Who Are You?
This learning event we continue to take a look at your identity, digital and analog. As we continue on with the #WalkMyWorld Project, we’re building up and sculpting your digital identity.
For some people, this is the first time they’ve really constructed and shared content online. Aside from simple Facebook posts about what you ate for dinner, or selfies from the Gym/WalMart…many of us don’t really create and share things online. This affects your digital identity. When you’re Googled…what other people share about you will show up higher in the rankings.
For other people, they already have an established digital identity that they have built up. They already have a blog, or Twitter account, or some other space that they use to share, create, and connect. Personally, I find these people fascinating.
For this third learning event, we want you to share a little bit more about yourself, and your digital identity. Open up a bit. 🙂
Open Up & Let Others Know About You
As you create and share online using Twitter and other digital texts and tools, you’re creating and curating a digital identity. Who are you becoming? Who would you rather be? What type of identity are you developing online as opposed to face-to-face?
What are the different sides of your personality? Are you a weed or a flower? What discourses do you use in different spaces? Do you have different identities in different places? How do you want others to view you? How much of your world do you let people see?
How Do I Do This?
Read and annotate Identity by Julio Noboa Polanco. Read and annotate The Rose That Grew from Concrete by Tupac Shakur. Think about how the authors describe their identities and wishes in the text.
After you’ve read the two pieces, open up and share something about yourself. Usually when people think about opening up, and sharing, there are two thoughts. The first is usually…that is too private, what will people think about me? As you share, you can decide what to divulge. If it’s TMI (too much info), it’s TMI. Believe me, I usually make that mistake. 🙂 The second thing people usually indicate it…who really cares about me…what do I have to share? To that I have to tell you that you are important, and you do have a lot to share. You never know until you open up and share. More on that in a minute…
Take whatever you chose to share about your identity and create something cool to express it. Share a surprising side of yourself that tells something about your world. Be creative and use the poems to drive your response using images, video, text, and/or audio. You may want to combine them all.
Express Yourself. As the great Dr. Dre once said, “I’m dropping flavor, my behaviour is hereditary. But my technique is very necessary.” Words to live by.
Some Last Words
I keep mentioning in reflections and posts here on this blog that even the mentors are learning all of the time, and I definitely mean it. Some of you might look at the work we’re doing, and think that we have some kind of special sauce that makes us tick. I can assure that that there is no secret digital native classes that I attend. I’m just like you. I have just spent a lot (and I mean A LOT) of time building and breaking things online.
You might look at this blog and think that it looks really nice, and you’d like something like this. Awesome. If you’re one of the people out there planning on starting blogging as a result of this project, I’m stoked. I keep telling people that the most important step is the first one. For years I have been a blogger, a failed blogger, and someone that wanted to learn how to blog…all in one. In many ways, I still consider myself to be a failed blogger. I just keep trying, keep building, and I’m not afraid to put things out there.
I also learn a lot from my friends online. I join MOOCs and connect with others and push my own skillset. I cannot say enough about the #CLMOOC. I make sure I join every year so I’m a couple steps ahead of my students. I also follow and serendipitously learn from others online. The make that I shared as the guiding example on Learning Event Three is an excellent example of this.
Last year in #WalkMyWorld 2014 I was busy thinking about the cool stuff Molly Shields and Kevin Hodgson were sharing on the hashtag. I would look at their work, and say….damn, I want to do that. I was also pushed through emails from Kristy Pytash in which she was pushing me to open up and express myself. I decided that my journey in #Walk 2014 would be a personal journey that I made in the public. I was moved by the work of my colleagues and ideas that danah boyd was recently blogging about. Each learning event I wanted to create something that would add up to a larger narrative. I wanted to document things that I found to be important..for my son. I figured it would be cool if one day he were able to go back and take a peek at what my interests were. (Sounds like a Tom Cruise movie gone wrong). As a result, I challenged myself to build and create each week. I played more, and learned more with digital tools that I’ve never used. I even wrote a couple of poems and plopped them up on PoetryGenius. A couple of them were garbage, but one resonated with others on the hashtag.
I wanted to share that work out as an example for people thinking about sharing this learning event. I made a decision to open up, and share a part of what makes me tick for anyone interested online. I didn’t think anyone would care…but they did, and they responded in return. I pushed myself to open up, learn more tools, and spend some time PLAYING with digital content. I urge you to do the same. Open up and share…you might be surprised at what you find. 🙂
Cover image CC BY-NC 2.0 Village Square
Middle image CC-BY 2.0 Enerva
Bottom image CC BY-NC 2.0 Meesho
Mentions