Overview
Welcome to Unit 4! In previous units, you’ve been introduced to the world of digital literacies and learned how to use various tools for organizing and connecting ideas. You have started to build a workflow to help you learn more effectively and have applied the critical skill of metacognition to explain your process for learning.
Now, let’s dive into the next phase of our learning journey.
In the second half of the course, you will continue to build your digital skills and apply critical thinking to document your learning process. Our focus will shift from creating a personal collection of ideas to presenting your learning in a more open platform. It’s important to emphasize that you will decide how public you want this to be. We’ll also explore the significance of knowledge sharing and examine user-friendly methods to do so while maintaining control over your work and addressing privacy concerns.
As you begin this unit, take a moment to reflect on your academic and professional goals as they relate to digital literacy. Consider which digital tools you’d like to explore, and reflect on how your online contributions can not only benefit your own growth, but also contribute positively to others.
Topics
This unit is divided into the following topics:
- Personal Learning Environments
- Building a Learning Blog
- My Digital Footprint
- Evaluating Digital Tools
Unit Learning Outcomes
When you have completed this unit you will be able to:
- Create a personalized narrative to document and express your learning process
- Examine your digital footprint and develop a positive digital online identity
- Evaluate digital tools, platforms, and interactions based on ethical principles
- Critically evaluate the affordances and restraints of digital tools and platforms
- Identify the digital skills needed in your field of study
- Describe how to protect yourself and other students and colleagues to stay safe in the digital environment
- Practice evaluative judgment to document your process of learning in complex domains of knowledge
Learning Activities
Here is a list of learning activities that will benefit you in completing this unit. You may find it useful for planning your work.
Assessment
See the Assessment section in Moodle for assignment details.
Resources
- All resources will be provided online in the unit.
Tip: Remember to continuously add resources to your Zotero library that align with your learning goals.
4.1 Personal Learning Environments
This unit aims to guide you in creating your Learning Blog, the central component of your personal learning environment (PLE). Blog posts serve as reflections on your learning journey and facilitate networking with peers. Your blog also provides your instructor with valuable insights into your course engagement and learning process. Ultimately, the goal of a PLE is to put the learner at the centre of the online learning environment.
So What is a Personal Learning Environment?
A Personal Learning Environment (PLE) is a system or setup that individuals create to manage their own learning processes. It includes tools, resources, and strategies that support learning in various contexts. Below are categories and examples: Next, explore the descriptions below that provide examples of a PLE.
Here are a some definitions of PLEs for your consideration:
Personal Learning Environments [are] systems that help learners take control of and manage their own learning. This includes providing support for learners to set their own learning goals, manage their learning; managing both content and process, communicate with others in the process of learning, and thereby achieve learning goals. A PLE may be composed of one or more sub-systems: As such it may be a desktop application, or composed of one or more web-based services. (van Harmelen, 2007, as cited in Edutech Wiki, 2014, Definitions, para. 2)
As described by Casteneda et al.,
A Personal Learning Environment is … a structure and process that helps learners organize the influx of information, resources and interactions that they are faced with on a daily basis into a personalized learning space or experience. In a PLE, the learner develops an individualized digital identity through the perceptual cues and cognitive affordances that the personal learning environment provides, such as what information to share and when, who to share it with, and how to effectively merge formal and informal learning experiences. (Castañeda et al., 2017, para. 2)
Which aspects of the two definitions do you find most meaningful? How do you structure your daily interactions and manage the flow of information? In what ways do you communicate your learning experiences to others? Lastly, what specific goals are you aiming to accomplish through your learning journey?
4.1.1 Activity: What is a PLE?
4.1.2 Activity: Visualizing Your Personal Learning Environment?
4.2 Building a Learning Blog
In the next activity, you will gain firsthand experience in using blog technology for publishing your own website. You will “declare” yourself online using your PLE as an alternative to posting an introduction in a closed course forum typically used in a conventional online course. Note that TWU online courses often use Moodle Discussion Forums to facilitate conversations. By using a platform such as WordPress you can retain the contents of your posts as well as the comments of your peers. In a learning management system (LMS) such as Moodle you may lose access to what you have posted in discussions, and more importantly, conversations with your peers. As you create your personal blog in WordPress (or your own selective blog site), you control your data and who can see it.
You will retain control of your data and learning outputs generated during this online course, even after the course is completed. You get to choose:
The blog service you would like to use, although we recommend WordPress as it is supported by TWU
Whether to accept comments on your blog from your peers
Whether to register your blog for the aggregated course feed so that any posts tagged with the course code (LDRS101) will be harvested for the feed
A key teaching philosophy of this course is to embed the acquisition of new digital literacies into your learning journey. Knowledge of how to use the internet and social media technologies will better prepare you for life in a digital world. If this is your first time blogging, you should spend time setting up your personal digital learning environment. Please remember that your learning blog and the social media technologies you use on this course are public, and that you take full responsibility for anything you publish. Do not disclose any confidential information and respect the privacy of others. In short, don’t say anything that you would not want to read on the internet.
4.2.1 Activity: Setting up Your Learning Blog
4.3 My Digital Footprint
Now that you have created your learning blog and introduced yourself online let’s take a closer look at the information about you available on the internet. Imagine if potential employers were to search for you online. What would they discover, and what would you prefer them to find? As we examine online identities in this topic, we will ask you to consider how you can improve your digital identity in support of your online learning, as well as future employment prospects.
First, let’s clarify some key terms.
We need to distinguish between the technical and human elements of online identity. In this course we are more interested in the human side of online identity, but in part, this is determined by how technology automates the process of building your digital footprint.
Digital identity refers to the information utilized by computer systems to represent external entities, including a person, organization, application, or device. When used to describe an individual it encompasses a person’s compiled information and plays a crucial role in automating access to computer-based services, verifying identity online, and enabling computers to mediate relationships between entities. Digital identity for individuals is an aspect of a person’s social identity and can also be referred to as online identity. (“Digital Literacy,” 2024, July 28)
Digital footprint or digital shadow refers to one’s unique set of traceable digital activities, actions, contributions, and communications manifested on the internet or digital devices. Digital footprints can be classified as either passive or active. The former is composed of a user’s web browsing activity and information stored as cookies. The latter is often released deliberately by a user to share information on websites or social media. While the term usually applies to a person, a digital footprint can also refer to a business, organization or corporation. (“Digital Footprint,” n.d.)
4.3.1 Activity: What Is a Digital Footprint?
4.3.2 Activity: Who Am I Online … and Why Should I Care?
4.3.3 Activity: Digital Footprint Audit
4.3.4 Activity: Blog: My Digital Footprint
4.4 Evaluating Digital Tools
So far in Unit 4, you have created a learning blog in WordPress, explored your social media platforms, and used a range of other tools such as Zotero, Discourse, Obsidian, and more.
As we step into this new topic, we encourage you to engage in a critical examination of the online tools you use or are interested in. Beyond the basic considerations of functionality and user friendliness, we invite you to assess digital tools, platforms, and interactions through the lens of ethical principles.
So how do we evaluate technology on ethical principles? Here are some guiding questions from Ethical EdTech:
Guiding Questions
- Where does power lie, and where are we expected to place our trust?
- To whom is it accessible—for instance, in terms of usability and cost?
- Does it lock us into closed, commercial systems or invite us into open communities?
- Does it give us more control over the learning process, or does it cede that control?
- Does it respect and protect our privacy appropriately?
- Can we access, study, and modify the underlying code or design?
- Who owns the infrastructure and our usage data? Does it produce private profit or public commons?
These crucial questions highlight the importance of privacy, data ownership, and accessibility. What other questions would you ask to ensure a tech tool is ethical?
4.4.1 Activity: What Are My Criteria?
4.4.2 Activity: Evaluate a Digital Tool
Summary
In this unit you have had the opportunity to learn about your personal learning environment and build your presence on the web using a blog. You’ve examined your digital footprint and reflected on your online identity—what it is now, and where you want it to be. You’ve also had an opportunity to evaluate digital tools and their ethical implications, and to consider what tools will help you academically and personally. As you continue with the last two units of the course we want to encourage you to examine your purpose in using technology, as well as how your contributions online can benefit others.