Personal and Professional Identity
Digital citizenship is all about being a person on the web. In the previous learning pathway on online identity, we noted that individuals portray different personas online, for example personal, academic and professional.
On the one hand, we need to be careful about what we post online because our posts could negatively impact our future career prospects or current employment. We must also be cognizant of the different limitations different careers place on what we can share publicly and what needs to remain private. On the other hand, building a strong learning or professional network online helps us stay up-to-date with new trends and establish connections with our peers.
In this section, we reflect on the balance between public and private in a digital world, recognizing that the best choice will depend on our work environment and professional circumstances. We will also explore how like-minded professionals in your field of interest network online.
Mini Challenge Summary
Summary: Exploring professional online identity and networking in the field of your choice. Time: 1 hour.
The impact exercised by ICTs is due to at least four major transformations: the blurring of the distinction between reality and virtuality; the blurring of the distinction between human, machine and nature; the reversal from information scarcity to information abundance; and the shift from the primacy of stand-alone things, properties, and binary relations, to the primacy of interactions, processes and networks.”
—Luciano Floridi[1].
Stimulus Resources
- Think of Social Media as a Virtual Resumé, Expert Warns in Light of Health Board Resignation from CBC News.
- How One Stupid Tweet Blew Up Life of Senior Director of Corporate Communications from New York Times Magazine.
- CNN Fires Middle East Affairs Editor from New York Times.
Purpose
The purpose of this mini challenge is to:
- enable you to consider and implement strategies for networking with like-minded peers in your own field to build a positive online identity.
Professional Networking Online
Watch this short video interview with Alec Couros, from Teaching and Learning in South Australia. Alec summarizes how educators use Twitter to connect professionally.
- Visit the LinkedIn help page Finding and Joining a LinkedIn Group.
Tasks
Consider the following questions:
- Discover how like-minded professionals in your career or future career, field, or discipline network online, such as via Twitter, LinkedIn groups, and other websites.
- What hashtags, if any, do professionals in your field use to converse?
- What are some current topical areas of discussion?
- How can professionals in your field improve their online networking?
- Do employers in your field restrict employees from participating in social networks? See Corporate Social Media Policies: The Good, the Mediocre, and the Ugly, More Social Media Policies: LA Times, Harvard Law, Microsoft, and Cisco, or Social media in government (pdf) from the New Zealand government.
Outputs
Professional Online Identity and Digital Citizenship
Prepare a short blog post (300–400 words) summarizing your findings on professional online networking in your field of interest. Consider the following questions:
- How do like-minded professionals in your field network online and what do they talk about?
- What does this mean for your online identity and being a digital citizen?
Remember to add a category or tag for your post using the course tag: lida102.
References
- Floridi, L. (Ed.). (2015). The Onlife Manifesto – Being Human in a Hyperconnected Era. Springer.