Digital Citizenship - Week Twelve

The final week of the course but will it be the final blog?

First I want to thank all of my classmates who took the journey with me. This was great fun and it has been a pleasure reading and sharing all your thoughts and ideas around digital citizenship. I must admit that there were times when I felt that there was no way that I was going to be able to complete some of these tasks as I was a digital immigrant but that over the twelve weeks has changed and here we are, at the end with a new attitude on technology and the possibilities for education.

I have tried to google myself a few times over the course of the the program. Unfortunately, or fortunately, there are a lot of people with my exact same name who come up every time. One does lighting for movies and I knew of him as I am one of those people who read the credits. There are a couple of Lawyers, a musician and know I show up. I think that one of the reasons that I do not show up near the top of the page is that I have a limited digital footprint currently. If I make my search very specific like adding the city I live in or my job title then I of course pop up first. I have but one choice to change this and that is by having a greater digital footprint. I will do this by continuing to be digitally active.

I have really enjoyed the common sense approach to the nine elements of a good digital citizen. while participating in the course I have discovered that they are not simple. It takes some real understanding and a good social compass to be able to ensure you are always acting correctly. In fact I had someone today ask me if I was upset about something because I did not include a salutation in the beginning of an e-mail. I was not, they needed a response right away on an issue and I was running to another meeting. Just saving time. If they came to my office door and asked a question they would have gotten the same short answer followed by "I have a meeting so I have to run" and they would not have thought anything of it. I need to make sure I always take that couple of extra minutes to interact properly or don't respond at all.

I think that at the College I work at I have many opportunities to help others by simply being a good digital citizen. If I show people how to act appropriately and when they have not give them guidance, then they will all start to act properly. I am also going to get my faculty to implement elements into the courses that they are teaching that have an online component. This is very important as I think that young people are just looking for guidance. If we teach them and show them they will start to teach and show others.

This might be my final blog for this course, but it is not my final blog. I am hooked. I have a few ideas of what I will be writing about next week. I of course am going to have to come up with a better name for my new blog. I do like to write when I critically reflect so it is very possible that I will continue to write weekly just as a reflection on what ever subject I am taking. Look me up and follow if you wish.

It was a blast. Have a great Holiday,

Jeff