↓
 

The PolyBlog

My view from the lilypads

  • Home
  • Life
    • Family (all posts)
    • Health and Spiritualism (all posts)
    • Learning and Ideas (all posts)
    • Computers (all posts)
    • Experiences (all posts)
    • Humour (all posts)
    • Quotes (all posts)
  • Reviews
    • Books
      • Master Reading and Review List (by Author)
      • Book Reviews List (by Date of Review)
      • Book Reviews (all posts)
      • PolyWogg’s Reading Challenge
        • 2023
        • 2022
        • 2021
        • 2020
        • 2019
        • 2015, 2016, 2017
    • Movies
      • Master Movie Reviews List (by Title)
      • Movie Reviews List (by Date of Review)
      • Movie Reviews (all posts)
    • Television
      • Television Premieres (by Date of Post)
      • Television (all posts)
      • Master TV Season Reviews List (by Title)
      • TV Season Reviews List (by Date of Review)
  • Writing
    • Writing (all posts)
  • Goals
    • Goals (all posts)
    • #50by50 – Status of completion
    • PolyWogg’s Bucket List, updated for 2016
  • About Me
    • About ThePolyBlog.ca
    • Privacy Policy
    • Subscribe
    • Contact Me
    • WP colour choices
    • PolySites
      • ThePolyBlog.ca (Home)
      • PolyWogg.ca
      • AstroPontiac.ca
  • Andrea’s Corner

Tag Archives: citizen

Metaliteracy – Week 2 – Becoming a Metaliterate Digital Citizen

The PolyBlog
May 13 2020

Digital Citizenship

When I started the Metaliteracy course 18 months ago, week 2 was originally about “creating and sharing a social identity” which included some revelations of what you find by googling yourself, thinking about what others might think of what they find without a larger context (i.e., if an employer was to search), etc. At times, it seemed more like a Grandmother telling you to watch what you post online. One of the resources walked you through the googling process and the “types” of things you might find. Since I share the same name as a US politician, almost all of Google is dominated by his links. If you add “Ottawa” to the search, then I come up with my Twitter feed listed first. It made me think about whether I should (for branding and transparency) more accurately label my website, but I don’t feel the need to shout it out. I like being PolyWogg, but I’m not hiding my name either. Other resources looked at whether anonymity would increase authenticity and reduce trolls, but I’m not convinced that it’s a magic bullet. It also had some resources about privacy. Those are completely missing from the course so far in the new incarnation. The assignment at the time was to do a biography based on your googled persona, reviewing a privacy policy of a social platform (I did Twitter) and considering the implications of a poverty project that shared rather stark photos of people in Troy New York which then went viral and for which the project received a lot of backlash (https://www.timesunion.com/local/article/Churchill-An-unflattering-portrait-of-poverty-in-5649292.php). This seems to be gone from the current version of the course.

The previous version of week 3 was about “Becoming A Digital Citizen: Understanding Intellectual Property” which seems pretty close to this week’s material in the new version of the course. Week 2 is entitled: Becoming a Metaliterate Digital Citizen.

For the original course, I was disappointed as I thought we would end up doing a deeper dive into the issues around academic publishing and journals, and instead, we were treated to a one-size-fits-all promotional video of how big academic journal publishers are pillaging the land of academic freedom. To be honest, I learned far more from Michael Geist’s posts about the CRTC hearings back in December 2018 on potential reforms to the Copyright Act to address university usage of academic materials, and even more from the recent judicial decision in Canada. The current proposals before the White House to temporarily change academic licensing to be more “open” received a lot of backlash from academic publishers who pay authors nothing, pay reviewers nothing, and charge huge fees to schools to access the online magazines.

My real complaint at the time, however, was that most of the materials lacked any nuance between the concept of “free” vs. “open”. It just assumed “open” was better (free access, free mobility) and that “free” was the wrong term (confusing free movement with free cost). I don’t like the term because creators decide on licenses, but “open” is recipient-centric, not creator-centric. The materials also touted the idea of the 5Rs of openness (the ability to retain, reuse, revise, remix or redistribute) but they are far more complicated than as presented. I did like the focus on Creative Commons Licenses, at the time.

With the new format for the course, I found the CCL stuff a bit lighter than I was expecting.

Ethical Use of Information

Originally, the course had a “week 4” focus on the Ethical Use of Information which it is now bundled into this week. My favourite part was a great series of videos called “Everything is a Remix”. It shows, in a multitude of examples, how ideas and even content are remixed and re-used, built upon, edited, etc., all as part of new creations. And for me, it leads to a kind of intellectual conundrum. If, in many spheres of life like science, the goal is to build off of the efforts of others and to advance learning, how do you do that while respecting the intellectual rights of others in an ethical way? As I said, the remix videos are great, and worth watching even if you aren’t taking the course. The remastered version is below:

Funny, back when I did the first part of the original course, I thought licensing, remixing and ethics should be all part of the same week (as they are now). Yet now that I have done it, I feel they both get a bit too short treatment. The new assignment is to muse about the ethical use of information, which was easy for me, as it frequently comes up in forums dealing with astrophotography and the appropriate use of any images that are posted.

On to Week 3!

Posted in Learning and Ideas | Tagged citizen, Coursera, digital, learning, metaliteracy | Leave a reply

Metaliteracy – Week 1 – Introduction to the course

The PolyBlog
May 8 2020

I finished taking my first MOOC on Understanding Video Games (#50by50 #32 – Complete a MOOC – Understanding Video Games) and next on my list was one related to Metaliteracy – Empowering Yourself in a Connected World. The description was pretty good, talking about being a bit more reflective about our online work, and it was offered through Coursera. The downside to that is that I’m really only interested in “passive learning”, watching the videos, etc., not actively engaging online with fellow students. That might seem like a cop-out of sorts, but I like the idea of a curated course … Continue reading →

Posted in Learning and Ideas | Tagged citizen, Coursera, digital, learning, metaliteracy | Leave a reply

My Latest Posts

  • Deadlines, dominoes, and delaysJanuary 30, 2023
    As most people who have read this blog from time to time already know, I’m big on time management techniques, various options for to-do lists and tracking tasks. I like to set ambitious annual goals, and then monitor them throughout the year. Some years turn out better than others. Whereas many people set resolutions and … Continue reading →
  • Curated: We Need To Talk About Professional Jealousy – Electric LiteratureJanuary 20, 2023
    I occasionally like to share online articles that I like, and you’ll see sporadic posts entitled “Articles I Like” throughout the blog. But honestly, Curated is probably a more accurate title. I recently found an article by Benjamin Schaefer on the website Electric Literature, although I was led there by ThePassiveVoice website. The article is … Continue reading →
  • Schrodinger’s computer purge (part 1 / 3)January 15, 2023
    So, I’m a techno-wannabe-geek with elements of hoarding in my DNA. I find it hard to dispose of working computer parts, long after I’ve outgrown the need for them. Some “saves” are practical and some are not. And like Schrodinger’s cat, my computer purge is both real and theoretical at the same time. A. Network … Continue reading →
  • Some more reading ideas…January 15, 2023
    Chapters/Indigo has their Reading Challenge for the year too. They do it up like a bingo card, but the headings are: I’ll have to go through some of the links to see if there’s anything I want to add to my long list. 🙂
  • 11 years, a gig platform, and a chequeJanuary 13, 2023
    Somewhere in this universe, if life after death exists, my father is rolling over in his grave. Or rolling his eyes, shrugging his shoulders, throwing up his hands…whatever the ghosts do when they see their descendants doing stuff that they think is ridiculous. And it is NOT my father’s fault. Let me be clear. He … Continue reading →

Archives

Categories

© 1996-2021 - PolyWogg
↑