SOCIAL NETWORKS AND THE CONSTRUCTION OF IDENTITY IN DIGITAL ENVIRONMENTS
Keywords:
Online identity, social networks, digital literacies, analysis modelAbstract
The recognition of the creative, participatory and social dimensions of the Web brought profound changes to the way individuals approach education, identity, practice and knowledge. In a scenario characterized by connectivity and ease of access to people and content, the network provides a space where people can interact, learn, share experiences and build a reputation and identity available and accessible to the entire community. When it is almost impossible to stay out of the digital world and, therefore, of the production of an online identity, this paper addresses issues related with digital literacy, social networks and online identity. Presenting the main results of a case study developed at the University of Aveiro – Portugal, this paper describes how a group of students from a Master Degree Course adopted social networks to build a presence over the web and how they created, manifested and managed their online identity. When the characteristics of the digital world change the ways of building identity, and in a scenario where the contextualization of data and information is becoming increasingly important, this paper reflects upon the importance and relevance of building an identity in open social online environments.
Downloads
References
Greenhow, C., Robelia, B., & Hughes, J., Learning, teaching, and scholarship in a digital age. In
Educational Researcher, 38(4), 2009, 246-259.
Bryant, L., Emerging trends in social software for education. in Emerging Technologies for
Learning, 2, 2007, 9-17
Hargadon, S., Long-handled spoons and collaborative technologies. In “Steve Hargadon” blog
[online], 2009, February 13. Retrieved 23 January 2012 at
http://www.stevehargadon.com/2009/02/long-handled-spoons-and-collaborative.html.
Solomon, G. e Schrum, L., Web 2.0 – new tools, new schools. In International Society for
Technology in Education (ISTE). Washington, DC, 2007.
Bawden, D., Origins and Concepts of Digital Literacy. in C. Lankshear & M. Knobel (Ed.),
Digital Literacies, Concepts, Policies and Practices. Peter Lang Publishing, Inc. NY, 2008, 17-32.
Guth, S. e Helm, F., Tellecolaboration 2.0 – Language, Literacies and Intercultural Learning in the
st Century. Sarah Guth & Francesca Helm (eds.). Peter Lang AG, International Academic
Publishers, Bern, 2010.
Goodfellow, R., Literacy, literacies, and the digital in higher education. Teaching in Higher
Education, 16(1), 2011, 131–144.
Martin, A., ‘Digital Literacy and the “Digital Society’. in Digital Literacies: Concepts, Policies
and Practices, Lankshear, C. and Knobel, M. (eds.) Oxford: Peter Lang, 2008, 151-176.
McLoughlin, C., What ICT-related skills and capabilities should be considered central to the
definition of digital literacy? In Proceedings of World Conference on Educational Multimedia,
Hypermedia and Telecommunications 2011, T. Bastiaens & M. Ebner (Eds.), Chesapeake, VA,
, 471- 475.
Costa, C., & Torres, R., To be or not to be, the importance of digital identity in the networked
society. inEducação, Formação e Tecnologia (extra number), 2011, 47-53.
Collis, B. and Moonen, J., Flexibility in Higher Education: Revisiting Expectations. In
Comunicar, 37(9), Scientific Journal of Media Literacy 2011, 15-24.
Redecker, C., Ala-Mutka, K., Punie, Y., and European Commission, J., Learning 2.0 - the impact
of social media on learning in Europe. Policy Brief. European Commission Joint Research
CentreInstitute for Prospective Technological Studies. Luxembourg: Office for Official
Publications of the European Communities, 2010.
Margaryan, A., Nicol, D., Littlejohn, A., Trinder, K., Luca, J., & Weippl, E., Students’ use of
technologies to support formal and informal learning. Paper presented at the World Conference on
Educational Multimedia, Hypermedia and Telecommunications, 2008.
Buckingham, D., Introducing Identity. In D. Buckingham (Ed.), Youth, Identity, and Digital
Media Cambridge, MA, 2008, 1- 24.
Clark, W., Logan, K., Luckin, R., Mee, A., and Oliver, M., Beyond web 2.0: Mapping the
technology landscapes of young learners. Journal of Computer Assisted Learning, 25(1), 2009,
-69.
Fiedler, S., Getting beyond centralized technologies in higher education, Part 2. In C.
Montgomerie & J. Seale (Eds.), Proceedings of World Conference on Educational Multimedia,
Hypermedia and Telecommunications, Chesapeake, VA, 2007, 1347-1353.
Franklin, T. and Harmelen, M., Web 2.0 for content Learning and Teaching in higher education.
Retrieved in http://www.jisc.ac.uk/media/documents/programmes /digitalrepositories/web2-
content- learning-and-teaching.pdf. , 2007.
Trinder, K., Guiller, J., Margaryan, A., Littlejohn, A., and Nicol, D., Learning from digital natives:
Bridging formal and informal learning. The Higher Education Academy. Research Project Report,
Final Report, 2008.
Aresta, M., A construção da identidade em ambientes digitais. Doctoral Thesis. University of
Aveiro, 2013.
Patrício, M. and Gonçalves, V., Facebook: rede social educativa?. In I Encontro Internacional TIC
e Educação. Lisboa: Universidade de Lisboa, Instituto de Educação, 2010, 593-598.
Pedro, N. and Ferreira, C., Facebook, Física e Social Network Analysis, Atas do II Congresso
Internacional de TIC e Educação –TIC Educa 2012. Lisboa, Portugal, 2012.
Boyd, D., and Ellison, N., Social Network Sites: Definition, History, and Scholarship. Journal of
Computer-Mediated Communication 13, 2008, 210–230.
Mislove, A., Viswanath, B., Gummadi, K., & Druschel, P., You are who you know: Inferring user
profiles in online social networks. Proceedings of the third ACM international conference on Web
search and data mining, 2010, 251-260.
Warburton, S., Out of control? Managing our digital reputations. Retrieved june 21, 2011, from
http://www.slideshare.net/stevenw/out-of-control-managing-our-digitalreputations?
from=share_email_logout2., 2009.
Coiro, J., Knobel, M. Lankshear C., & Leu, D., Central issues in new literacies and new literacies
research. In J. Coiro, M. Knobel, C. Lankshear, & D. Leu (Ed.), Handbook of research on new
literacies, New York: Lawrence Erlbaum, 2008, 1–21.
Zhao, S. Grasmuck, S. & Martin, J., Identity construction on Facebook: Digital empowerment in
anchored relationships. Computers in Human Behavior, 24 (5), 2008, 1816-1836.
Greenhow, C., & Robelia, B., Informal learning and identity formation in online social networks.
Learning, Media and Technology, 34(2), 2009,119-140.
Boyd, D., Why youth ♥ social network sites: The role of networked publics in teenage social life.
In D. Buckingham (Ed.), Youth, Identity, and Digital Media, Cambridge, MA, 2008, 119-142.
Fraser, J., Personal - Professional - Organisational: three basic online identities. In SocialTech |
This is the Beta Generation (blog), 2009, june 20. Retrieved november 20, 2010, from
http://fraser.typepad.com/socialtech/2009/07/personal-professional-organisational-three-basiconline-
identities.html.
