Visitors and Residents.
Who am I? What
was my digital journey like?
Visitors and Residents are words to describe the level
of engagement with the internet and online sources.
Marc Prensky (2001) started describing students as
digital natives and digital immigrants, where the natives are someone already
born in the digital era and immigrants who have learned how to use technology, but might never be able to become as fluent as natives.
Visitors and Residents, however, are more looked at
from the perspective of the ‘mode’ of engagement (White, 2014b).
If a Visitor is someone who makes individual choices
on what to retrieve from the web, without any footprint left online; a Resident,
will have a more social presence, hence he is called this way, he will interact
with others online, making posts, being involved in discussions.
I have always considered myself a person who ‘repels
technology’. When I studied in high school and was doing my Bachelor’s at a local university
in Uzbekistan, this was the time when the first mobile phones and the internet just
arrived.
We would access the internet in small internet
cafes, with a dial-up connection, which took a while to load a page. We were not
aware of the amazing opportunities the internet would offer at that time, so we mainly
used it to look up information related to our studies. For that time and a
few years afterward, I would say I was a Personal
visitor, mainly sending
audio/video messages, having rare live chats on MSN (to my friends and fiancée in
the UK), and emailing through hotmail.com. I believe Skype had also become available
around that time, but I never used it actively.
I graduated from the university and started working,
this is where I had to have more interaction with online resources. I worked at
a training department and had to conduct presentations, I was also responsible
for updating standard operating procedures. Due to a lack of experience in
quality assurance, I had to go online to see samples, and some tutorials on how to
make PPT presentations. I would say I was an Institutional
visitor at that
point because the online activities were not solely for myself, but also for the institution,
i.e. my workplace.
When did I become a Personal
resident? After I
got married and had a child I had to stay at home for some time. For work, I did
translations remotely, mainly sending/receiving translations via email. I was
quite active on translation forums, looking for offers and discussing
terms/abbreviations, etc. I watched some films online and sent photos to family and
friends. I still did not have any profiles on social networks. I had friends
from various countries, but mainly communicated via email. At that point, I registered
on Etsy.com and sold a couple of bags I had sown and embroidered myself.
And finally, now, I can proudly say I am an active Institutional resident. Thanks to Innovating Learning and Teaching course,
I now have a blog, - a fact I would not have believed if told some time ago.
I have Instagram and Facebook profiles, working on my LinkedIn profile
currently. I am actively involved in research and an active participant in
forums and groups relevant to my research interests. I shop online, have both
personal and corporate email addresses, and use a range of tools and platforms for
teaching (Canvas LMS, EdPuzzle, Canva).
I know there is still a lot to explore and I am
excited to learn more.
Reference list
Prensky,
M. (2001). Digital natives, digital immigrants. On the Horizon, 9(5),
pp.1–6. doi:https://doi.org/10.1108/10748120110424816.
White,
D. (2014). Visitors and Residents. [online] www.youtube.com. Available
at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sPOG3iThmRI [Accessed 16 Apr. 2023].
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