Mapping Digital Spaces
What are Digital Spaces?
Digital spaces are the online tools, resources, media, and social networks that people use in their daily lives. The author David White came up with the terms digital resident and digital visitor as terms to describe how people interact with digital spaces. A visitor uses an online tool to accomplish a task or gain a piece of information and then goes on their way, not leaving a trace behind. A resident, on the other hand, is online to connect and interact with other people and they are more visible. A resident will leave a "footprint" behind, perhaps a blog post or comments, while visitors do not. People are usually a mix of both resident and visitor, depending on which digital spaces they are using, their preferences, and their habits. Also, the resident and visitor descriptors exist on a continuum, so individuals can exist somewhere in the middle as well.
According to David White's website, a visitor and resident (V&R) mapping activity is "designed to help participants consider the digital identity and presence of their institution or group." It seems like this activity is most frequently done with schools and universities. You can use a V&R map to plot your digital spaces as they pertain to the personal and professional areas of your life as well! So, as you will see below, you will have four quadrants in your map.
My Digital Spaces Maps
In order to create my digital spaces map, I brainstormed all of the websites and apps that I frequently use in my personal and professional life. I used Google Draw to make my own Digital Spaces map. I was able to use Google Image searches to find the website and app icons to help my map look a bit more visually appealing. This was actually my first time using Google Draw and I loved it! What a convenient and user friendly tool.
If you look at the professional side of my map, you will see that I use several digital spaces as a resident, leaving my mark on the internet. Those spaces would be Twitter, Blogger (hello, you are here!), my classroom Weebly site, and Seesaw. Since Seesaw is not public to the world, I placed it further away from the resident side. On the visitor side of my professional map, you will see GSuite. I use GSuite to communicate and collaborate with those only in my district. I also use EdReflect between my administrator and I, but again, that is not visible to the world. I also use TeachersPayTeachers as a visitor. I take what I want and then I'm on my way, only occasionally leaving reviews.
The personal side of my map is more crowded. As a resident, I am interacting the most on Goodreads, Facebook, Instagram, and chat apps like Facebook messenger, Whatsapp (best for group chats, I've found), and Messages. As a visitor, I consume media through YouTube, Netflix, Pandora, Podcasts, Libby, Pinterest, and Wikipedia. I also use GMail and I shop through Amazon and Etsy apps. Finally, Google straddles the line on both the personal and professional sides of my map, but only as a visitor.
Icons and images from Google Search
Surprises and Takeaways
I had a few surprises when completing my digital spaces map. My first thought, when assessing an app or website, was that I use it very frequently and therefore I must be a resident in that digital space. But then I realized that I wasn't socially engaging in that space. If I wasn't leaving comments, reviews, or other personal pieces of myself behind, I realized that I was only a visitor. So I was also surprised at just how many digital spaces I frequent as a visitor only!
One thing I realized through this V&R mapping activity is that since I am currently in the process of becoming a technology specialist I really need to consider my digital identity. Should I develop myself as a resident in more digital spaces as a professional? Are all of my personal resident spaces private and secure? What exactly should my role be as a professional in digital spaces? I have more reflecting to do on this subject!
One thing I realized through this V&R mapping activity is that since I am currently in the process of becoming a technology specialist I really need to consider my digital identity. Should I develop myself as a resident in more digital spaces as a professional? Are all of my personal resident spaces private and secure? What exactly should my role be as a professional in digital spaces? I have more reflecting to do on this subject!
Additional Resources
- David White's Website - Check out David White's website to learn more about digital visitors and residents.
- "Mapping the Role Technology Plays in Your Life" Article - Breaks down the term digital visitors and residents, shares a V&R map app.
- "Evaluating Digital Services" Article - Shares the research about digital spaces individuals use and gives advice on evaluating digital spaces.
Hi, Laura. Great reflection on your digital practices. You made some pivotal points for all of us educators to think about at the end of your post with the questions about our digital footprints. For example, when you asked if you should develop your resident status as a professional, I think all of us in our Dominican course would say that our Twitter accounts for class are a great way to do this. I just created mine, and I have to say that I've found excellent articles and resources from colleagues on Twitter and found myself responding and adding ideas for people too, which I thought I would be too nervous to do. I didn't think I would have many ideas to share, but I was surprised that I actually have a lot of experience that others can learn from, especially new teachers, and I can share what went wrong for me as well as some more effective strategies and resources I've tried. I would say that expanding our footprint as professionals won't be as challenging as I thought through these great platforms, as long as we use them wisely and professionally. When you asked if your personal resident spaces were private and secure, this made me think about some poor decisions some colleagues of mine have made in the last couple of years with posting pictures with kids to Facebook, and there privacy settings were not blocking other teachers and administrators. This particular person was put on a week of leave. I think it is very important that we keep our professional and personal posts and footprint as separate as possible because we are held to a higher standard than average adults. As for your last question on what your role should be, I would say that we should explore the topics of interest to us and just dive in. For example, right now I'm exploring Afrofuturist resources to teach the genre to my kids by searching the internet and asking other teachers on Twitter for ideas while also telling them what I'm teaching and giving them ideas. I already got some feedback from people who are interested in the same genre and realize the importance of starting to teach it in our classrooms.
ReplyDeleteNot only should we be considering our own footprints on the internet, but we should be thinking about how to help our students gain their footing and learn the ropes of responsible use. A source I wanted to share about this is here: https://ww2.kqed.org/education/2017/09/12/digital-spaces-a-voice-for-every-student/. This article supports using blogs and digital spaces for students because "Digital spaces not only give voice to every student, but they also give every student the chance to hear their classmates, discover what they might have in common, and build empathy as they connect around academic work" (Bradley, 2017). Blogger Laura Bradley describes how it helps the shier students show the depth of their learning because it gives the a voice as well as allows all students to authentically respond to their classmates ideas without fear of peer judgment (Bradley, 2017). Bradley also provides a variety of ideas for how to do this in the classroom, including using Padlet, Google Classroom, Blogger, TodaysMeet, Poll Everywhere, and our very own Flipgrid that we've used for our course (Bradley, 2017).
Hi Laura, thank you for sharing! Your question at the end about developing yourself professionally as a resident really got me thinking. In my blog post, I spoke about how I purposely try to remain a visitor in both my personal and professional life and my fear of my digital footprint being too large. With that said, I also shared that the one site that I was totally ok of being a resident in was a tech coordinator forum, which was strictly professional. After reading your post, I had to question why I haven't chosen to be more of a resident on other forums, especially when I find myself gaining so much from being a part of that tech forum. I look forward to diving further into some professional learning networks through our class.
ReplyDeleteLaura this is a fantastic post! I appreciated how you took the time to explain the process and am so happy to hear you enjoyed using a new tech tool- Google Drawings- for your map. YAY! Your explanation of each quadrant really helps the reader understand the concept of visitors and residents. For me, the most powerful part was how now you have started to consider what you want your "public" persona to look like.
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