A response to the website Digital Footprints – Digital Identities in Interesting Spaces.
Reflection + Internet = Digital Identity.
How does that work I hear you say? If you watch the Youtube video on the website, Adhikari (2011) explains why he feels empathy is a crucial link in learning and teaching digital literacy.
So a digital identity, according to Adhikari (2011), is a bridge between our physical and online lives. When something is noticed in the online world, it can have no effect on the individual. Adhikari (2011) argues you need to find a shared value for it to have an effect. This empathy is found by sharing values and ideas on the Internet, as part of a digital identity, to find other interested people and engage in meaningful conversations. For education, this means being able to present a digital identity to find other teachers who may be able to help you toward your goal.
So does it work? After watching the video, I took Abhay’s advice and added @goldpass on Twitter. Within five minutes, he had mentioned me in a tweet saying he was interested in what I was doing and would I want to chat. Within the hour I was having a video Skype call with him, discussing the issue of empathy and what we want to achieve as educators. The only bad point about this was the defective Skype connection.
What did I learn about this? I made an equation based on Adhikari (2011):
@goldpass + writing an assignment = interesting conversation on education
So as educators, we need to focus on improving what students are putting out there on the Internet. By linking this with empathy, it gives students the skills to read and respond to the multitude of conversations that exist in the online world for the values that they share. A digital identity then becomes an effective tool for members of the online community.
Jimmy Cassidy
Reference List
Adhikari, A. (2011). Digital identities in interesting spaces. Retrieved from http://www.dhyaandesign.com/blog/2011/09/19/digital_identity_project/
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteThanks for posting this – the video gave me so much to consider! What Adhikari (2011) proposes seems more than a little daunting – probably because I am an introvert offline and tend limit my online interactions as well. It seems to me that he is asking us to meld our online and offline selves - to define our hopes, aspirations and goals and then whack them out there for the whole online world to scrutinize – I am not sure if this is a method of self reflection and growth or a bizarre form of punishment! (Perhaps I am being a little melodramatic but my reclusive instincts have kicked in!)
ReplyDeleteI just went back and watched the video again – I am not sure how Adhikari (2011) managed to pack so many pearls of wisdom into what at first glance appears to be a very casual five minute visual chat. The way I understand it, he is asking us all to make our online identities more real by reflecting on how we present ourselves. The internet is now a big part of our lives and it makes sense that we start to take our online identities seriously. I now have to realise that my online and offline should not be separate but reflective aspects of myself.
Adhikari (2011) gave a call out to Educators to consider Digital Literacy and how it can be incorporated into curriculum – teaching ourselves and our students to reflect on the information we are adding to the internet. I needed to create my own algorithm of digital literacy to try and organise what was raised in the video. This is the way I understand Digital Literacy as indicated by Adhikari (2011)
Digital Literacy = operational computer skills + communication skills +
Reflection (empathy + self awareness + hopes and dreams)
Lots to think about!
Tricia de G