Learning in a digital age/LiDA102/Digital practices in the workplace/Personal and professional identity

In short, digital citizenship is 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 this can have a negative impact on future career prospects or current employment. We must also be cognisant of the different limitations that different careers place on what can be shared publicly and what needs to stay private. On the other hand, building a strong learning or professional network online is very powerful in staying up to date with new trends and establishing connections with your peers.

In this section, we reflect on the balance between public and private in a digital world, recognising that this is going to be different for each person depending on their own environments and professional circumstances. We will also explore how like-minded professionals in your field of interest network online.

“	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.

Mini challenge summary

Summary:	Exploring professional online identity and networking in the field of your choice
	1 hour

Start here

Stimulus resources

Scan a few of the following resources:

• High court rules public servants can be sacked for political social media posts, published by The Guardian.
• 'Think of social media as a virtual resumé,' expert warns in light of health board resignation, published by CBC News.
• How One Stupid Tweet Blew Up Life of Senior Director of Corporate Communications, published by New York Times Magazine.
• CNN Fires Middle East Affairs Editor, published by 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 of interest in building a positive online identity.

Professional networking online

Watch this short video interview with Alec Couros, published by Teaching and Learning in South Australia. Alec summarises how educators are using twitter to connect professionally.

Using Twitter effectively in education

• Visit the LinkedIn help page on finding and joining a LinkedIn group.

Tasks

Consider the following questions:

1. Find out how like-minded professionals in your career or future career, field, discipline etc are networking online (for example Twitter, LinkEdIn groups, other websites?)
2. What hashtags, if any, are being used for conversations in your chosen field?
3. What are the topical areas of discussion at the moment?
4. How could your field of interest improve professional networking online?
5. Do organisations in your field place restrictions on employees participating in social networks? (See for example Corporate Social Media Policies: The Good, the Mediocre, and the Ugly, and More Social Media Policies: LA Times, Harvard Law, Microsoft, and Cisco.)

Outputs

Professional online identity and digital citizenship

Prepare a short blog post (about 300 - 400 words) summarising 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.