Intro Topic – Notes and Information
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Introductory Topic
This as an opportunity to get into the swing of how the module works and familiarise yourself with the learning cycle, the deadlines and the self-assessment and feedback system.
You will NOT be formally assessed on this topic, but you will get detailed individual feedback in exactly the same way as you will for the assessed topics 1 ā 3.Ā Ā
Hints and Tips
Getting Started
Begin by taking this short self-test of your current digital literacy levels. It will give you a basis from which to start thinking/writing from…
Word Limits
The word limit (300 words) for your initial posts is almost impossibly low if you want to address the topic in enough depth. So……you will have to try to find alternative, engaging, visual ways to communicate your key ideas. See the Tools & Tips section for some starter software.Ā Section 2.7 of the MOOC introduces you to some more later in the course.
Archive
You should look back through the āArchiveā section of the module blog to see the work students have created for this course in previous years (though bear in mind that the structure of the module and the questions posed are slightly different this time – and not all the blogs are of the same quality….!)
The Topic
Background –
The notion of ādigital nativesā (young people who have grown up in the digital world and hence are expert users of technology) is often contrasted in the popular press with ādigital immigrantsā (older people who struggle to master these new norms and behaviours).
Digging a little deeper, however, tends to show that there is both expertise (and a lack of it) *at all age groups*.
And just because people might be proficient users of technology for social purposes, it does not necessarily follow that they are effective at using it for learning or to build their professional digital profiles.
This is where the Digital āResidentsā and āVisitorsā framework adds more value over and above the simplistic and over-hyped ādigital nativeā ideas.
Task ā
Draw upon the results of your Self-test and the concept of Digital Visitors and Residents to evaluate your current digital literacies and online behaviours, in an introductory blog post.
The sources below are a good place to start. However, you should also explore this topic using sources you find, including any you uncover containing recent critiques of and enhancements to these theories.
Make sure you give your post a CATEGORY of āIntroductory Topicā so that all the posts will be displayed together under this heading – see this post for more details.
Deadline for posting your answer to the set question is 4pm Monday 12th Feb 2018.
If you have any questions, please ask! And if you find useful additional resources on this topic to share with the group, please do so via twitter using #UOSM2008
Starter Sources –
White, D. S., & Cornu, A. L. (2011).Ā Visitors and Residents: A new typology for online engagement.Ā First Monday,Ā 16(9).
A short blog postĀ from Oxford University, gives a nice summary of the visitors and residents idea.
Our own researchĀ (a few years old now) into the visitors and residents debate
The Net Generation, Unplugged, an article fromĀ The Economist (Mar 4th, 2010), shows that the debate is ten years old already!
You may find this mapping tool useful/interesting, courtesy of JISC (2014).
