Post #23 – where footprints (digital and otherwise) are considered…
In a recent post I wrote about tracks and the marks we might leave on our learning journey. The focus of that post was of physical things and tangible artefacts, but what about the digital footprint we leave? This extension (part two?) of that post is in response to that question (conveyed by a reader) and I think it’s an important one…
While our physical legacy is an easily observable one, what of the trails we leave in the digital world/landscape? I guess these are legion – think of all those online applications and services we use and where we go on the web. Most of what we do online is collected and stored in a database somewhere. This data is often used to analyse our interests and preferences and can provide us with more relevant and targeted information that generally encourages us to buy stuff. This data is also used to collect our statistics on things such as friends, tweets, photos, videos, profile/demographics, etc. Our students also need to be aware of this, they leave digital trails in systems at university as well as elsewhere in the internet. What do these trails tell us about them? Do we have a due diligence to encourage students (and colleagues) to use something like an ePortfolio to manage and curate their evidence of learning (outcomes) and reflect on their learning journeys? I suggest an ePortfolio here in the context of it being able to aggregate the range of different artefacts that may exists across the web. A place where a personal (learning) narrative might be presented.
I took the photo below in Niger which is a poor and very sandy country. What surprised me about this image was that most of the prints were made by bare feet. There is no intermediary between the foot and the ground. You can feel the texture of the sand under you foot and between your toes, and the heat of the earth through your sole – a direct connection. Does our digital footprint, while giving something away of ourselves, also mediate between the viewer and our real selves? Our digital persona is not our ‘real’ self, it’s a portrayal. Maybe that’s a good thing, but I also think it can be a hinderance to authentic relationships. While aspects of the digital learning environment can facilitate good learning through consumption, communication, and creation, how well do we really connect and collaborate?
How do you mediate the digital between yourself and your students?
Footprints in the sand
Word of the Day is, ‘droke’ – steep sided valley (Canada)
Tags: blogjune
Great question