Month: September 2020

We’ve all heard the word identity, or the term “secret identity”, often used to refer to the person behind a super hero’s persona. We can take Superman and Clark Kent as an example of this. Clark Kent is Superman, and Superman is Clark Kent, but these characters seem to be separate people to the general public.

We can see digital identity in a similar light. Our digital identity is how we represent ourselves online, which can be very different from how we act offline. Jawed, Mahboob, and Yasmeen’s article (2019) defines digital professional identity as a “professional identity which develops through internet-based social interactions by utilizing online platforms and communication tools”. 

Now much like the fictional characters we all have heard of, we too can create our own secret identities or personas to cover up our real identities. One advantage of interacting on social media platforms is that we can be as anonymous as we choose to be. Our actions on social media build up personas for each separate account.

I have a lot of experience with this sort of situation as I do livestreams online and I have a rather large following that doesn’t even know what I look like. Additionally I don’t go by my first name on my public account. On the other side of things, my personal account mentions nothing about me having this public persona. I share things on one account that I would never share on the other. 

That being said, people have to be careful what they post and where they post it. As mentioned in the Mahboob et al., (2019) article, not having a face to match to your online presence means some people may feel more inclined to bully others, as the target likely doesn’t know who is behind the account.  The way you behave on the internet can be kept secret to an extent, but that doesn’t mean people shouldn’t be careful what they do on the internet. Even the most personal and supposedly most protected information can be revealed. If your real identity is revealed to be linked to accounts that behave maliciously, this could affect your employment status or likelihood of being employed in the future. 

Additionally, the way you behave online also affects what is shown to you. As mentioned in my previous blog post, algorithms can essentially figure you out and advertise different things based on what you say and what you interact with online, which can limit what you’re able to access in networked publics.

With all this in mind, we are able to create new identities online that can greatly differ from one another. However, we should always be careful online, as there is the risk of anonymous accounts no longer being anonymous, and our different personas all being linked to one another. Basically if all these identities are discovered to be linked to one person, that means if we behave poorly in real life or on any of these accounts, the person behind these accounts could receive great backlash both online and in real life. To put it simply, even if we create different personas, no matter how anonymous they are, we should be careful about what we say.

References

Mahboob, U., Jawed, S., & Yasmeen, R. (2019). Digital professional identity: Dear Internet! Who am I? Education for Health, 32(1), 33. Retrieved from http://web.a.ebscohost.com.ezproxy.library.uvic.ca/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?vid=1&sid=39e42f65-1a93-4d35-9450-0dfa15be47a8%40sdc-v-sessmgr02

Not mentioned in this blog post

Spracklen, K. (2015). Identity-Making and Social Media. Digital Leisure, the Internet and Popular Culture, 94-112. Retrieved from https://link-springer-com.ezproxy.library.uvic.ca/book/10.1057%2F9781137405876

Stoller, E. (2016). What is Digital Identity? [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u0RryRbJza0&feature=youtu.be

World Economic Forum. (2019). The Value of Digital Identity for the Global Economy and Society [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1-V7lyxrOmw

Everyone has a unique Personal Learning Network made up of people and resources both online and offline that are essential for learning and understanding new information. With technology becoming increasingly essential in our daily lives, the usefulness of the online parts of our learning networks also become essential. In fact, many people use technology as a main part of their profession, whether it’s in computer sciences, design, or teaching. It is also useful in getting a job, as websites like indeed.com have become easy ways to find future employers/employees. In fact, that is how I found my current job.

With Covid-19, the use of technology has become extremely important and the switch from in-person to online teaching, working, and simply living means we must rely on the online parts of our learning networks more than ever. We are learning how to live, work, and learn remotely, which would be incredibly difficult without online resources.

Networking using social media is something most people do on a daily basis. Through applications like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and YouTube, we can retrieve information from messages, posts and videos, and we can also connect with other people that can help us learn new things. Social media is a huge part of PLN’s as it breaks barriers, allowing for people to gather information from all over the world.

Learning and engaging using online platforms has become incredibly easy for the most part. Some websites are made for simply sharing information and having one-way connections where the user learns from the creator’s media. A prime example of this is YouTube videos. Although the platform is made mostly for entertainment, it is also a great place to find videos on topic you want to learn about. On the other end, people can teach to a much larger audience by creating and uploading these videos. Online platforms can also be used for two-way communication and learning. Many of us have used FaceTime or Skype so talk to people from a distance. Applications like these have become increasingly useful in learning. The application Zoom is one that the majority of students know about or have used in online learning environments recently. The application is an easy way to have a typical classroom environment, where the teacher teaches to the entire class all at the same time, but can also tell people to break up into groups and collaborate and share ideas with one another. The only difference is that everyone is learning remotely, but they still learn the way one would learn in the classroom. This allows for everyone to be safe during this pandemic but still learn what they would have learned had this pandemic not occured.

Although we have had the technology necessary to network online to learn for many years now, it has only become frequently used in learning environments recently. This could simply be because the technology that we use now is much more streamlined and the ease of use isn’t something that would have been possible 20 years ago. For many, the main reason why they prefer gathering information from the internet is because it is much more convenient than finding the information they need through physical media like books. The difference between trying to find a book with the information you need by going to a book store or library and looking it up online in the comfort of your own home is one that motivates many people to do everything online. Even buying groceries can be done online and is much more convenient. In some situations we can’t leave the house and those are our only options for learning, and if we could choose between looking for a book on a specific topic by going to libraries to see if there might be a book on the topic or looking up the information online or simply looking up a book on the topic and ordering it, the obvious choice would be the latter.

The rewards of public communications are obvious, as we gain more information in whatever way we choose through whatever means possible and we connect with others who may share the same interests and can therefore become a part of our learning network. However, the internet can be incredibly unsafe. As Boyd’s (2012) post explains, our data and privacy is networked. A breach in our privacy can be a breach in another person’s privacy. Boyd explained how services like 23 and me are a prime example of this. You may learn a lot about your heritage, but in doing so you learn information about your relatives and ancestors, and possibly information they don’t want you to know about or don’t even know about themselves. Knowing this, we have to be careful about what we do online, as it could put us or someone else in danger.

Overall, our personal learning networks are changing to become dominated by online media, which can be incredibly useful and essential in learning and growing as a person and in our profession. Social media is an easy way to not only gather information, but to connect with more people who could also share key information in our learning. Online media is generally much easier to access across the globe in comparison to physical media, which means we are more inclined to rely on online resources.

References:

Boyd, D. (2012). Networked Privacy. Surveillance & Society, 10(3/4), 348-350. Retrieved from https://ojs.library.queensu.ca/index.php/surveillance-and-society/article/view/networked/networked

Gutierrez, K. (2016). What are Personal Learning Networks? Retrieved from https://www.shiftelearning.com/blog/personal-learning-networks

Krakoff, S. (n.d.). The Importance of Networking. Retrieved from https://online.champlain.edu/blog/importance-of-networking

Rajagopal, K., Brinke, D. J., Bruggen, J. V., & Sloep, P. B. (2012). Understanding personal learning networks: Their structure, content and the networking skills needed to optimally use them. First Monday, 17(1). Retrieved from https://firstmonday.org/ojs/index.php/fm/article/view/3559/3131

University of Southampton. (n.d.). What is a Personal Learning Network (PLN)? Retrieved from https://www.futurelearn.com/courses/learning-network-age/0/steps/24644