There have been two particular challenges in navigating through Topic 1; firstly, Topic 1 itself, and secondly taking the leader role in fairly unfamiliar territory. I use the world fairly as although there are some general changes, and new (wonderful ) people to collaborate with, the concept of PBL and the ‘spirit’ in which the course exemplifies, is something that has intrigued me, as written in my previous blog post.

The Topic 1 scenario, however, opened numerous new avenues of thinking. For myself personally, the concept of visitors vs. residence shed a lot of light into how I use the web and it’s affordances. An interesting question that arose during our bi-weekly HoA related to whether being a resident is a sign of being more digitally literate?

I personally feel that it can be, but is not wholly indicative. This is based on two points of view. The first relates to my working environment. A vast majority of our student cohort arrive in first year ‘fluent’ in social media. However, through our introduction to personal computing course (mandatory for students in certain modules who fail the competency test), it becomes very obvious that key computer skills are lacking. The same can be said for many student’s proficiency in Blackboard. However, I would argue that their lack of proficiency here might also relate to enthusiasm to learn a platform of this nature.

Second, I would certainly not consider myself a resident in all the online tools I engage with, but do consider that I am on the upper levels of digital literacy. An example here would be Wikipedia. I use Wikipedia frequently to read overviews of topics (visitor), but I do not partake in editing articles (more of a resident activity).

In essence, I believe that the understanding of how and when to be either a visitor or a resident is a display of your digital literacy. If you are able to use a multitude of tools, with a range of engagement levels based on what you require, this is a strong reflect of your comfort on the web.  I would extend this to include the decision of whether or not a digital tool is the best tool for that purpose at all, or if good old pen and paper might be a better choice.