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ACTIVITIES AND PATHWAYS- Magdalini Karamanli

After each question, I was directed to some recommendations for Being digital activities in order develop my skills. Therefore, I was involved with the following activities.
Part 1 - Activities

In the first part of the self-assessment I realized that I do not know what a Creative Commons licensing is as well as how to identify the conditions under which I can reproduce online content. According to the feedback I was given, every time I upload photographs, content or video that I have created by myself, then I own those assets. However, the Creative Commons provide the users with a set of free licensing options for open access content. Apart from the above feedback there was not any particular activity I could engage with because an activity on how to find and use third party material legally is only being planned for the future.
Part 4 - Activities

Regarding my lack of knowledge on how to filter large numbers of search results quickly, I have found the feedback given very helpful. The activity “Filtering information quickly” helped me to deal with data overload and to develop some strategies for filtering my results when searching the web. In particular I watched a short 3-minute video about initial refining of search results. In this video, I got some tips for filtering information such as the headings, the highlighted words which show if the content is relevant to my search, the date of the content and the way of phrase search (phrase in inverted commas). In the last part of the activity I was asked to reflect on my own strategies for dealing with large numbers of search results on a topic I am interested in. What I learnt from the particular activity is that in order to filter search results quickly, I have to develop my own judgement and critical skills. Furthermore I found out that search engines also provide tools that can enable me to refine my search results by processing the search criteria I have used.

Part3 - Activities
As for the third set of questions considering Self-assessment of using information, I have already mentioned that I do not feel confident enough to use social bookmarking in order to arrange and distribute my data. Unfortunately, there was not any activity on social bookmarking apart from a feedback with useful information.  According to the feedback there are helpful online sites such as Diigo in which I can save details about my research such as web addresses and attach keywords to them. Regarding my weakness on legal implications of sharing files, there was not any available activity and therefore I tried to develop my knowledge on this through the feedback given. I learnt that there are both rights in place to protect my own work and rights for material that belongs to someone else. It is also important for me to define and learn about terms like copyright, ownership and licensing, in order to follow the law when I share files with others.

The last activity I engaged with was about my weakness on working with others online to create a shared document or presentation. According the feedback, there are online tools which help people to work on the same project as well as to have the opportunity to be equally involved. After the feedback there was a pathway with a variety of short activities that contain some instructions concerning the tools are available for collaborating with others online. The pathway “Communicating online” includes five different activities. I followed the first activity “My digital identity” because I believe that in order to work with others online, I must be aware of the factors which contribute to my online reputation as well as how to present to others the image I would wish. What I learnt from the activity is that I must always keep in mind that all the information I share online has to be appropriate for different types of audience. Therefore, that I must always consider that my audience may be far bigger than I think and that everything I post on the web it remains there. The second activity I took part in was “Writing online”. In my opinion, anyone who is involved with social media should be aware of the general principles for writing online. In order to avoid misunderstandings on online projects, everyone who uses online writing must be very careful with the key points he/she wants to get across, the audience, the format-medium and the language. In this activity I looked at some examples of online writing and I have learnt about some principles for effective online writing.

Part 4 - Activities
Finally, the website suggests another activity for keeping up to date using online networking. I was provided with examples of some of the web tools (like LinkedIn, Memotoo, Google Contacts, Tweeter, Yahoo messenger, Skype) available for networking successfully at work. Then I was asked to evaluate the above tools in terms of the pros and cons of each one and my preference on the network I like to use, and why. Feedback was also provided after the evaluation as well as a relevant document with information about social networks. What I have gained from this activity is that online networks can help to myself keep up-to-date for social network interaction and also that there are various networks suitable for all my needs (academic, work, personal).

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SELF-ASSESSMENT -Magdalini Karamanli

Digital competence is essential for learning, working and active participation in society. For school education, just as important as the ability itself is the knowledge of how to develop it. The concept of digital literacy is a necessary qualification for participation in the Information Society and an ability to acquire knowledge and basic skills. The more digitally literate teachers are, the more they'll employ these skills in the classroom, which will in turn foster a strong sense of digital citizenship in students. Therefore, I used the website “Being Digital” in order to track possible deficits I have in terms of digital literacy. I completed four self- assessment tasks.
Part 1

The first one was about understanding digital practices. In this part I find myself quite confident at most of the situations. In particular I feel very confident concerning the identification of the people I communicate with, the knowledge about the data I post online and my online personal presentation. Furthermore, I feel confident at tracking the owner of the information I find online and at selecting the appropriate online tool in order to look for someone online. On the other hand I do not feel confident enough at finding out what online information I can legally reuse and under which conditions I can reproduce online content.
Part2

As far as the finding information self-assessment is concerned, I know what kind of information it is possible to find on the web, and which types would be most appropriate for my requirements. Moreover, I am very familiar with the variety of information I can find in an online library and especially in my university website. Also, I am confident when it comes to choosing keywords that reflect the purpose of my search as well as to using advanced search options to limit and refine it. In addition, I am quite confident in my approach to searching, and I know when to alter my search strategy. As for scanning and skimming a web page to get to the key relevant information quickly, I also feel capable of doing it. Furthermore, I am confident at knowing how to use social networking sites to find information and keep up-to- date and in particular with RSS feeds. Unfortunately, I face some difficulties in filtering large numbers of search results quickly and how to make the required judgements in order to get the most relevant information quickly.
Part3

The third section of the self- assessment is related to how familiar and confident I am with using the information I find online. I could say that I feel very capable of how to ensure that the information I use from a trustworthy source and how to use information in different media like podcasts or videos. Furthermore, I definitely understand what plagiarism means and therefore I am familiar with how to show respect to other people’s work without plagiarising. I also feel confident at referencing online resources and using online tools in order to facilitate my attempt to record source details for the information I find online. On the other hand, I do not feel experienced enough to use social bookmarking in order to organize and share my information and therefore I have not registered to an online social bookmarking yet. Unfortunately, I do not have much experience about the legal implications of sharing files because I do not know much about the rights that protect creative content.
Part 4

Finally the last part of the self-assessment is related to how familiar and confident I feel with creating information online. Regarding my answers I  am  used  to  add  comments  online  and  I am  very  conscious  of netiquette when I do this. Furthermore I feel confident at adjusting my writing style to different types of audiences as well as to interact with them by using text, audio and video and various media capture devices. On contrast I do not have much experience in working with others online to create a shared document or presentation.

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SELF-ASSESSMENT - part 4

Last but not least, the “creating information” field is not something new to me. I know every time how to adapt a style of writing depending on the audience, how to share documents online or how to use media-captured devices. The only things that I do not make often is to make comments or to comment with audio or video, but I believe that this is nothing to do with my knowledge about how to use them, but it depends on my lack of self-confidence.

ACTIVITIES AND PATHWAYS - part 4

The last field that I deal with is “Communicating online”, which is in essence a pathway with five activities. They give useful information about how to promote yourself in social medias, how to comment, and focus enough on twitter. Anyhow, as I mentioned earlier, I believe that the main reason that I do not comment often or that I do not use video or audio for commenting is my insecurity and this is something totally different from the above-mentioned.

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SELF-ASSESSMENT - part 3

Concerning the “using information” field, my only problem is the bookmarking. I am not familiar with the term or its utility. Regarding plagiarism, references, recognizing trustworthy online sources etc, I am aware of these and I owe it to the professors and courses of the Master, because as an undergraduate student I made only 1 assignment.

ACTIVITIES AND PATHWAYS - part 3

Concerning the Bookmarking, the website do not have yet an activity, however some information about the term is given and I think can search also by myself to learn more based on the information given.

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SELF-ASSESSMENT - part 2

The most problematic field for me is the second field, “finding information”. The parts with which I am familiar are the following : finding information, using keywords, scanning and skimming. However, there are deficiencies in searching information. I am not familiar with the way I can use an online library. I do not know also about the search options for limiting and refining and how to change strategy. Apart from this, even though I keep up to date with news in fields in which I am interested, I have heard the term RSS feeds a few times and I haven’t searched information about it.

ACTIVITIES AND PATHWAYS - part 2

The next three activities are related to the online library : 1. “What is the online library?” , a brief video about the term online library and its utility. 2. “Getting started with the online library” , where I learn about the types of resources (e-books, ejournals, articles, databases) and 3. “Explore library resources” , a short video that introduces us to the OU Library. As a result, I understand that an online library contains amazing resources and can seem overwhelming. I can find material to read concerning my subjects, find academic quality information for my assignment and discover different viewpoints. Regarding my inefficiency in searching online, except for the activity “Target your Google search”, another two activities “Search slips and tips” and “Filtering information quickly” help me to become more confident. In essence, I learn that I have firstly to pause to consider what I really looking for and not to be sidetracked. The main fact is to be able to use with confidence my chosen search engine and to use my human judgement. Afterwards, I deal with two other activities “RSS in plain English” and “Keeping up-to-date using RSS”. I finally manage to know what RSS exactly is and I find it very interesting and useful, especially the fact that I can keep track of all my feeds and read any updates using my RSS reader.

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SELF-ASSESSMENT - part 1

As far as understanding digital practices is concerned, I am glad to know that I am familiar with nearly everything mentioned in the questions. I do not have a problem neither in identifying groups, nor with my digital footprint and my digital identity. I am very cautious about them, because a lot of dangers may arise (for example to engage with “bad” people, or to imitate something that you are not etc). In addition to this, I believe that I am also well qualified regarding the “owner” of information reproduced in Internet and about Creative Commons licensing. The latter although I have not known the term as a name, I already new the context of it. I think that my only problem is to find an expert online and to communicate with them. In the University of Ioannina, I was familiar with the on-line system and I found easy the e-mails or phones of the professors, but broader I find myself having trouble with it.

ACTIVITIES AND PATHWAYS - part 1

I start with the activity “Target your Google search” which deals with the additional filters and tools for searching and generally the advanced searching. With the advanced options of Google search, I can target my search and find relevant information quickly. In this way, I believe that I will be more confident in searching an expert and communicate with them, as I hardly knew about the range of options that Google search have provided me.

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INTRODUCTION

Being digital is a website, established by the Open University, which consists of short and easy activities regarding the skills that everyone needs in order to be effective online. I thought it would be a great opportunity to see how well aware am I regarding the Internet, so I started with the part of “assess your skills”. This pathway is composed of four quiz, each one with a different field : understanding digital practices, finding information, using information, creating information. As I am answering the four quiz, when I do not feel confident about a subject, the program recommends different activities regarding my lack of skills in this specific area.

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Activities
From the “using information” section I worked with the following activities:

Deciding what to trust online, Deciding who to trust online, Evaluating using prompt: These activities helped me form some criteria to keep in mind when deciding whether to trust or not sources, people and information I find online.

Podcasting in plain English: This activity helped me understand what podcasts are and the advantages of using them.

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Activities
From the “Creating information” section, I followed the following pathway and activity:

Communicating online pathway:

My digital identity: This activity stressed the importance of the image we project and also the consideration of who are the readers of our posts.

Communicating online, writing online: Through these activities I realized that we have to think of the characteristics (participants, reasons, etc.) of the conversation when communicating online.

Making the most of Twitter, Writing a good tweet: These two activities explain how we can use Twitter for communicating information and give guidelines for writing meaningful tweets.

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Activities
From the “Understanding digital practices” section I engaged with the following activities:

Selecting the right online tool: Through this activity I learned some new tools that may be useful in the future, but the most important is that I realized that there are many online tools which I ignore. So, I understood the importance of constantly getting aware of new tools and the possibilities they may offer. The awareness of these tools helps us think of new teaching ideas and ways to use them.

The information universe: This activity helped me categorize the types of information to make its search easier.

Target your Google search: This activity taught me how to use filters when I am searching for specific information and how to use the advanced search to limit the results of the search.

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Activities
From the “Finding information” section I worked with the following activities:

Choosing good keywords: In this activity I found out some ways to choose the best keyword for a search. The selection of keywords depends on the purpose for which we search information and we can specify our search using advanced search to limit our results by excluding some keywords.

Search slips and tips: Through this activity I found out some techniques that will help me concentrate on the focus of my search and not be misled by irrelevant information.

Filtering information quickly: This activity offers ideas for limiting the search results and finding those which are relevant. Checking the source, the short description and applying advanced search are some practices to filter information.

RSS in plain English: Through this activity I got an idea the use and function of RSS feeds.

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Self - assessment
Realizing the level of our digital literacy skills is quite important for realizing our deficits and improving them. Using the website “Being Digital” I found that I need to rethink some of my digital literacy skills.

First of all, as far as the self-assessment about understanding digital practices is concerned, I found that I feel quite confident at identifying the groups of people I am coming into contact with, knowing about the information I put online, presenting myself online and knowing who owns the information I find online. However, I think that I have to improve my skills in choosing the right online tool, finding a person online and making sure about what information I can legally reuse.

Through the self-assessment about my skills relevant to finding information, I found that: I can decide which types of information are appropriate in each case, I know about online libraries and how to use advanced search or filter large numbers of results and how to scan and skim a webpage. However, I am not pretty sure about how to choose the correct keywords and when to change the search strategy or stop searching. Finally, I don’t know much about RSS feeds and how to use them.

Regarding the self-assessment about using information, I found that I know about plagiarism, how to write the reference of a source and how to keep a record of the sources using Mendeley. I believe that I need to delve more into the ability to decide when a source is trustworthy, the use of information in different media, such as podcasting, the use of social bookmarks and the legal share of files.

Finally, as far as the self-assessment about creating information is concerned I feel quite confident with writing for different audiences, communicating with others online, working with others online and using media capture devices. I do not feel quite confident with adding my own comments to forums or web pages.

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The outcome of my self-assessment has shown that out of the four points (understanding digital practices, finding information, using information, creating information), I am more confident with the last part of digital literacy skills, i.e. creating information. This means that I am quite confident at collaborating and communicating online, adding comments to forums and websites, writing for different audiences and online spaces, communicating with others online through forums, blogs, social networking sites, audio, video, etc., working with others online to create a shared document or presentation, using media-capture devices, e.g. photography, or recording and editing a podcast or video.

Finding and using information caught my attention and they were the two parts I found out I am not familiar with. Regarding information finding I need to become more confident with finding information online, knowing where to look and how to search effectively. Using information is the field I need to focus more on and develop skills in order to use information appropriately, evaluate what I find and acknowledge others' work.

My strategy when answering the questionnaire was to give negative response to all answers in order to see what the platform suggests for each topic. I opened all the available links, read the abstract of each activity and then decided which activities I would choose depending on my needs.

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Activities
I started with the activity concerning the quick filtering of information. In this activity a short video was presented showing a screen shot of a search result screen. It is important to check if the URLs are from an online source which might have a more objective view, such as a university or an online publication, or from a commercial company. The date is also very helpful as it is important to have the most up-to-date information. Moreover you have the option to do a more specific phrase search by enclosing the search words in inverted commas; this will help to cut down the volume of results and show the most relevant ones.

Next, I wanted to learn more about how to choose good keywords; the more specialist the keywords are, the fewer and more focused the results will be. If you are still getting too many results, you can use the advanced features in Google search machine, i.e. you can exclude terms by using a dash before them. In the summary, extra tips were given to help improving the search. I found two of them very helpful; always look back through any background materials to find any relevant keywords you may have forgotten and set a time limit and stop if you have not found anything.

The previous topic was very interesting and useful that made me want to learn even more about how to target my Google search and how to use the advanced search options in order to find the most relevant information quickly. Google allows you to limit the results by providing filters based on the type of information it thinks you are looking for. You can get access to other types of information rather than News, Images, Videos, Books, Shopping, Maps, Flights and Apps by using the More option. The Tools option provides additional filters based on the information type you have chosen. You have to always keep in mind to check back from time to time because Google is always adding new features and not to use too many search options at once because you might miss useful information if you apply too many limits to your search.

Regarding scanning and skimming I found some very useful reading techniques which will help me a lot when I have to find and read a lot of text online and to get to key information quickly. Scanning will help you to decide whether you should read further by running your eye quickly down the text to locate specific words or phrases that you are interested in. You can focus on headings and subheadings, images and artwork, the body text itself (e.g. for authors' names) and the sitemap. By skimming, you read quickly to get an overview before you start to read in depth and that is when you can decide where you want to concentrate your time. Skimming the text involves getting an indication of the scope and content of the information, looking at the first sentence of each paragraph to see what it’s about and noting the key points in any summaries.

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“ Digital literacy consists of the skills, knowledge and understanding that enable critical, creative, discerning and safe practices with digital technologies. It is about cultural and social awareness and understanding as well as functional skills. It is also about knowing when digital technologies are appropriate and helpful to the task at hand, and when they are not ”.

The “Being Digital” website - developed by the library services at the British Open University - through the self-assessment activities and the pathway of activities it offers, enabled us not only to identify and determine our weaknesses and strengths in terms of digital literacy skills but also to work on and improve them. The present study is a detailed description of our progress on an individual basis.

Through the self-assessment questionnaire I was given the opportunity to determine my strengths and weaknesses as regards my digital literacy skills.  Firstly, some of the areas, I am confident at, are identifying which groups of people I come into contact with online. Another area I am aware of is what happens to the  information you put online and at presenting myself online -that is my digital identity. However, an area which I always had difficulty in is trying to identify the right online tool to find, use or create information online. The activity Selecting the right online tools contributed to this goal by including some examples of useful online tools so as to help with communicating, networking, sharing, manipulation information, creating content, publishing and it was followed by simple questions to ask when deciding which tool to use. More specifically, an example of tool for creating online animation videos and presentations is Moovly; Dropbox is for uploading and sharing documents and Remember the milk is for creating and managing task lists online. Furthermore, a list of factors presented in the form of questions (as it was above-mentioned) enabled me to determine whether to use a tool or not. These concerned:

i. the way it is accessed

ii. whether other tools would do the job better

iii.  their cost

iv. whether it is easy to use

v.  its purpose
vi.   whether it is trustworthy

vii.  its shelf-life.

Additionally, concerning the difficulty I confront whenever I try to find the contact details of a person online the Target your Google search activity provided useful information. The first activity included information about the way Google search limits the results by providing filters on the type of information the user is looking for. The default information type All gives a list of unfiltered results and the Tools option provides additional filters based on the information type you have chosen; News, images, videos, books, shopping, maps etc. For example, news is useful for finding local, national and global news, current affairs and debate. Images constitute an ideal filter when the user is looking for a photograph to illustrate a blog post, pictures of a holiday destination or even to find out what a certain laptop looks like.  Videos show how to master a skill or even provide interviews with authors and even dramatisations. Finally, Advanced searching provides a range of options to help you target your search, for example narrowing your search to include specific keywords. Last but not least,the Information Universe gives a clear insight into the purpose of the information a user is looking for and helps concentrate on the most appropriate resources that provide the user with the information he needs. There are categories of information that help the user focus on the type of information he needs; news or current information, ideas and opinions, research results, theory, facts and figures, history or background, people’s experience, persuasion.

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References and Communicating Online
Finally, I answered a couple of questions dealing with using online information and creating information. Using elements from videos, podcasts, docs and pdfs is a skill that I acquired and developed over time and research. One difficulty that I constantly encounter whenever I deal with a research paper is the issue of Referencing my Sources and Avoiding plagiarism. It’s easy to find information for most research papers, but it’s not always easy to add that information into your paper without falling into the plagiarism trap. Concerning the difficulty I encounter whenever I need to avoid plagiarism and use the right reference, the site proposed a number of useful tools like mendeley, zotero, colwiz etc which I consider valuable for my future research papers. The Communicating online pathway signified that I am an avid user of social media sites as I am familiar with the concept of adding comments to blogs, forums or web pages, and observing netiquette (online etiquette) when I communicate online. I have the ability to write for different audiences and online spaces, interact with people in online forums or work with others in a shared document online by using the appropriate communication style for each situation. The last activity I followed was Making the most of twitter. After completing the task I was enlisted as a talker- a person who has a lot of followers but he does not follow many people. I came across a number of useful tips like tweeting regularly, tweet about trending topics, be aware of what I read and what I post online which i am planning to use in the future.

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Pathways and activities - Christina Rapti

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Pathways and activities - Christina Rapti

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As soon as I completed the self-assessment questionnaire I proceeded with two  pathways; Avoiding Plagiarism and  Making the most of Social Networking. The first  pathway I followed was Avoiding plagiarism which stated the significance of developing academic integrity, that is ethical behaviour so as not to be tempted to pass off others’ work as your own without acknowledging the source. The reasons why you may plagiarize are probably limited time so as to meet an assignment deadline, not enough confidence in your own writing or not being used to managing information. Therefore, in order to avoid plagiarism and its consequent penalties you need to write in your own words and always acknowledge who said what when referring  to online forum discussions. Additionally, it is necessary to organise information so later on you will be able to find it when you need it,and have all the details to hand , to enable you to produce accurate and complete references. Last but not least , is being able to cite references in an accurate and clear way. The activity includes a plethora of  ways so as to avoid plagiarism. For example, helpful guidance is provided by OU Library Services, via the Library web pages. Simultaneously, there are various online tools that offer an effective way of keeping track of material you used. The Being digital activity on ‘Selecting a reference management tool’ gives advice on how to go about choosing the right one for you. In addition , the ‘Introduction to reference management tools’ live online training session and Library Helpdesk staff always provide help.

”Social networks represent the digital reflection of what humans do: we connect and share”
The second pathway I chose was Making the most of Social Networking which includes a distinction among General , Professional and Special interest networking sites. General sites include Facebook and Twitter which provide opportunities for communication with friends and family; Professional networking sites include Linkedin and Academia.edu to come into contact with people from your field; Special Interest networking sites include, for example, Soundcloud where people share their interests. Furthermore, all these sites encompass a plethora of benefits such as keeping in touch with family members or even getting back in touch with people you have lost contact with, launching campaigns, sharing information and making contacts with other people who belong to the same field. On the other hand, while moving up the stages of Making the most of Social Networking sites, what really attracted my attention was the activity called Making the most of Twitter through which I managed toidentify myself as a Listener because I follow a lot of tweeters but I do not tweet much myself. Additionally, I was informed about the two other types of tweeters;Hubs - a person who follows and is followed by an equal number of people and could be likened to the person at a party who introduces people to each other ; talker-  a person who posts frequent tweets and has a lot of followers, but does not follow many people himself. However, the most significant part was when I was enlightened about possible ways to benefit from Twitter by investing time to build my network of followers, being focused and selective as to what to read, whom I am  interested in and more importantly by reading other tweeters’ posts and take the plunge so as to tweet myself. Tweeting myself was made  possible as soon as I used all the necessary techniques outlined in the final stage of the activity:

Keep it simple

Write a headline

Share interesting info and include links

Use the right hashtag

Think about your goal and timing

Make tweets relevant to your followers

Be human

Interact

Make readable tweets

Re-read and edit

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Online Tools: Selecting the right tool
Additionally, finding information that I can legally use can be a tricky part, but I believe I can identify the conditions under which I can reproduce and use online content. I came across with the term “Creative Commons” for the first time, which is a function that offers a set of predefined free licensing options for ‘open’ content. These enable licenses to be applied immediately. Due to the fact that there is a wealth of online tools, I followed the pathway of Online tools: Selecting the right online tools and I came across a couple of useful online tools like moovly, task assessment etc. Luckily, today online tools can supplement our ability to bring new information to students, while providing students with many different options for learning. I am using several online tools in my language classroom as they gave me the opportunity to be more creative in the classroom and I realized that the students enjoyed learning more. Concerning scams, I think I am capable of avoiding them and not fall in any traps, as I usually search into google and check comments from other people’s experiences in order to check if they are real.

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”Social networks represent the digital reflection of what humans do: we connect and share”

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”Social networks represent the digital reflection of what humans do: we connect and share”

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Pathway 2- Finding information

In this pathway my trust about the information the Internet provides is tested. In the first question about how confident I am at finding information that concern my studies, I answered that I am confident. This is due to the fact that I acknowledge where to find the right information before I start my survey. First and foremost, my professors, then my previous experience as mentioned before at conducting assignments, my fellow-students or even my colleagues contribute to search for information to the appropriate sites. Another activity that was about scanning and skimming a text was chosen. In this activity I had to have a quick look at a specific article that was about bicycles and to find how many times I found the word ‘cycling’. Scanning the text, I found this particular word 7 times. However, going through the text more carefully, I found it 10 times.

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Pathway 1-Understanding digital practices

As far as the first pathway is concerned, which is about the understanding of digital practices, there was a questionnaire that had be completed and some activities according to the answer given which contributed to ‘understand the digital practices’. The first question was about how and to what extent we trust people we meet online. Personally speaking, I would not trust them. Then, an activity that included avatars followed in which I was not confident no how to trust them. Afterwards, I was questioned on what affected my decision. So, the fact that the Internet has many dangers,  the fact that the people behind the avatars are unknown and the influence of sources that underline the danger of the Net or even the negative experience other people had make me doubtful about the avatars.

Another question that followed was ‘what to trust online’. Activities that concerned various products tested how I trust them. In this question I was not so doubtful. This is because I am quite familiar with buying products online or booking tickets or hotels.

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How "digitized" do I feel?

Having done the assessment of my skills in order to evaluate my familiarization and trust with online tools and environments, via the website “Being Digital: Skills for life online”,  I ended up in the following results:  having responded to all self-assessment questions included in the four pathways [ i)Self-assessment: Understanding digital practices,  ii)Self-assessment: Finding information,  iii)Self-assessment: Using information,  iv)Self-assessment: Creating information ], I found myself quite more assured in Using and Creating information, without this meaning that I am not confident at all to the two remainder pathways.

To be more specific, I checked out that I am not short on judging the accuracy and reliability of information I find online and even I recognize when using someone else’s work (Plagiarism) , trying to cite it properly so as to avoid any illicit implications. Moreover, I realized in this pathway that, I utilize online tools with a view to recording interesting sources and to access to the material I need, whenever I wish, providing references to sources that I use for my own work. Furthermore, I discovered that I am quite confident when I am about to communicate in online communities that require interpersonal skills specific to digital environments, no matter how difficult it may be when discussing with unfamiliar people. Besides, this functions as an incentive for me so as to exploit some of the online tools to collaborate with a group of people and share documents or presentations in our same project (Online Collaboration). It is significant, though, to bear in mind that we have to adjust our style of writing in the group of people (audience) we are addressed to, namely to decide whether to use formal or informal style.

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Effective searching: Filtering information online

Furthermore, I came across the area of finding information on the web, and which types (news, opinions, experience, theory etc.) would be most appropriate for my needs. After working on several university assignments, I believe I am able to find information in an online library by using the right keywords or skimming and scanning the document in order to find all the useful information for my research. After following the Effective searching: Filtering information online pathway, I encountered a number of techniques that I could use for my next research, like check the headings, see from which company/source it is posted, check the date, “filter search results” etc. I realized that there’s definitely a lot to be learned just from finding, filtering, and using information found on various websites. Being able to research effectively is an essential skill for everyone. Therefore, it’s definitely worth investing some time in this topic. Finally, a more thorough investigation into the Keeping Up-to-date: RSS Feed activity, denoted a number of useful RSS readers like feedly, netvibes, dig reader etc which I found quite interesting. RSS feeds are simple text files that, once submitted, allow subscribers to see content within a very short time after it is updated. I had never used an RSS feed before but they made me realize that they can really simplify how I get my content.

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Introduction

The “Being Digital” website through a number of activities and pathways, which will be further analyzed below, gave me a more thorough understanding of my digital literacy skills.

First of all, I am confident with finding people online, and distinguish if they are genuine. Of course I need to double check and I can never be totally sure if their information is trustworthy. After following the Finding information online pathway, I came across a term that I wasn’t aware of, the term digital footprints. This term signified all the stuff we leave behind as we use the Internet like comments on social media, Skype calls, app use and email records. I followed this activity and it made me realize that whatever we leave behind when visiting a website can potentially be seen by other people, or tracked in a database contributing to a potential negative portrait of who we are online. I followed the tips that the site mentioned and I realized that I need to control my online image by paying extra attention to what I post online, as I need to be aware of the effect this content could have on a future job or even activities concerning the law. Also, I consider myself familiar with online tools and I believe I know which tool (search engine, some software or a website) I should use for which activity, in order to find, use or create information online.

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What activities will contribute to improve my "being-digitized"?

Focused on the other two pathways (Self-assessment: Understanding digital practices and Self-assessment: Finding information), I felt I was barren of developing a good digital footprint and that is why I selected the activity Developing a Good Digital Footprint. It assisted me to take some ideas about why it is that important to present a good profile online in order to make a good impression as my digital footprint promotes my skills, professional experience and interests  and yet when it comes to getting a job, it will be the first thing an employer will look at. The above-mentioned activity is closely related to My Digital Identity which I also chose as it provides some useful tips that contribute to keep control of our online reputation when making public personal posts, images etc.  To be more specific, this activity points out that we have to be cautious with whatever we are about to post online as our reputation is determined on other people’s interference by what we put online, should we wish to avoid any impact on our personality.

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What activities will contribute to improve my "being-digitized"?

What is more, concerning Finding information online, after having filled out the nine questions, I realized that I was not also that confident on where to look and how to search efficiently and that is why I selected some activities keeping myself updated.  Specifically, with a view to improving my search I used Choosing Good Keywords to take relevant results each time I’m looking for something, just by choosing the proper keyword that will automatically search my information online. This activity aid me to organize better my search, putting a specific keyword to describe my topic, blocking terms that are irrelevant and setting a limit in time when have found nothing useful. Ultimately, due to the fact that I have caught myself “falling in pitfalls” several times as i am not always aware of how to getting the information quicker without wasting time, I chose the activity Search Slips and Tips. Thanks to this specific activity, I learned some usable tips on how to avoid the pitfalls of searching for information online and eventually be capable of conducting more efficient searches. The activity offers a pertinent example with three persons that used mistaken strategies for searching. The aim of the activity is to impel us trying an alternative search strategy making some hints and tips that maybe ameliorate the way we search for information in the future.

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(a brief relevant quote with the activity Digital Footprint)

“In the future, your digital footprint
will carry far more weight
than anything you might include on                       resume.”

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(a brief relevant quote with the activity Choosing Good Keywords)

”Choosing Good Key-words,
is the key
to remain untouched by pitfalls.”

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General impression on "Being Digital"
I had the chance to refresh some of my knowledge concerning plagiarism and references as well as gain some more insight on search tools and engines. Being Digital seems to offer countless opportunities to be digital. As technology advances, such tools will definitely be the basis of the digital classroom.

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“Finding hidden information online” activity. As searching the internet for academic resources of activities to engage in my lessons is a daily routine for me, there are many times that I have to deal with the problem of hidden information, meaning information that appear in search, but I can not have full access to. Dealing with paywalls and subscriptions is something that we can not overcome, but the Internet Archive or OAIster seem to be valuable search tools. Moreover, I totally ignored the existence of Google Social Search and Webse. Once I tried them out, I think they will be an inextricable tool of my research process.

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Self assessment
As being e-literate is essential in modern society, the library services at the British Open University developed the website “Being Digital” in order to give pc users the opportunity to evaluate their digital skills via brief questions and online activities for free.

I decided to seize the chance and test my digital skills.  After answering the questions of all the pathways, I felt quite confident concerning finding and using information. Thus, I chose “Understanding digital practices” and “Creating information” out of the four pathways. I thought that their activities would be more interesting and helpful and I was right! “Being Digital” helped me to learn new information and to advance my digital skills. I am glad that I did this self-assessment!

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“Developing a good digital footprint”
Since I have been active on social media for some years now and given that I started doing so during a time I had no clue of what the “digital footprint” is, I found quite useful the “Martin Woods social media profile checking tool”. Apart from using internet and social media to teach and interact with others, most of the times we tend to forget the mark we leave on internet and thus the picture we create for other to judge us. I followed all steps and links indicated in order to have an overall idea of my digital footprint and I found quite useful the tips to make it more positive.

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“Communicating online”
The activity had to do with behavior practices when communicating online. As we have already seen during our zoom meetings, “non-verbal cues” used in face-to-face communication are/have to be replaced by other qualities, such as politeness and appropriateness of register. We also have to be aware of cultural differences. In my opinion, those of us who have worked or taught using online tools, have already dealt with such practices without even noticing them, which I found very intriguing. The conclusion I reached through this activity is that, since there are numerous tools to use for teaching, we should always think twice before making our mind and examine carefully all our needs in order to avoid putting unnecessary burden both on us or our students.

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“Avoiding Plagiarism”.
As I have previously mentioned, I am particularly interested in this topic since it is a highly debated issue in universities. Some of the instructions given were learning to write in our own words adopting an academic voice, a skill that is necessary for every paper. Furthermore, we should learn to organize information we have found by keeping track of material we have read and we are going to use prior to starting writing. We all know that we have to cite our sources, but we should become familiar with the style we have to use.

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Self-Assessment
I started taking the self-assessment tests in order to find out more about my digital skills. As far as Digital Practices are concerned, I found myself being quite confident answering, the six out of seven questions positively. Although I had previously heard of the term Digital Commons, I had some doubts and, for this reason, I set out to find out more about it. The self-assessment test concerning the Use of Information was very interesting as well as useful, since it is one of the most important tools while writing an academic paper. We are all aware of plagiarism, but we are constantly dealing with cases where plagiarism is a problem for many papers, undermining their own value. Moreover, although I found very interesting and easy the Creating Information self-assessment test, I deliberately chose to answer negatively in order to find more suggestions about communicating online or podcasting. Finally, the Finding Information section was the easiest and most common one, as this is a process that everyone goes through almost every day whether it concerns our academic role or everyday issues. However, I found quite interesting the information given on RSS feed and scanning and skimming technique.

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Pathway 1- Understanding digital practices (1st activity)

I felt confident enough with the areas that were presented to me. In the end of the self-assessment questions, I decided to try some activities out. I chose “Communicating online” and “My digital identity” as I regularly use social media to communicate with my friends and colleagues and I wanted to expand my knowledge.

"Communicating Online"
This activity clarified the differences among types of communication and provided useful advice. I have learned that when I present my opinion in an online and face-to-face communication I should always acknowledge the other’s point of view and that I should not forget to make eye contact and smile during a face-to-face communication.

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Pathway 2 Finding Information

Personally, i have to admit that i am not very familiar with the online tools. I believe that i still have to improve my digital skills. I am able to find information online but not so much to create material online. I think i can present myself appropriately online and manage my digital identity too. I should mention that i am not fully aware of the online tools and I still have to be informed about online safety services. The website Being Digital gave me the chance to verify the level of my digital literacy skills and what i am capable of doing online.

What also attracted my attention was pathway 2   which is about finding information since i place much value in finding online information. I have to mention that i have experience in searching for information and i am able to find the kind of information i am looking for. Due to the fact that i had to search for my assignments for material in an online library. So i can find the appropriate information in an online library. What is more, using keywords to find the relevant information is known to me since i use keywords quite frequently in my everyday life for many reasons and purposes. Scanning and skimming are also known techniques and i also do it very often when i have to deal with long texts. Moreover, i know how to use social-networking sites in order to keep up- to- date for my study.  However, i have not used the advanced search options and i have not tried to filter large amounts of result of information, thus, i am not very familiar with this. Furthermore, i have a difficulty in thinking of alternative search strategies when i do not find the information i desire. What is also unknown to me is the RSS feeds domain. I have never subscribed to RSS feed and i do not know how it functions and how it is useful in keeping me up-to-date. This is the reason why i decided to visit the link about Keeping up -to-date using RSS. Through this activity i learnt what RSS is and what it is about. I learnt also the potentials of RSS feeds and how i can keep up-to-date with the latest information. What appealed to me between the various links with activities was the link about Search slips and tips. Sometimes it is difficult to find the information you need since some obstacle arise. In this activity i saw some examples of people having trouble finding the appropriate information. Through these examples many tips are offered in order to avoid pitfalls and to improve our way of searching information. Thus, this activity was very helpful to me because i  learnt how to develop my information searching skills.

Pathway  3 Using Information

I was particularly interested in pathway 3 which is about using information as i do not feel very confident with using  the online information. I am not sure if the resource i find online is reliable and valid or not. What is more, I am not very confident with using all media such as podcasts. References is a demanding task for me as well since i have only the basic knowledge needed for this and i need to search many hours online to write the reference list correctly. Before visiting this site and doing the self-assessment quiz i did not know that you can store the source of information too. So, i do not have any experience and knowledge of using tools to keep a record of the sources. Furthermore, bookmarking was an unknown field for me as i did not know that offers the opportunity to save websites, share and organize information. Last but not least i am aware of the notion of plagiarism  owing to the university assignments i had but i am not fully aware of the legal consequences of sharing files of others. After the quiz of the self assessment some links with activities appeared in order to improve my skills in this domains. The first activity i picked was about referencing. I chose to visit the link about Selecting a reference management tool because i do not feel that i am able to write a reference list correctly. I learnt more about the features and the potentials of the referencing management tools. What was also very interesting was that helped me to discover the reasons why i should opt a tool and what i should consider when i have to use a specific referencing tool. The other activity i have chosen to do is the Evaluation using PROMPT since i thought that it is very important to evaluate information especially for work purposes. So, i learnt what the PROMPT criteria are and how useful they are for evaluation of any kind of information.

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Pathway 1- "My digital identity" (2nd activity)

The second activity underlined the importance of realizing who can see the content that I post online. A post about my private life or an inappropriate comment could hurt my social image. Of course, I am already careful as far as my posts are concerned but this activity made me more cautious, as it warned me by showing me the consequences of reckless decisions. So, I have learned that I should always be aware of the users that are going to see my posts in order to avoid uncomfortable situations.

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Pathway 4- Podcasting in plain English (2nd activity)
During this activity  I learned more about the history of podcasts by watching an entertaining video. In the past, people should be at home at a certain time in order to watch their favorite TV programs. Nowadays, they do not need to worry about the hour anymore. They are able to watch whatever they want, whenever they want just by subscribing to channels. When I finished this activity, I received three free lesson plans in order to get inspired.

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Pathway 4- Creating information

As I am a columnist in a Greek cultural website, I wanted to learn as much as I could about this area. The activities I chose were “Podcasting in plain English” and “Being digital pathway: Communicating online”. The second activity led me to a new page of activities. From those activities I chose “Making the most of Twitter” as I love tweets and I usually promote my articles via Twitter.

"Making most of Twitter"
This activity proved to me that Twitter can be used in order to connect with experts in my field, find out about useful websites and get the latest news besides promoting my work. Furthermore, it suggested not to get caught up in Twitter and be selective of what I read and contribute.

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Please start with a brief self-assessment of where you are at with regard to digital literacy skills.      This will allow the site to propose the most appropriate activities or pathway of activities for you.                               Please share 1. the outcome of your self-assessment, 2.which activities or pathways you have chosen and 3. what you have learned from them.                             Follow the link below and scroll down to the “Assess your skills” section half way down the “Being Digital” front page.

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Please start with a brief self-assessment of where you are at with regard to digital literacy skills.      This will allow the site to propose the most appropriate activities or pathway of activities for you.                               Please share 1. the outcome of your self-assessment, 2.which activities or pathways you have chosen and 3. what you have learned from them.                             Follow the link below and scroll down to the “Assess your skills” section half way down the “Being Digital” front page.

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Being Digital | Open University Library Services

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Being digital is a collection of short, easy to follow activities. They cover the skills we all need to be effective online, whether it's searching efficiently, critically evaluating information, communicating and sharing online, or selecting the right online tool for your needs. Being digital can help you develop essential skills for study, work and lifelong learning.