Reflecting on Digital Identity

Saj and Mirror 2016 by Rami Tareef, CC BY-SA 4.0 

A life time ago when I was in high school a classmate of mine had a lucrative side hustle selling pirated satellite television boxes.  What set him apart from the dozens of others who did this was that he actually wrote the code that circumvented the security protections.  Years later our paths crossed again and it turns out that he now runs his own cyber security firm that does consultation work across the country.  During our conversation he told me that “Google probably knows you better than you know yourself.”  He went on to say my buying habits, location data, search histories, and social media presence create a composite picture of who you are in the digital space.

The idea that my activities are constantly shaping my digital identity was foremost in my mind when it came time to write this week’s blog post.  What have I been putting out into the world and what does it say about me?  What have I done to help my students nurture a positive online presence?  How does the concept of digital identity connect to digital citizenship?

We’re Not So Different, You and I

In her article Kristen Mattson argues for the integration and interweaving of digital citizenship concepts throughout various humanities curriculums.  In her opinion community membership demands participation in both offline and online spaces. Essentially she is stating that placing technology related topics into silos separates them from our daily contexts where they impact us the most.  I would take this a step further and say that there is no separation anymore between these subject areas because there is no distinction between offline and online anymore.  Digital identity is our identity.

Let’s pause for a moment of introspection.  If what we put out into the digital world truly defines who we are as professionals, what steps have we taken to carefully shape our digital presence?  My approach has been thus far to hide under a figurative blanket and hope that nothing goes terribly wrong.  But as Mattson points out civic discourse on a range of extremely important topics has migrated to online spaces. As evidence of this my government recently passed an abhorrent bill into law restricting the use of preferred pronouns in schools without parental consent.  Since I personally oppose this policy (which I make perfectly clear to all those who will listen in real life) shouldn’t my position be reflected in the digital space as well?  Teaching, in my opinion, involves a degree of activism and advocacy for the improvement of education.  Despite this my misgivings about fully participating in an online spaces prevents me from being effective.  I am very careful about what I say and do online (even writing this blog makes me uncomfortable to a degree).  Frankly I am scared to put my thoughts out there.

Do as I say, Not as I do

My hope has always been that students would be more comfortable and adept at navigating technology than I am.  As Allision Sparks put it, “we must consider youth’s ability to use technology in empowering and knowledgeable ways.” In my opinion their students are relatively comfortable with technology, but it is the latter point that seems to be lacking.  As Sparks points out it isn’t realistic to assume that parents alone can equip their children for the challenges of the digital world.  Its a an issue of equity; many of my students do not have the same access to resources or knowledge as others.  This places a heavy emphasis on the education system to rise up and fill the gaps.

This means it is my responsibility to help my students navigate digital identity.

Me – The hide under the blanket guy.

I don’t deny the necessity of teachers helping students navigate the complexity of managing, curating, and exploring digital identity, but this is yet another responsibility that is being added to a very full plate.  As mentioned earlier this needs to be interwoven into resources and materials, not just tacked onto to a curriculum document without support.  I think we need to take a moment and realize that many teachers, such as myself, are not as knowledgeable as they would like to be.  I feel the responsibility is being left once again at our feet to “figure out”.  As Sparks noted the community members, teachers, and parents need to combine forces to truly be effective in teaching digital skills.  It takes the village to raise a child, and in this same spirit it takes a community to help students navigate digital identity.  I see it as spheres of influence.  Governments should pass laws that protect children (not restrict their rights) and hold technology companies accountable for the ways that they use personal data.  Schools should educate students on the elements of digital citizenship.  Parents need to have discussions with their kids about online behaviour.  Frankly we are all uncomfortable addressing this, but we need to move beyond our comfort zones and make it happen (myself included).

Sometimes all it Takes is a Push

One of the few positive things to come out of the pandemic was that when push comes to shove, even technological luddites like myself can make it happen.  As Buchholz et al. points out the shutdown forced the entire education system out of technological stupor and thrust teaching into online spaces.  Emergency remote teaching rapidly changed my digital identity, I went from relatively technology avoidant to completely dependent upon it for my instruction.  However, my reluctance to engage online created a larger learning curve when working with students on social media platforms.  I had never considered Discord as a way for communicating with students, but since that is where they were comfortable, I had to adapt.  I would like to think that I can do this again.  Given the current state of discussion on social media platforms I think the area that I need to focus on the most is how to coach students through civil online discourse.

Maybe if it works with my students I can teach it to my government.

Join the Conversation

How have you nurtured your digital identity?  Do you think that teachers have a responsibility to be take their activism to online spaces (where there may be consequences)?  Do you have any advice for a teacher (like myself) who is reluctant to engage and build a digital footprint?