I am coming to you on a cold and rainy day in northern Manitoba (even though it is almost June :/ ), and I want to discuss a little bit about digital identities and personal learning networks (PLNs). Let’s jump right in!
As described by Eric Stroller in “What is Digital Identity?” your digital identity can be made up of your presence online. Your online presence can be described as what you post and share, who you engage with, how you treat other people, and how you use digital tools for everyone’s benefit. Essentially, your digital identity is your body of work and is always with you. Our digital identities are our bodies of work and which are tied to us; this can serve us well or exceptionally poorly. For example, our digital identities can help spread the word about a business or a product to help create traffic and activity on your business website—which is a positive effect. On the other hand, if we use our social media and digital identities to post and share controversial things or treat people poorly on our social networks, this reflects poorly on us and could perhaps even prevent us from getting our dream job. For these reasons and the effects that our digital identities can have on our lives, we all must remain and continue to be digitally aware critical thinkers.
For more information, here is an excellent diagram from the World Economic Forum on digital identites.
It is essential to recognize that we can curate our digital identity based on how we want it to look, thus presenting an overall effect on our social media use. Over the last few years, many users on social media platforms, such as TikTok and Instagram, have used these applications in a professional matter to spread the word about their business. Having public social media accounts allows more people to see your products and your business who otherwise would not. Public accounts may also provide the opportunity to expand personal learning networks (Rajagopal et al., 2011). Conversely, people may use social media and build a digital identity in a personal matter. For example, many use Instagram and SnapChat to stay connected to friends and family members and to keep up-to-date with what is going on in their lives.
Further, I feel it is important to consider public and private social media accounts. In a sense, personal social media accounts are safer if you post and share more private content that you only want to share with your friends and family. On the other hand, public social media accounts with a perhaps more professional approach to social media, as I mentioned earlier, allow more people to come across your profile, which could help publicize yourself and your business if that is what you want to do.
It is crucial to consider the effects social media can have on our lives. No references are needed to say that ever since the creation of social media, these online platforms provide a private and non-confrontational space for people to spread hatred and negative attitudes. There can be detrimental effects on the people who are on the receiving end of these negative comments and hate. Further, spreading hatred and negative comments and attitudes could potentially reflect poorly on you if you are being screened for a job by an employer. Employers want someone kind who is a proactive and empathetic citizen. If an employer sees that you are treating people poorly online, they may see that as potentially treating another employee poorly if you are hired for that job. Therefore, you could lose out on a job opportunity because of your social media use and your digital identity and reputation. Through social media, people’s words are easily amplified and can be widespread. Many have lost their jobs or have taken hits to their reputations because they post and share discriminatory language. Further, some companies with employees who share derogatory language have suffered economic losses.
Mental health matters! Be kind to one another.
As I said above, and I feel it is important to reiterate this point, digital identities can have detrimental effects on our lives; we all must remain and continue to be digitally aware critical thinkers.
References
Rajagopal, K., Joosten-ten Brinke, D., Van Bruggen, J., & Sloep, P. B. (2011). Understanding personal learning networks: Their structure, content and the networking skills needed to optimally use them. First Monday, 17(1). https://doi.org/10.5210/fm.v17i1.3559
After reading the article “Behaviourism, Cognitivism, and Constructivism” by Ertmer and Newby (2013), I started thinking about what sort of instruction style I currently employ in my classes (Question 3 from ‘Application Exercises’). Now, I’m not a teacher, but I have quite some experience educating people! I have been a swimming instructor for the past five years, where I teach swimming, lifesaving skills, and first-aid to children from as old as three months to adults of any age. Also, while taking EDCI 335 and EDCI 338 at the University of Victoria and EDUC 201 through Athabasca University, I’m substitute teaching in northern Manitoba, where I went to elementary, middle, and high school. I have also been a volunteer soccer and curling coach since I was in grade 7 (for the past eight years). All in all, I have accumulated quite a bit of teaching experience during my mere 19 years on earth.
I love soccer and curling, and I decided to volunteer to share my love of sport with the children in my community!
As a psychology major, behaviourism is a theory that I am very familiar with because it is mentioned in every class. Studying this theory so often has made it very easy for me to see how I use behaviourist strategies when instructing. In behaviourism, learning is accomplished when a proper response is demonstrated following the presentation of a specific environmental stimulus (Watson, 2017). This sounds complicated, but we have probably all experienced this in the vast amount of time we have spent in school! Behaviourism is when a child misbehaves in class, the teacher takes something away from said child, and then that undesired behaviour becomes desirable when the child stops misbehaving. Just as teachers reinforce the behaviour with punishments, they also use rewards, such as class parties at the end of the week, if the class demonstrates desirable behaviour (Staddon, 2021).
A time that immediately came to mind when I employed the work of the behaviourists was about three years ago when I was teaching swimming lessons to a little girl named Scarlet, who was about four years old at the time. Despite only being four years old, Scarlet had the personality of a 16-year-old teenage boy—she was very goofy. Despite being incredibly socially outgoing, she hated swimming lessons, and I could not get her in the water. You can not learn to swim if you do not get in the water during swimming lessons, so this was a problem. Scarlett’s parents had signed up for seven private lessons with me, so I had seven lessons where Scarlet would not get in the water. I soon figured out that the only way to get her in the water was to promise her a lollipop after every single lesson. If I wanted her to get her hair wet, I had to give her two lollipops at the end of every class. I am sure I could have found a better way to negotiate with her, but rewarding her desirable behaviour (getting in the pool) with lollipops (reward) at the end of every lesson worked well and got the job done.
Here is more on reward systems and their advantages and disadvantages.
As Ertmer and Newby (2013) stated in the article and other authors, such as Beauchamp and Parsons (2000), no learning theory is better than the rest. An instructor using many learning theories within their instruction will provide the best learning experience for their students. As much as I use the strategies of behaviourism, I do believe I use some methods of cognitivism and constructivism.
I also utilize cognitivist strategies in instructing swimming lessons, soccer, curling, and substitute teaching. Cognitivism emphasizes the role that environmental conditions play in facilitating learning (Watson et al., 2008). Instructional explanations, demonstrations, and illustrative examples are instrumental in guiding student learning (Ertmer and Newby, 2013). When learning to instruct swimming lessons, we are taught to: “Demo, Discuss, and Do.” First, we demonstrate the skill being taught, such as a back float, then discuss how to do a back float, and then practice. The same technique can be applied to coaching curling and soccer; show the players how to kick a ball, discuss how to kick the ball properly, and then practice kicking the ball. It can further be applied to school settings; show the students how to write a particular letter, discuss how to write a letter, and then practice writing a letter. These are relatively simple tasks, and cognitivism works well for them; however, it is most helpful when teaching more complex and abstract ideas, such as when knowledge can be simplified to be applied to different topics and contexts (Levy, 2018).
I’m sure we all recognize this sheet from our school days. My teachers would demonstrate how to trace the letters, discuss that we should start writing a letter from the top, and then we would practice.
Next, constructivism states that learning happens by creating meaning from experience (Ertmer and Newby, 2013). A situation in which I have used constructivism recently occurred, and I believe it was the first time I used such a strategy. While I was substitute teaching, I was working with a grade six class while they were studying Indigenous people. They were learning about residential schools and the ongoing discrimination indigenous people face. The students did not understand why indigenous peoples were so upset about these events. They were having difficulty feeling empathy for the hardships indigenous people face at the hands of our ancestors. I told them to think about how they would feel in the shoes of indigenous people. I had them imagine what it would be like if they woke up one morning to someone knocking at their door saying they would take their children away to go to a residential school and return when they were 18. They concluded that that situation would be awful (to say the least) and that no one should ever have to face a problem like this.
Further, I told them to imagine waiting years for their children to return home from school. I explained that some children returned to their families unable to communicate because they had forgotten to speak their language, and some never returned. Picturing this made the students quite sad, and I believe I helped them understand the gravity of the grim situation indigenous peoples have faced for over a century. The experience of this imaginative activity helped students create and feel the meaning behind what they were learning about indigenous peoples. I hope the students I (hopefully) helped that day remain the same kind and empathetic individuals; they are our future.
Upon analyzing my instruction style, I mostly rely on behaviouristic strategies when instructing, but with good reason. Swimming is a physical activity where techniques require practice to effectively and efficiently perform the techniques; no one does front crawl perfectly the first time. While instructing swimming lessons, I find myself providing a stimulus (such as helping someone kick their legs, or holding up someone’s back, so they maintain a streamlined body position) to help to reinforce a proper response (such as a solid continuous kick or a streamlined body position). Further, I always encourage those I instruct to go swimming on days when they do not have swimming lessons and practice what I have been teaching them. The ones who get to the pool to practice are always those with the most progress. I find that it is easiest to apply the theory of behaviourism to physical activity as it emphasizes our responses to external stimuli.
Practice does not always make perfect, but with some work and determination, it certainly helps.
I am unsure of what I would like to do when I graduate, but I want a career path where I have the opportunity to educate. These three learning theories discussed above—behaviourism, cognitivism, and constructivism—are only three of the many that exist, each with its own strengths and weaknesses. I will work towards the opportunity to apply these theories, among others, to the work I will do day to day to truly maximize the potential for one’s education.
References
Beauchamp, L, & Parsons, J. (2000). Teaching From The Outside In. Edmonton AB: Duval House.
Ertmer, P. A., & Newby, T. J. (2013). Behaviorism, cognitivism, constructivism: Comparing critical features from an instructional design perspective. Performance Improvement Quarterly, 26(2), 43-71.
Levy, Y. (2018). Why cognitivism? Canadian Journal of Philosophy, 48(2), 223-244.
Staddon, J. E. R. (2021). The new behaviorism: Foundations of behavioral science (Third ed.). Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group.
Watson, J. B. 1. (2017). Behaviorism. Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group.
Watson, R., Coulter, J., Sharrock, W., Dennis, A., Read, R., Button, G., & Hamilton, R. (2008). Cognitivism. Theory, Culture & Society, 25(2)
