Last week’s topic, I feel had everyone reflecting on their past and embracing or shaking their heads at the way we used to represent ourselves online. Growing up in the late 90’s and early 00’s, I remember to the day when we first got dial up internet, and that terrible sound. It was finally here, the ability to look up information at the click of a button and become so versed in world culture, that surely there’d be no way I could ever lose a round of Jeopardy. Instead, I’d sit and chat on MSN Messenger until I got kicked off the dial up because apparently talking to people with the use of a phone was still a thing. Fast forward 25 years, and I would sooner pick up a phone a talk to someone any day.
So what has changed?
In the week’s discussion, how we each approach the concept of digital identity is a wide spectrum of differing answers. Age, accessibility, need vs want, places we are and were at in our lives, all depict a different time and circumstances. As I first started teaching in small town rural SK, I remember interning and having access to projectors and smartboards. Planning was easy, PowerPoint presentations were the norm. Then comes the first job, I had an old desktop computer in one of my classrooms, and the Math teacher was fortunate enough to have a smart board, that was it. The idea of teaching digital citizenship and guiding students to develop their own digital identity and footprint wasn’t even a worry.
As the years moved on, so did the tech. My school saw class sets of computers being introduced and then the host of new challenges were introduced. 15 years later, and we are seeing a decrease in the amount of tech we have access too and the amount we are using it. Is it a bad thing? Depends who you ask. For my students, the loss of added distractions at their fingertips, I have seen an improvement in their engagement with class activities and discussions. Less issues with inappropriate use of technology has also improved. School never really is the issue when tech causes trouble in my experience, not to say it doesn’t happen, but more often then not, I hear of issues that are happening outside of the classroom and school, where some students struggle with the blurred lines of being online vs. real life behaviours, they have developed a “second self,” a digital personality that they can live through.
Often when I teach and talk to my students about their digital identity I refer back to Facebook. Now still a commonly used social media app, for my generation, most students are in the Insta and SnapChat world. I find myself reflecting on how I would enjoy seeing posts and posting myself. I would never say I was an oversharer, but I did look forward to looking a updates from friends and families online. To me these spaces were just used for recreation and fun, my online identity was quite small. Technology is a tool for me and for the odd relax and unwind viewing.
In Jacquie’s shared article, I found extension theory to be where I find my own digital identity has changed.
“Before smartphones and the Internet, physical interaction in the so-called ‘real life’ might have been preferred for reasons related to time and space, but as these restrictions no longer apply to the same extent, virtual interaction is becoming our interaction of choice (perhaps in a not-so-distant future, physical interaction without technological mediation will even have become obsolete). “
Yes, using online platforms for communication serves its purpose but I find picking up the phone and having a conversation is much more effective and honestly faster. I polled my students yesterday, and out of 40 Grade 6 students, only a couple would choose to contact someone through a phone call rather than using a messaging system. Even my own kids agreed with this. Most said it was because online they don’t hear your voice, and they would be less nervous about using this method. Now if the students knew the person they would be calling, they said they could do it, but would still prefer messaging them. My point at the end was for the students to understand how easily messages can be misconstrued, where a phone call usually you can do a better job being clearer with your intentions. The medium you use to represent yourself and your online identity you put out to the world says a lot about who you are. Not a negative or a positive, but it seems things online nowadays are put under a microscope more than ever.
And that’s why I choose to pick up a phone after all of these years.
Hi Graeme,
Accessibility to technology during a school day is something that I have been thinking about throughout this class, especially since we have begun to theorize the ways that the boundaries between digital and non-digital identities have become progressively blurred with the improvement of technology. In my current high school, we have implemented a school wide cellphone policy where our students are required to store their devices in a cellphone holder during class unless otherwise instructed. The implementation of this policy has definitely changed the culture of the school, reduced distractions, and increased student engagement during class periods. Though learning how and when to use technology is part of digital citizenship and establishing boundaries, I wonder whether a better approach to our policy would be to explicitly teach these skills and have open conversations with students about technology usage rather than just telling them they can’t use their devices.
Thanks for sharing!
It’s a tricky slope, leave them with their phones risks the chance of misuse. Teach them how to correctly use them with digital citizenship lessons and allow them to have them still could be a leap of faith. I don’t know what the easy answer is but have seen both happen in schools, outright banning of them or allowing them. In the end, the classroom environment makes a big difference in how they could be used. I worked with a teacher many years ago, who would incorporate QR codes into lessons for places to comment or research. Thanks for the post!
Great post Graeme!
Times have changed very much. I’m also one that grew up in the 90s/00s and remember that dial up internet sound very well. When I talk to my students about what we had to deal with- they really don’t get it. They don’t understand why we had to wait so long.
I’m doing a unit right in my grade 4/5 class and we talked about the 9 elements of digital citizenship and there are still some of the elements that they don’t understand identity is one of them. I’ve had some good discussions on this in the last few days and they somewhat understand, but for those students who don’t post anything or comment on anything, they feel they don’t have an identity online. I’m hoping that with me teaching and integrating digital citizenship now will help them in the future and how they portray their identity online.
Identity is a hard piece of the puzzle for many of them to understand especially if they are not online very much. I chatted with my students today about filter bubbles and they were a little surprised by it but many recognized that when they are scrolling through videos they are curated towards their interests and searches. Thanks for the comment!