This assignment has highlighted the importance of understanding digital citizenship and being able to use a variety of tools comprehensive. This module has introduced many different applications that have enhanced my online engagement, this assignment has encouraged me to use the apps mentioned in the module that I otherwise wouldn’t have tried. Throughout this module we discuss a variety of applications, however the ones that were highlighted in the assignment were, Padlet, Pinterest, Pocket, Datawrapper, Screencast-o-matic, and YouTube. This range of online environments highlights the versatility of the online world and how despite belonging to a generation that has grown up with technology and the internet, there is always something to learn about my digital citizenship.

            The assignment had numerous tasks to complete, each more interesting then the next. Despite a large amount of work due for this e-portfolio there was multiple learning resources to ensure the process was as easy as possible such as the checklist and descriptions and how-to videos linked for each activity. Despite the ease of finding the information, I still struggled to fully understand some of the concepts and often had to spend an extended amount of time on these tasks to fully grasp how to use the website or application efficiently. This confusion however could’ve been avoided if I had given myself more time to complete this assignment and had been more patient and fully researched and understood the how-to videos rather than diving into these topics without a comprehensive understanding. This assignment has pushed me to do activities that I never would have come across in my day-to-day online use and I found myself learning a lot throughout the experience.

            The assignment highlighted the importance of using social media tools to support online engagement and enhance my experience as a digital citizen. As social media continues to develop it is easy to be reminded of the dangers of being an uneducated digital citizen, this is highlighted by Guidry, J. P. D., Carlyle, K., Messner, M., & Jin, Y. (2015) in their article focusing on the increase in anti-vaccination pins present on Pinterest. Being a good digital citizen involves being aware of the evils that are present online as well as the benefits.  The article found that often “the negative videos in their study received more ratings and ‘likes’.” (Guidry, J. P. D et al 2015.). People often want to believe the opposite to what they are being told is “correct” in this case that vaccinees are the best way of protecting yourself and others from a variety of illnesses. Sifting through the large amounts of fake news and unreliable sources requires a developed digital citizenship to ensure one doesn’t fall into the trap of “fake news”.  

            This assignment highlights the importance and usefulness of Social Bookmarking, the two applications that we utilised in this assignment are Pocket and Pinterest. Both are Social Bookmarking tools were created to allow “individuals to easily discover what online information sources others find interesting and useful” (Gray, P.H. et al 2011). This is extremely beneficial in a groupwork environment as it promotes a sense of ease when co-workers or peers are trying to find similar information. Pocket and Pinterest both allow the user to collect, store and share information. Social bookmarking also allows the user to remain on top of trends and gain inspiration (Riserbato, R., 2023). This is key in presenting an up to date, knowledgeable online persona.

 Another way of presenting information is through a map-mashup. Using tools like Datawrapper allows users to present their information in new and exciting ways. Digital mapping has many benefits associated. These interactive maps often help businesses as there interactive features often allow consumers to find their business quicker, this interactive way of presenting information is also appealing and attention grabbing to users (Ziccardi, R. 2021). As someone who is not necessarily data minded, I found the process of imputing and creating my interactive map straightforward. These maps allow “non-experts[..] to exploit the power of maps without requiring the expertise traditionally associated” (Batty M et al. 2010). This promotes people to add to the information landscape that is ever growing and changing. I found this aspect of the assignment extremely interesting and found navigating the Datawrapper website straightforward, although I had to revisit some aspects of creating the map as I was confused at times.

Using screencast-o-matic and posting a video on YouTube for the first time was an interesting experience. In my opinion it is important for those with a developed digital citizenship to utilise Youtube by posting how to videos for those who are digitally illiterate (Vandana 2022). I thoroughly enjoyed this aspect of the assignment as I felt it was the most creative of the assigned projects.

Overall, this project was one I enjoyed, despite this enjoyment if I had been more patient, thorough and had given myself a longer time to complete the project I wouldn’t have made the amount of mistakes that I would have to rectify, in turn saving myself more time.

References

Batty, M., Hudson-Smith, A., Milton, R., & Crooks, A. (2010). Map mashups, web 2.0 and the GIS revolution. Annals of GIS, 16(1), 1–13. https://doi.org/10.1080/19475681003700831

Gray, P. H., Parise, S., & Iyer, B. (2011). Innovation impacts of using social bookmarking systems. MIS Quarterly, 35(3), 629–643. https://doi.org/10.2307/23042800

Guidry, J. P. D., Carlyle, K., Messner, M., & Jin, Y. (2015, August 28). On pins and needles: How vaccines are portrayed on Pinterest. Vaccine . https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0264410X15011925?via=ihub#sec0005

Hammond , T., Hannay , T., Lund , B., & Scott , J. (2005, April). Social Bookmarking Tools . Social bookmarking tools (I): A general review. http://www.dlib.org/dlib/april05/hammond/04hammond.html

Riserbato, R. (2023, July 7). The what, why, & how of Social Bookmarking. HubSpot Blog. https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/social-bookmarking

Vandana. (2022, December 17). 10 YouTube Advantages and disadvantages. Tech Quintal. https://www.techquintal.com/advantages-and-disadvantages-of-youtube/

Ziccardi, R. (2021, December 20). What is digital mapping? (uses, tools, and getting started). Maptelligent. https://maptelligent.com/blog/what-is-digital-mapping/

At Pilxlr we are the sole controller of any personal data we collect during your interaction with the website and your location. This personal data can include.

                Browsing Data: The information system and software procedures that are used to run the software collect a range of personal browsing data such as IP address, domain name, location of the data, the URL, and other parameters relating to the users operating system and computer environment.

                Registration Profile: In order to create an account on Pixlr, it is required to provide a range of personal information such as email address, country of residence, username and encrypted password.

                Financial Information: If you purchase anything from us, you will be required to provide your financial information such as card details, card numbers, card names, cvv/cvc, and expiry dates. We do not hold card information once the payment is completed.

                Contact Us: When contacting us on any of our emails such as,  info@pixlr.com, creators@pixlr.com, education@pixlr.com or legal@pixlr.com  you will be required to submit your name, email address and any other information as you see fit, that we will collect from you.

                Cookies: We use cookies to track your activity on our website, including our social media features and services. For more information, please visit our cookies policy.

The submission of your personal data is not necessary to utilise our services. However, any refusal to submit certain information may affect our inability to provide you with certain products or services. At any time, you have the right to withdraw your consent towards our access of your personal information.

Information we may share and data recipients.

Your personal data is processed by our personnel, and if necessary your personal data may be processed by a third party in order to fulfil the needs of the company in order to give you the best experience using our tool. The third parties who may receive your data are classified as either third parties or public entities. In rare cases your data may be processed outside the EU in other Pixlr Pte, Ltd or other third party companies. We have ensured that we have adopted safeguards to maintain the rights you have in the EU even if your information is being processed outside of the EU.

Data retention is imperative to give you the best experience of our service and therefore we retain all personal data for the duration of the time our account is active with us. Once you have ceased your account with us we will delete your personal data within 30 days.

We protect all your data behind firewalls, penetration testing etc and require our employs to consistently implement and upgrade our security measure.

Your rights

You have the right to obtain any of your information from our company at any time. You have the request your personal data at any time  and receive it in a readable, well structured and commonly used format and request the transmission of said data. You have the right to object to the processing of your data time and we will cease the processing of your data.  You can opt out of receiving marketing emails from us at any time, ceasing us using your Personal data for marketing purposes free of charge.  

Changes to privacy policy

We keep our privacy policy under regular review and we update our policy regularly. The updates policy shall apply and supersede all privacy policies. As a result, we encourage you to check this policy on a regular basis.

Justification

My main concern when reinventing Pixlrs privacy policy was the length of the policy and the language used. Most social media users will agree that the terms and conditions are often extremely lengthy and use plenty of legal jargon that limits the users understanding.       As a result of this I examined the current privacy policy of Pixl and according to the 5rights website I edited and simplified their policy to cut through the fancy jargon and ensure the policy was a quick read that highlighted where the users information is going and what Pixlr do to ensure the users personal data remains safe and is not abused.

This module has allowed me to expand my digital literacy skills and further develop my digital presence. In this new era of technology, it is vital to create and maintain a Personal Digital Strategy that you can use to market yourself and opens the door for new opportunities. The activities completed throughout the module has helped grow and develop my digital strategy. The activities taken as a part of this e portfolio have allowed me to learn and discover new and innovative technologies and applications that have educated me and helped me market myself and my digital life.

This e-portfolio contained multiple tasks and utilised many different platforms that I was unaware of as well as returning to the same social media tools that were relied on previously. One of these tools was Padlet, “Padlet digitizes the notice board for a rich media space that makes education communications better” (Edwards, 2022), revisiting this tool reminded me how useful it is, allowing me to creatively share my thoughts and work with my peers. The collaborative benefits of Padlet have been discussed in a study by the UM research repository, they found that students could “learn and generate new ideas when using this tool” (DeWitt et al., 2015). Documenting my work on Padlet, decorating the background and customising aspects of the colour, font etc was extremely rewarding as it unlocked a new aspect of enjoyment. Once my creative juices were flowing, I found it extremely easy to work on another aspect of my portfolio. The infographic was a challenging aspect of my portfolio, I found it difficult to shorten my language to fit into the text boxes and not overwhelm the reader with text. Organising the poster, changing the sizes of boxes, and moving things around was tedious at times and one needs patience and a steady hand to achieve success. A study carried out in 2020 by Senel Elaldi and Taner ÇİFÇİ found that the use of infographics has a “positive affect on academic achievement” (Elaldi & Çifçi, 2020). Using infographics to present information is something I will continue to do in the future as it is a memorable, interesting way to present information. Using Canva to create my infographic was extremely rewarding as they provide free templates that they allow you to modify, resulting in an extremely professional looking product even if one is not as creative.

Creating my LinkedIn account was something I had never done before beginning E-portfolio B. I was at first unsure of what I would put on my profile as I am still a student and am not looking for any other part time work. However, I was pleasantly surprised as I found many different options to list myself as and found many of my peers already having an account. I enjoyed making connections with my friends and family and discovering new ways to market myself in a more professional manner. Neal Schaffer believes this professional networking is different to other social media forms such as Instagram and Twitter “The type of networking you engage in on LinkedIn involves showing your detailed skills and forging valuable connections” (Schaffer et al., 2024).

One of the last activities we had to complete was to rewrite a privacy policy. I felt unsure where to begin as privacy policies are not something that I often read or pay any attention to, often finding the language used too complicated to understand. Barbara Krumay and Jennifer Klar analyse the language used in their 1970 paper on the topic stating that “as legal and technical issues often require specific expert language, organizations have to find a solution to transfer the information in a way that the users are able to comprehend it” (Krumay & Klar, 1970). Learning how to simplify the language used on these topics allowed me to understand the complicated language further developing my knowledge on maintaining a safe digital presence.

Reflection is a vital part of learning. There are many benefits towards reflecting after completing a task, these have been discussing in a Harvard Business School article stating benefit such as “Reflection builds one's confidence in the ability to achieve a goal (i.e., self-efficacy), which in turn translates into higher rates of learning.” (Di Stefano et al., 2014). This experience has allowed me to reflect on my digital presence and how important it is to maintain a positive Personal Digital Strategy, ensuring I keep my personal data safe and market myself in a positive light.

This E-portfolio has challenged me intellectually and introduced me to new applications that I would’ve never discovered beforehand. Using the skills I have developed over the course of this module I have realised the importance of developing a strong sense of digital literacy and creating a Personal Digital Strategy that will benefit in both my career and personal life.

                                                                     References

DeWitt, D., Alias, N., & Siraj, S. (2015, May 1). Collaborative learning: Interactive debates using padlet in a higher education institution. UM Research Repository. https://eprints.um.edu.my/13630/

Di Stefano , G., Gino, F., Pisano , G., & Staats, B. (2014, April 11). Learning by thinking: How reflection improves performance. HBS Working Knowledge. https://hbswk.hbs.edu/item/learning-by-thinking-how-reflection-improves-performance

Edwards, L. (2022, May 9). What is Padlet and how does it work? Tips & Tricks. TechLearningMagazine. https://www.techlearning.com/how-to/what-is-padlet-and-how-does-it-work-for-teachers-and-students

Elaldi, S., & Çifçi, T. (2020, November 30). The effectiveness of using infographics on academic achievement: A meta-analysis and a meta-thematic analysis. Journal of Pedagogical Research. https://eric.ed.gov/?id=EJ1338500

Krumay, B., & Klar, J. (1970, January 1). Readability of privacy policies. SpringerLink. https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-030-49669-2_22

Schaffer, B., Schaffer, N., & Skrba, A. (2024, April 16). What do I put in my linkedin profile if I am a college student?. Neal Schaffer Official Site. https://nealschaffer.com/linkedin-profile-students/