agnieszkagrzesiuk

Source: i.ytimg.com I must admit that I have waited for this topic with interest to see what other people have to say about free/open access and I was not disappointed. I enjoyed reading posts discussing a range of valid arguments for and against making content freely available online. A few students highlighted restricted access as an important factor of persisting inequalities in education and science, including software programming (Tom) and medicine (Shriya). Continue reading →

In this post, ‘content’ is understood as original work, whether scientific, artistic creation or other digital informational goods. There are a few different types of free online content and their advantages and disadvantages for a content producer are discussed below. OER and edutainment Open education resources (OER) are also called ‘open content’. Continue reading →

When I started researching for topic 4, I could only think about a few ethical issues relating to the use of social media in business and education that are also relevant to other uses of social media. Reading of my peers’ posts helped me realise that the range of issues in these two areas is much broader. They extend from legal implications to social and cultural factors. Continue reading →

According to the sociocultural learning theory, people learn through social interaction. Social media are a technological tool that can support learning and provide space for student-teacher and peer-to-peer collaboration, communication and participation (Sobaih et al, 2016). Figure1 presents elements involved in use of social media activities in education. Figure1. Social media in education. Source: Sobaih et al (2016), p.298. Continue reading →

After having done some research, we all agreed that there are a few compulsory activities for a person who seriously thinks about creating their own online brand. These are: presence on LinkedIn (a leading network site, according to research), blogging, being active on professional networks or community websites (such as Stack Overflow for programmists, mentioned by Clayton). That’s what my state of knowledge was when I was writing my topic 3 post. Continue reading →

The importance of a good authentic online profile in an individual’s professional life was briefly discussed in topic 2. Continue reading →

At the beginning of the discussion about online identities, I was very undecided where I am standing in regard to creating my own. The modules I took during my degree course (Web Science) equipped me with knowledge that made me cautious and reluctant about any kind of excessive online presence, in particular building a comprehensive and detailed single online identity which would include lots of identifiers. Continue reading →

We hear a lot about ‘online identity’, ‘constructing online identity’, ‘identity theft’ and ‘identity and privacy’. But what is actually identity? Smith&Watson (2014) define identity as ‘a set of components of personhood’ (p.82), such as demographic characteristics, and note that ‘I’ is constructed and reflexive, both online and offline. However, online identity is not simply an extension of our offline selves. Continue reading →

In Topic 1 we investigated and discussed some of the existing typologies of the Internet users. We focused on White’s typology of ‘residents’ and ‘visitors’ that he has contrasted with Prensky’s categories of ‘digital immigrants’ versus ‘digital natives’. Continue reading →

The White and Cornu’s (2011) ‘visitors and residents’ typology is based on different styles of using the Internet, the Web in particular, by individuals. The authors of the article conceptualised the Web using the metaphores of ‘tool’ and ‘place’. The Web as a ‘tool’ means using online resources to achieve a goal, whether is it shopping, searching for jobs or watching YouTube videos. Continue reading →