As to be expected, the beginning of the course was a lot about people getting to know each other and finding a relationship. A first and very positive finding was the video software Zoom. It works extremely well, even with 60 people attending a video conference and has lots of useful feature that work smoothly.
Otherwise, the first part of the course seems to be aimed at people who are not that well aquainted with the internet. The notion that there is an online and an offline world does not strike me as useful anymore, particularly in academia and in a course that is supposed about using online tools to help learning. I do not see how the concept of digital literacy differs from the concept of literacy. Anything written about it remains true (albeit a bit obvious), when the words digital and online are dropped from all statements. In the course literature, this is true, at best. There is the concept of a "digital identity", as if such a thing could be uniquely defined, anymore than that none of us has a unique identity in the first place and changes who they are depending on the circumstances.
An important topic that was touched upon are free licenses. After having had to become a copyright expert by editing Wikipedia, that was unfortunately not much new.
Another realization however was that while for me, the topic of openness online is intricately tied to free licenses and open source software, this is not so for other educators. In a way, this shouldn't come as a surprise, Lund University for example is just full of proprietary software. The faculty of science just bought licenses for the second alternative to moodle since I arrived. I'm not sure what will happen to the material on the old platform, but I guess it will burn.
Otherwise, the first part of the course seems to be aimed at people who are not that well aquainted with the internet. The notion that there is an online and an offline world does not strike me as useful anymore, particularly in academia and in a course that is supposed about using online tools to help learning. I do not see how the concept of digital literacy differs from the concept of literacy. Anything written about it remains true (albeit a bit obvious), when the words digital and online are dropped from all statements. In the course literature, this is true, at best. There is the concept of a "digital identity", as if such a thing could be uniquely defined, anymore than that none of us has a unique identity in the first place and changes who they are depending on the circumstances.
An important topic that was touched upon are free licenses. After having had to become a copyright expert by editing Wikipedia, that was unfortunately not much new.
Another realization however was that while for me, the topic of openness online is intricately tied to free licenses and open source software, this is not so for other educators. In a way, this shouldn't come as a surprise, Lund University for example is just full of proprietary software. The faculty of science just bought licenses for the second alternative to moodle since I arrived. I'm not sure what will happen to the material on the old platform, but I guess it will burn.
Hi Philipp,
AntwortenLöschenThanks for sharing! I think actually most participants in this course can be considered to have a fairly good idea about the digital/online world, but certainly not all have given much thought to all of what is being discussed here. For most users, even very advanced users of the internet, I believe it’s mostly something you DO, and not think much about. What seems totally obvious to you about digital literacies I think at least in part hits (some) people as something they have never thought about and find interesting and rewarding to spend some time exploring. It is also becoming an area of growing importance in that major operators (and even governments) manage to retrieve information about internet users in part due to users’ lack of awareness/precaution. As you say, the topic of openness certainly has its nuances – and after last year’s GDPR a few new were added to it (and yes, material on platforms out of operation should be screened out or filed away according to the National Archives’ regulations). I hope you will find more of a challenge in coming topics!
Interesting, I don't recall ever getting a memo about the national archives' regulations. I should probably look into that.
LöschenHi, agree with you with regards to conceptualizations of literacies and identities; I had similar concerns in my blog post. Well, every course needs to start somewhere... I think my next subtopic, 'open' vs. 'closed' education for Topic 2 is slightly more interesting :-)
AntwortenLöschenYes, I saw your blogspot and found it spot on, very much on point. I even commented, but either I failed sending it or it didn't make it throught the spam filter.
LöschenI would love to hear about how social media has formulated digital identity which is sometimes unique and authentic, and sometimes quite manufactured to highlight an image or personal utopia of sorts. Can you curate digital identity - talking in terms of openness and identity?
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