Fracturing Identities

 The fragmented educator 2.0: Social nTHis week I read over a portion of a professor’s tenure packet and another article by Kimmons and Veletsianos (2014) entitled, “The fragmented educator 2.0: Social networking sites, acceptable identity fragments, and the identity constellation.”

Looking at the tenure packet was interesting because of the small amount of the document that was dedicated to a primary focus of his research agenda. This professor works primarily on open educational resources, and yet, it is not something that fits within the metrics that are an important part of the current academic schema. And yet, if you were to compare the impact of this professor to the impact of scholars who are active on Twitter and their blogs, it is important to realize where the bigger impact can be made. I don’t mean to be condescending to my professors. I’ve had so many amazing professors throughout my academic career, but there's a difference between the impact of those who are writing for those in an educational setting and those who are making it so that their resources are available to astute students worldwide.

And yet, none of those things are meaningful when it comes to their professional standing. When it comes to professionalism, it is still expected that teachers and students do not mix company and that teachers don’t really have lives outside of the department in which they work, and that is sometimes limited to the office in which they work.  And somehow, those professionals are expected to be able to converse with one another while maintaining their secret private lives. Those who are advocating for open resources are among the leaders in trying to break through those barriers, posting aobut hobbies, ideologies and more on their Twitter, Facebook and other social media profiles and blogs.

But again, these are professors who have earned their place in academia and put in the time to have the time to reach out and try to help others in this way.  Identity is very important and it isn’t a luxury most people can reimagine or create and cultivate as they go thro and try to resolve this fragmentation of their identity.


Comments

  1. EmilyApril 14, 2022 at 3:36 PM

    I think that faculty do amazing work to get tenure. I like how you discuss the impact that open scholarship has and how these public forums allow for more sharing. And more work. While we are assessing what kinds of standards should be used in evaluation, such as quantitative or qualitative, perhaps we should recognize that the two might be in direct conflict with each other in the lives of real people who can't meet every cumulative benchmark of old systems and new. With open scholarship, I hope we all scholars to shift their platforms rather than adding three more juggling balls to the air.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Figuring out How

  This week I read: Assumptions and Challenges of Open Scholarship by Veltsianos and Kimmons Vision, Plans, and Policies, EdTechnica In these articles, Veletsianos and Kimmons discuss the difficulties associated with the ideals of open scholarship. There are a number of issues with open scholarship aas there are with any other way of creating establishments in the area of learning, or any other type of area. Up to the point of this article, it sounds as if there had been much aplomb and interest in open education, but the focus was entirely on the utility and wonder of open scholarship. Open scholarship is great. However, there are a number of questions that have gone unanswered like how to make sure that the information being provided is good and accurate. It si an important piece of teh pizzle, ensuring that the knowledge that is spread is good information, but how can that be done?
Read more

The Online Self

 This week I read three articles: 1. Connectivism Defined by Downes 2.  Digitial Identities by Stewart 3. Seven Habits of Highly Conected People by Downes      The central focus of these was in the online self and connecting with others.  The argument is made that in order to connect with others, you must be online and engaged in the community where your research and conversational areas are taking place. If you are only writing work and not taking teh time to read, then you are not a part fo the conversation and cannot be aware of what is going on around you. I do wonder, though, how much can be done without some awareness of the conversations going on aruond us. If I, as someone with an interest in computational thinking, want to contribute and go about learning more in the area of computational thinking, then I do need to build my work on that of others and be aware of what is going on in the world around me. If I am not aware of the literature, for example, I may not be aware th
Read more

“Oh, please, wise interwebs…”

We go through life often looking at Google to lead us in the way we should go. Which is the best blender on the market? What is it that I can do for this ailment? Which program is the best for me? Well, there is an issue with this mindset. The internet can give you facts, but cannot give you the answers you are seeking. These answers can only be found in using the information collected with yoru knowledge of your values.  The article I read this week was "I Won't Let You Pay Me for My Open Source" by David Heinemeier Hansson and it spoke particularly of the viewpoints of RAILS vs.  Microsoft pointed out that thee were similarities in their background, but that they are diametrically opposed on a variety of topics because of their choices and their expectations of others. The author of this article has put forth software into the world as open-sourced and hopes that people will contribute their work to the public as well. Sharing the work does not mean that they need to b
Read more