/sites/cstudies.ubc.ca/files/cs/documents/program/tmap/Developing-Your-Professional-Online-Identity.pdf (Accessed: 12 March 2017).
Similarly, to Topic 1, my time on Topic 2 taught me a lot more than I had originally learnt myself and I was taken back by the many different avenues people had taken in their interpretation.
A particularly interesting contribution was made by Will who brought the notion of ‘identity play’ to my attention through his comment on my blog post. Will believes platforms such as Facebook limit the extent to which users are able to divulge in ‘identity play’ a point I believe Poole neatly encapsulates within his work. Christopher Poole founder of 4Chan designed the site as a simple anonymous image board (Russon, 2014) in which people could anonymously dabble in the creation of ‘memes’ and share other ‘harmless’ pictures an idea outlined in Howard (2017) work on ‘identity play’ proposed by Will and states it can be “a one-night holiday from your 9-5 personality”. Supporting my previously outlined idea of the importance of multiple online identities.
Furthermore, Bradley made a remarkable comparison to the Visitors and Residents Continuum in Topic 1 and my subsequent comment on his blog post allowed me to draw his attention to Oliver’s blog post who also discussed the notion in terms of a ‘scale’ something I myself had never thought of thus enabling me to learn something new while also being able to reflect on my position along the continuum.
I also commented on Emily’s post who drew my attention to the issue of a lack of global law stopping third parties accessing your information which made me question whether the issues are the inability to create global law or an issue with computing itself? Upon discussion with Emily it was clear her position remained with global law whereas I saw the issue as a mixture of both. However, I have since come across this article in which my opinion along with those of Emily’s has completely changed my stance.
Additionally, Caiti’s and Madeleine’s blog posts introduced me to the work of Goffman while Rachel’s comment on my blog post allowed to me understand that my use of my two Twitter accounts was not the best representation of my personal and professional online identity.
Overall, Topic 2 has opened my eyes to a number of other reasons of the importance of having multiple identities. I am aware of the benefits some of my colleagues have expressed for having a single identity however my stance remains very much the same and has been greatly enhanced by those mentioned within this reflection.
References
Howard, S.G. (2017) Identity Play. Available at: http://patterns.ideo.com/issue/identity_play/ (Accessed: 5 March 2017).
What is identity?
There is no single definitive definition of identity because of the endless parameters of its meta-physical state (Internet Society, 2011). However, the Oxford Dictionary suggests identity is “the characteristics that determine who or what a person or thing is” (Oxford University Press, 2017).
In the 21st Century, everything we do focuses around our online identity. In a social context our identity expresses everything about ourselves that our friends already know, our hobbies, interests and views on controversial news stories (Costa and Torres, 2011). However, there are some aspects of our personal life we wish to keep secret from our professional life which is where multiple online identities can help.
I certainly present myself differently online, evident through my two Twitter accounts – personal and professional. Through my professional twitter page, I focus on upholding a respectable image of my online presence, what I believe to be an advantage when applying for jobs. Whereas on my personal page I express myself as freely as I like and have built up an identity that I believe best represents myself.
My thinking behind this is neatly encapsulated in this YouTube video.
According to Acas (2013) 45% of businesses use social media as a screening tool in their recruitment process with a further 40% saying they would make more use of it. However, Landau (2013) suggests that a candidate’s social profile should not be used as a “trawling exercise”. This supports Christopher Poole who argues that people are multifaceted and true identity is “prismatic” (Chen, 2011). Our identity is tailored to our environment and censored on what we do and do not want people to know which is why I believe only having one online identity is impossible as there are many identities that make up who we are, and not just one as Zuckerberg suggests (Carmody, 2011). In other words, we have one true identity and many partial identities (Internet Society, 2011).
This is supported by the Japanese proverb which suggests we have three faces.
An example of the third face can be seen in the article below.
However, Zuckerberg and Poole, two of the most influential people in the debate fiercely disagree on the pros and cons of having more than one online identity. My PowToon illustrates their opposing arguments.
Below I have made an Infographic to discuss the many other arguments.
The starkest disadvantage of only having one online identity is clear, it prevents us from keeping separate the professional and the social. If Zuckerberg thinks this lacks integrity I would ask him to think of someone who acts exactly the same way at work as they do in a social setting. If the answer is nobody, then how can we expect our online identities to be any different?
Word count 406
References
Acas (2013). Is social media changing how employers recruit new talent? Available at: http://www.acas.org.uk/index.aspx?articleid=4478 (Accessed: 26 February 2017).
Carmody, T. (2011) You Are Not Your Name and Photo: A Call to Re-Imagine Identity. Available at: https://www.wired.com/2011/10/you-are-not-your-name-and-photo-a-call-to-re-imagine-identity/ (Accessed: 26 February 2017).
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Infographic
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For Topic 1 I was asked to; Explain the concept of digital “visitors” and “residents” – a concept in which I had no prior knowledge of I quickly found myself out of my depth. However, upon completion I felt I had gained a near perfect understanding of the concept and there was nothing more to learn… (said no one ever!)
I was shocked to see how I had merely scraped the surface within my blog and through reading the blogs of my fellow colleagues my depth of understanding was subsequently emphasized allowing me to gain a much broader scope of the topic.
Firstly, within Mary’s post she used her Twitter handle as an example of a person’s online identity something I had originally thought would be a perfect example, however upon further reading I began to question the parameter of a person’s residency status when privacy settings were maxed out. For example; when set to “only me” disabling the ability for a person to search for you within the platform are we really a “resident”? Mark Zuckerberg expressed the same concern suggesting is it really possible to identify as a resident when hiding your online identity (Zimmer, 2010). Such comment lead to further discussion with Mary and through following up on the link she sent it enabled me to gain a better understanding of this issue. Realizing that it is still possible to consider yourself a resident while merely choosing to protect your online identity (Goodwill Community Foundation, 2017).
Furthermore, another key learning point came from my comment on Patricia’s post in which I was able to further draw upon a point I had made with my blog and develop Patricia’s understanding of the Beetham and Sharpe (2010) ‘pyramid model’. The comment lead to a deeper understanding of the model for both of us and I was able to better understand the model as a process rather than the need to label myself as one of two categories, marking the move away from Prensky’s dichotomous notion of “natives” and “immigrants”.
My time on Topic 1 has opened my eyes to the complexities of the digital world however enabled me to gain a clearer more concise understanding on some rather tricky concepts through being able to discuss these issues in more details with my fellow colleagues.
UOSM 2008 Living and Working on the Web 