Reflections on EME6414

Reading others' last post for the class, I thought we all agree that this course has changed our online behavior dramatically. I remember my first post, my concern as a natural born lurker and look at me now! I can now proudly say that I am an ex-lurker, a contributor to the Web 2.0.

As an online introvert, it took me a while to adjust. Even now, I still occasionally feel uneasy when hitting the publish button. However, I now have clear idea on what I am going to do with my network, both personal and professional. I know I wouldn't be the kind of person with heavy online interaction but I know I would like to keep my online existence and manage my digital footprints.

Exploring so many new tools I have never heard of was interesting. I now have a list of accounts I want to keep and accounts I want to delete. I learned that some tools such as Twitter and Pinterest are not for me. I am more comfortable with Web 2.0 platforms that do not require me to be active all the time to manage my network.

The most important thing I get from this class is the use of Web 2.0 tools in the classroom, I now have so many ideas on how to use it in my future class. I hope my students would enjoy it as much I enjoyed this course.

I am sure you learned a lot as well. I would like to thank all of you for interacting with me in the past 6 weeks. Enjoy your break and keep your network alive! So long! :))

What is Your Online Personality?

In 2013, MasterCard conducted a global research project titled: "The Digital Sharing and Trust Project". Although the findings may not be representative to a larger population, it is quite interesting. Below is the explanation of the project as I quoted from MasterCard press release:

“The Digital Sharing and Trust Project shows that consumers actually shed their “real-world” identities when they go online and assume “digital personas” that better reflect how they feel, what actions they take around their personal information and how much value they place on their own data. These five online personas –Open Sharers, Simply Interactors, Solely Shoppers, Passive Users and Proactive Protectors—are spread evenly throughout the global population and ignore any regional or demographic boundaries.”

Source: Screencaptured from MasterCard Page

Are you curious to find out about your online persona? Check the quiz here:

My result? I am a solely shopper!

(No, not so cool! :D) According to this classification, it means that I rely on the internet for my shopping needs and I prefer desktop or laptop computers rather than mobile devices. Well? It’s true!! So, how about you?

How Mature Are You on Social Media?

Source: Geralt via pixabay.com, CC0 License

I found an interesting article by Nick Hanton & JW Dicks on how to manage your online persona that you may find insightful. It got me when they say MATURITY ON SOCIAL MEDIA SITES DISTINGUISH THE LIKES OF JUSTIN TIMBERLAKE FROM JUSTIN BIEBER. :D

This article provides four big ideas to manage your online persona, from creating a back-story to exposing yourself. Good tips and tricks!

However, reading the article also got me thinking: What images have I been created in social media? Do I consider myself as a mature social media user?

The answers to the questions: I don't know.

To be honest, I did post things that I regret: silly pictures, personal anonymous blogs (TMI in most parts!). Did it make me an immature user? I believe that online maturity is also a process. However, knowing that it is not that difficult to trace back anything to us (even if you are using pseudonyms), what's the price you have to pay?

It is obvious that managing digital footprints are getting more crucial. For me, the challenge is to trace back all the things I have posted. I have already lost some of the login data, not knowing the password and username (also emails I used when creating the account) made it difficult for me to clean the footprints. Do you have similar experience? What have you done to clean your digital footprints?

Reflections on Week 6 Readings

Source: Geralt via pixabay.com, CC0 License

Managing multiple online persona is not an easy task. I tried hard to separate my professional and personal network. I use Path (it is so popular in Indonesia), Facebook, and Instagram for my personal network and I use LinkedIn, Slideshare, and Blog for my professional network.

I was the kind of person who was described in Dennen and Burner (2013a, p.1): enjoy free access to information about and contributed by other people and freely (not so true in my case, I tend to overthink everything) share about themselves in a social or personal context, but are reticent to be active contributors in an academic context. Even after this class, I still feel uncomfortable sharing something 'serious' in a professional/academic context. The fear of being judged, the fear of receiving harsh comments are some of the reasons. I was an online introvert while, considered by many, an extrovert in real life. I think I still feel that the contents I created might be consumed by what-so-called unintended audiences.

This week's reading discussed the use of Facebook in the classroom. I don't think I will ever use it when I am back teaching. For me, it is too complicated to draw a line between personal and professional network in this platform. I was particularly concerned with some holes in the privacy setting, such as difficulties to manage some content that others posted and tagged you in. It is unbearable to think that your students might be able to see some silly pictures from your last Friday night! And I think it is the same with them.

Dennen & Burner (2013b) stated that we have to be very careful in using Facebook or find alternative tools with less privacy and ethical concerns. What do you think? Have you ever considered using Facebook to support you in the classroom? If yes, why? What things you would do to to ensure privacy protection for both the students and the instructors?

 

Reflections on Social Media Use in the Classroom

One thing that I would like to focus from this week's readings is how crucial the role of instructors in using and maximizing the potentials of Web 2.0 in teaching-learning activities. I was particularly interested in the article from Seechaliao (2014). It is simply because Thailand is Indonesia's neighboring country, thus it is easier to relate with the situation described in the article. 

I cannot help but imagining myself as one of the lecturers surveyed in the study. I was one of those who was more comfortable with traditional learning. Why? The answer is simply because I did not know which tools I should use and how to utilize it effectively. I did not get any trainings and I was simply clueless on how to use the social media tools effectively in class, particularly in improving collaborative learning. 

In the article, Seechaliao (2014) used Rogers' diffusion of innovation model to explain lecturer's attitude toward the use of social media in teaching-learning process. The findings showed that "lecturers believe that social media is easy to use and saves time and money for online courses; moreover, they find that social media can be a tool for teaching, facilitating collaborative learning, and improving project abilities" (p.158). He also mentioned the results of the study differ from the previous studies, such as Ajjan and Hartshorne (2008), who found that while some faculty members believe Web 2.0 technologies could improve students’ learning, their interaction with faculty and their peers, writing abilities, and satisfaction with the course, few instructors actually choose to use them in the classroom (p.58).  From my experience in lecturing, I think I was closer to the situation described in Ajjan and Hartshorne's study. Some factors that made me hesitate were: Internet connection in the country is not reliable, particularly in campus area. Furthermore, it is rather difficult to change teaching methods that you have been familiar with without proper instructions and guidance. I was afraid I could not achieve the learning objectives. Also, the environment was not conducive, with only a few (if any) lecturers utilized social media in their classroom.

The situation made me think that the innovation might be rejected or adopted (too) slowly. Considering its potentials, I agree with Seechaliao that lecturers should be encouraged in using social media and integrating it in the course design. I was thinking that creating a PLN focusing on this issue might be a good starting point in encouraging other lecturers in using and maximizing the use of social media tools in the classroom. 

 

Big data and Privacy?

The last post in our class blog: It's not just what you share or what your friends share .. is very intriguing. Who will use the information we share or others share about us? Is there any future for privacy in the Web 2.0?

Scary, isn't it?

I would like to discuss privacy issue not from individual viewpoint but more on how our personal information is being used by third parties such as companies or websites. It leads me to one popular term: BIG DATA.

According to webopedia:
"Big data is a buzzword, or catch-phrase, used to describe a massive volume of both structured and unstructured data that is so large it is difficult to process using traditional database and software techniques. In most enterprise scenarios the volume of data is too big or it moves too fast or it exceeds current processing capacity. Despite these problems, big data has the potential to help companies improve operations and make faster, more intelligent decisions."

I found a very interesting discussion about big data and privacy issue at WNPR (Connecticut public radio) online news streaming: Can Big Data and Privacy Coexist?.



Screen-captured from WNPR website


You can listen to the 49 minutes discussion about this issue between:

• Jim Stodder - Professor of management at Rensselaer Institute of Technology in Hartford
• Viktor Mayer-Schönberger - Professor at the Oxford Internet Institute and co-author of the book Big Data: A Revolution That Will Transform How We Live, Work, and Think
• Oren Etzioni - CEO of the Allen Institute for Artificial Intellegence and a pioneer of big data
• Sara M. Watson - Technology critic; Fellow at the Berkman Center for Internet and Society at Harvard University

An eyeopener discussion! Worth the minutes :)

Wikipedia...? Yes or No?

I found some interesting posts about Wikipedia this week. One is from shashueme6414: Wikipedia...sucks? and the other one is from Xi's: Academic Attitudes on Wikipedia?

I think the roles of Wikipedia in academic environment creates a never ending debate. I thought I would like to share a study I have conducted in 2012 related to Wikipedia uses among students in Indonesia. It is a qualitative work and the findings are based from my interviews with four students from different universities in Jakarta (the capital), Indonesia. The findings were quite shocking for me. Some points I would like to highlight are: 

• One of the informants argued that all contents in the internet must be truthful and thus, can be used as academic resources.
• Another informant stated that Wikipedia is the only ‘academic resources he is aware of.
• All informants could not differentiate and not knowing what academic resources mean.

Well, all I can say is that digital literacy means a lot in determining how people use and get benefits from the information they are getting online. As a professor, it is heartbreaking for me finding out that college students in Indonesia were so lack behind in terms of internet skills. Where to start? What to do? How? 


(You can find the summary of the study below)

Research Findings: The Magic of Wikipedia from Nadia Andayani