Exploring digital literacies with our students means that we must we willing to reflect on our own digital practices and digital identity/identities. This presentation describes how an undergraduate module for IT students was designed and structured so that students could explore, develop and reflect on digital literacies, digital identity and related issues such as privacy and authenticity in networked publics.

1. Image CC BY-NC-ND 2.0 Frederic Poirot
Enacting Digital Identities
Catherine Cronin • @catherinecronin • #pelc13 • 11/04/13

2. @catherinecronin
slideshare.net/cicronin

3. REFLECT
digital identity
SHARE
CT231 experiences
DISCUSS
practices & resources
CC images: Frederic Poirot, EoinGardiner, Susan NYC

4. REFLECT
digital identity
SHARE
CT231 experiences
DISCUSS
practices & resources
CC images: Frederic Poirot, EoinGardiner, Susan NYC

5. #pelc11
@simfin @sharonlflynn & @boyledsweetie
CC images: foto_mania. catherinecronin

7. Image CC BY-NC 2.0 owaie89
“More change will happen in
education in the next 10 years
than in the past 100.”
-- @stephenheppell

8. Summer 2011
Coder Dojo 1st xMOOC Google+
#CoderDojo Coursera,
#DojoCon Udacity, edX
xMOOCs / cMOOCs

9. digital literacies
social media
digital identity

10. definition of
digital literacies
Knowledge of digital tools
Critical thinking
Social engagement
Definition by Tabetha Newman, adapted by Josie Fraser
http://fraser.typepad.com/socialtech/2012/03/digital-literacy-practice.html

11. 8 essential elements of
digital literacies
1. Cultural 5. Confident
2. Cognitive 6. Creative
3. Constructive 7. Critical
4. Communicative 8. Civic
Definition by Doug Belshaw
http://dougbelshaw.com/blog/2012/03/10/tedxwarwick-the-essential-elements-of-digital-literacies/

12. Image: corners311

13. It is wrong to say “IRL” to mean
offline: Facebook is real life.
Nathan Jurgenson (2012)
The IRL Fetish

14. ...our reality is both technological and
organic, both digital and physical, all at once.
We are not crossing in and out of separate
digital and physical realities, a la The
Matrix, but instead live in one reality, one that
is augmented by atoms and bits.
Nathan Jurgenson (2011)
@nathanjurgenson
Digital Dualism versus Augmented Reality

15. “If institutions of learning are going to help
learners with the real challenges they face...
[they] will have to shift their focus from
imparting curriculum to supporting the
negotiation of productive identities
through landscapes of practices.”
Etienne Wenger
SRHE Conference 2010 Knowledgeability in Landscapes of Practice
in deFreitas & Jameson, Eds. (2012) The e-Learning Reader
CC BY-NC-SA 2.0 choconancy1

16. REFLECT
digital identity
SHARE
CT231 experiences
DISCUSS
practices & resources
CC images: Frederic Poirot, EoinGardiner, Susan NYC

17. CT231 – Professional Skills
Search & Research Digital & Social Media
• search Communication • digital identity
• filters • privacy
• sources • writing • social bookmarks
• referencing & linking • presenting • social networks
• copyright & Creative • publishing • Personal
Commons • curating Learning
• teams/communities Networks (PLNs)
ct231.wordpress.com
CC images: KayVee.INC, Susan NYC, Jason A. Howie

18. Meaningful learning occurs with
knowledge construction, not reproduction;
conversation, not reception;
articulation, not repetition;
collaboration, not competition;
& reflection, not prescription.
Jonassen, et al (2003)
Learning to solve problems with technology: a constructivist perspective

25. Howard Rheingold
@hrheingold
rheingold.com
Image: CC BY 2.0 joi

26. danah boyd
@zephoria
danah.org
networked publics
space constructed the imagined collective
through which emerges
networked technologies (people + tech + practice)
Image: CC BY-NC 2.0 Roo Reynolds

27. Bonnie Stewart
@bonstewart
theory.cribchronicles.com
digital identities
6 Key Selves of Networked Publics:
• Performative Self
• Quantified Self
• Participatory Self
• Asynchronous Self
• Enmeshed Self
• Neoliberal Self
Image: uvenus.org

28. CT231: Twitter usernames (n=46)
Other name
17%
Exact name
37%
“Nearly” name
46%

29. CT231: Twitter profile pictures (n=46)
Photo (self)
Egg 26%
35%
Photo (group)
11%
Avatar
28%

30. Identity construction involves
identity play!
Image CC BY-NC 2.0 maria clara de melo

31. Image CC BY-NC-SA 2.0 Ed Yourdon

35. #icollab

37. privacy
CC BY-NC-SA 2.0 Frank
Wuestefeld

38. #studentvoice
Privacy
“Nowadays people have to be extremely careful
with the information they put on the internet
because they never know who is reading it.
On social network you have to be careful with
who you follow, who follows you, and who your
friends are.”

39. Image CC BY-NC-ND Will Foste

40. #studentvoice
Privacy
“On Facebook it gives very little information on me
as my profile is private to unknown persons.
My Twitter account will show a purely educational
social aspect, as I only joined Twitter when we
started using it in conjunction with our subject.
My YouTube account is completely anonymous as
my username has no connection to my actual
name.”

41. #studentvoice
Social Media
“Before studying it, I used Facebook and Twitter
mainly just for keeping in contact with people,
but since have discovered they both have much
more to offer. They are places to discover new
information and boost your knowledge. That both
education and socialising can be rolled into
one, and you can discover so much about people in
the world by just following them.”

42. #studentvoice
Social Media
“I have learnt that social media/social networks are
not just to be used as a distraction for not getting
work done but can be used as an aid to get the work
done. Social media/social networks can provide
useful tools to help with academic learning.”

44. Different contexts have
different legitimacy practices
Academic Learning Networked Learning
product-focused process-focused
institutionally-directed self-directed
mastery participation
bounded by time/space always accessible
hierarchical ties peer-to-peer ties
plagiarism crowdsourcing
authority in role authority in reputation
audience = teacher audience = world
CC BY-NC-SA Bonnie Stewart Digital Identities: Who Are We in a Networked Public?

45. 3 tenets of my teaching
openness • social media • student voice/choice

46. openness • social media • student voice/choice
AIM:
choose openness
where possible & where appropriate
USE open resources
CREATE create to share, CC-licensed
SHARE openly, including my/our own learning

47. openness • social media • student voice/choice
AIM:
enable connection and learning
across the (artificial) boundaries
of time and space
TIME... class time, term time, academic year
SPACE... classrooms, labs, desks, buildings

48. openness • social media • student voice/choice
AIM:
use as many opportunities as possible
for students to Choose & to Create
TOPICS ASSESSMENT
MEDIA RUBRICS
TOOLS ...

49. REFLECT
digital identity
SHARE
CT231 experiences
DISCUSS
practices & resources
CC images: Frederic Poirot, EoinGardiner, Susan NYC

50. Learners need to practice and experiment with
different ways of enacting their identities, and
adopt subject positions through different social
technologies and media.
These opportunities can only be supported by
academic staff who are themselves engaged
in digital practices and questioning their own
relationship with knowledge.
- Keri Facer & Neil Selwyn (2010)

51. How much of your digital identity do you
share with your students?
How does using social & participatory media
change power relations between students
and teachers/lecturers, if at all?
What are the biggest challenges
in using social media in formal education,
for students, for educators, for institutions?

52. Thank you!
Catherine Cronin
@catherinecronin
slideshare.net/cicronin
about.me/catherinecronin