Hello! For this final reflection post on MANG 2049, I have created a video. This is my first video-making so do go easy on me if you found mistakes. As usual, comments are very much welcome.
Currently, my professional profiles are Twitter and LinkedIn.
Apart from my own findings on Open Access, I have discovered more interesting findings and receive further insight on Open Access. I personally like to thank Vanessa for her question on the credibility of an online degree as compared to traditional degree. It got me thinking about if open access allows us to receive all the education that we need, should we then still pursue after traditional college degree? My answer to that is still yes even though pursuing an online degree seems to have a lot more benefits as compared to traditional degree. There are still some variations between them and it depends on how you see them as well. My reasons for pursuing traditional degree is because
Your degree may be well-recognised given that employers might have concerns over the credibility of your online degree and they recognise your traditional college’s reputation.
You will most likely have the chance of getting onto internships and summer programs etc
You can take advantage of your campus life and widen your connections with your club friends etc
For more information, check out my reply to her. Apart from that, I think Ebrahim’s post about coursera is also a good example on online degree.
Also, the video Sylvia’s post on online content producer got me thinking about supporting them. Seriously, if not for open access, I guess I can’t even complete those questions. I think that’s why funding from all around the world started coming in to help authors produce open access journals as a support. When this happens, paywalls issues may still be unavoidable but there’s still a glimpse of hope that we can still do our research and get our answers through open access because someone is behind supporting it. So today, would you too play in a part in supporting open access? I will support open access as it is more blessed to give than to receive.
Ever encountered having to purchase an online article just for your research purposes on the Internet? Below is an example.
Ever wonder what is the cause of this? Well, the answer is simple; you are not accessing an open access file. Wait, do you mean not everything on the internet is freely accessible?
Yes, you got that right.
According to Open Access Blog, Open Access is a free and immediate online availability of research articles (Open Access Button). Presently, most of the scholarly research articles can only be accessible through expensive journal subscriptions known as ‘paywalls’ (Open Access Button). The purpose of Open Access is to provide everyone the advantage of accessible knowledge for free. (Open Access Button).
Watch this video to learn more about Open Access Button.
Since we are into this topic ‘Open Access’, let’s look at some of the pros and cons of freely accessible online articles.
Firstly, with the existence of open access, it creates a free access to learning (Francesca, 2014). Everyone has the ability to learn without having to pay those high fees in order to access these materials. Secondly, because it’s free, it allows anyone to access that material anytime, anywhere (Francesca, 2014). This is exceptionally true given the digital world we live in. Also, as the connections widens, this definitely helps to increase the number of readers of a specific author’s works (Francesca, 2014). The author is able to share its work with the ease of little to no cost as compared to traditional publication methods of expensive printing and distribution costs (Francesca, 2014).
However, Open Access still has its disadvantages. Firstly, when you produce an online article for free, it is difficult to sustain it without people paying you despite you may be credited for references (Francesca, 2014). As such, you may not want to publish your content for free. Secondly, if you produce an open access article, you might be criticised for being ‘low class’ because the revenue is obtained from you rather than the readers (Mark & Christopher, 2005). Therefore it may result in fewer selections and the lack of peer review (Open Access Working Group, 2012).
In conclusion, I think it really blot down to the objective of the content producer. If his motive is to make momentary profit and not for educational purposes, then open access will definitely not be one of his choices. However, if the content producer chooses to go open access, his return may not be all that painful after all.
Here are some readers who has benefited from the open access articles from Scholarly Publishing @ MIT Libraries.
Scholarly Publishing – MIT Libraries | Readers Share Their Stories: Comments on Open Access Articles . 2014. Scholarly Publishing – MIT Libraries | Readers Share Their Stories: Comments on Open Access Articles. [ONLINE] Available at: http://libraries.mit.edu/scholarly/comments-on-open-access-articles/. [Accessed 09 December 2014].
Honestly speaking, in regards to my previous post, I think I have written out of scope because I could not specify more and relate social bashing towards the educational ethic measure. If you have better ideas of how I can relate my previous post to the educational measure, please comment and let me know 🙂
Coming back to the ethical issues of social media, social media has blurred the private/public boundaries when individuals’ personal information and opinions enter the public domain (Business Ethics Briefing). Facebook is one of the common social networks that people expresses themselves However, did you know that there are people who are fired after expressing themselves on Facebook? Read all of them here. Some of which are really surprising I must say.
After reading some of my classmates posts, I personally like what Evan has posted about the ethical issues from the education sector. He mentioned about the standard code of ethics which makes me think deeper about whether are we really being ethical on the internet when we voice out our opinions. This leads me to research more about the reasons why it is a must for organisation to instil a code of ethics if everyone knows what is right from what is wrong. According to SmallBusiness.chron.com, the code of ethics helps to set the minimum standards for business owners, managers and employees to monitor when completing various business functions (Osmond). It helps companies to improve business relationships, prohibit inappropriate behaviour, etc (Osmond).
In conclusion, I think the whole idea about being ethical on the social media is to be able to exercise self-control over our own emotions and being professional at what we do. Different countries may have different point of views due to its culture and environment aspects but what we post on the internet definitely speaks a lot about ourselves, won’t you agree?
17 People Who Were Fired For Using Facebook – Business Insider. 2014.17 People Who Were Fired For Using Facebook – Business Insider. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.businessinsider.com/facebook-fired-2011-5?IR=T&op=1. [Accessed 08 December 2014].
In a world where we have the freedom of speech and the control over our own social networks, it is very easy for us to fall into the pit hole of living in the world of itself. Therefore, it is of great importance for us to know some of the ethical issues that are raised by the social media.
In my post, I will be focusing on the ethical issues raised by the educational use of social media. One of the ethical issues that has gotten my attention is social bashing. According to Clickworker.com, social bashing refers to an abusive verbal attack via social media activity (Clickworker, 2014).
Does anyone here still remember the case of a 14-year-old Singaporean girl who has slapped her mother twice and posting in public? That is an example of social bashing. The picture below shows her post in 2011 and comments that comes in after.
Credits: newnation.sg
How will you react after reading this? Her post has cause an uproar in Singapore and was reported in the local newspapers, Lianhe Wanbao and The New Paper (Lim Bei Ling, 2011). If you are interested, you can refer to the rest of the story here.
So, coming back to the topic on ethical behaviour, it sure pays big when we simply act in a freedom of our own will. We may think that everything will be okay because it has been kept private. However, there will always be people watching over us even if we may not like their existence, e.g. hackers, cyberbullies, etc.
So what should we do then? The answer is simple, do not post anything that will put your online identity much less your reputation at risk. If you do not have something nice to say, don’t say it. You never know who will be out to backfire you at the other end. Also, you might just want to seek other people’s opinion on the issue that you are trying to address across to the other party before posting it up. It may be an extra mile that you are making but I believe it sure speaks well of your heart’s motives.
I know in my previous post, I mention about being real, but that should not give anyone the intention to put others down despite you may disagree with the other party’s view. The bottom line is, treat others like how you want to be treated (Public Relations Sydney Blog, 2014) be it in public or online.
As compared to the previous two reflection summaries, this time I have taken more time to read through more classmates’ posts about online professional profiling. Quite a huge span of them has mentioned about the ways of developing professional online profile, mine was not an exception as well. Also, a number of them have actually mentioned about online profiles replacing resumes in the employer recruitment process. And I thought, will resumes still be necessary in the near future? And the short answer to that is, yes. Here’s why:
According to BusinessInsider.com, there is still a high possibility that our resumes are being reviewed by filtering software. And the key thing is, this software does not work on online profiles (Vivian, 2013) so bear this in mind. Coming from the same article, another reason is, if your employer happens to be someone from generation X or boomers, chances are they will still prefer hard-copies resumes. ‘If the resume is sitting on someone’s desk, they’ll pick it up.’- Terry Pile
In any case, I will still say both resume and online professional profiles have equal importance despite one could be losing out on another. However, I think it’s of relevant importance for us to know the key differences between a resume and a LinkedIn profile since we have been talking about LinkedIn and employment.
In conclusion, updating an online professional profile is easy but keeping it interesting to your viewers is challenging. Needless to say on portraying yourself as someone you are not (Novina’s blogpost, 2014). Here‘s a tip I found on Evelina’s blog about keeping authenticity in mind while improving your online profile. To end off, I think everything blot down to this two questions. Am I being real to myself? Is this what I really want? The answer(s) to them will drive us behind what we do.
Check out my comments on both Novina’s and Rachel’s blogs. Hope you have an interesting read. Stay tuned for upcoming posts! Thanks for your support! 🙂
Truth Will Out – Why Authenticity is the Key to Growing Your Business. 2014. Truth Will Out – Why Authenticity is the Key to Growing Your Business. [ONLINE] Available at: https://blog.kissmetrics.com/truth-will-out/. [Accessed 03 December 2014].
As discussed in the previous post about having single or multiple digital identities, we all know that as long as we remain consistent with our online accounts, it doesn’t matter whether we have multiple digital identities or not. However, speaking of having an authentic online professional profile, I think it all blot down to this term called self-branding.
Self-branding is like a signal in the noise of the human capital (Tomas, ‘The Future of You’, 2013). The stronger your brand is, the stronger your signal will be to the rest of the world. The image that we portrait ourselves online speaks a lot about our self-branding. Why then is it so important for us to act professionally online as well?
Well, the reason is simply because in this fast-paced improving technology world, employers can just tap on the Internet to seek out information about their potential employees anytime, anywhere. Therefore, having an effective online presence is no longer an option; it’s a must (Member Blog, 2013). Continue reading →
After reading Isaac’s blogpost on Topic 2, I have gained further insight about major digital identities. Currently, I would consider myself to have both transactional and social digital identities. I presume that my transactional digital identity will be my Qoo10 (commonly called as ‘Gmarket’ in Singapore) account; it is an online shopping website. My social identity will definitely be my Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc. LinkedIn will be considered as our professional digital identity.
Prior to my comment on Isaac’s blogpost, I discovered the importance of owning our digital identities. ‘Nothing is definitely private online.’(Cristina, 2014, Google Hangout) If we do not own our digital identities, so what if it’s impressive outward-looking? Hackers could just intrude and mess things up. Therefore, we need to enforce on our security measures. This includes setting different passwords for different accounts or using the two-way authentication. Also, if you dislike your privacy being intruded, the best possible solution: do not publish anything that does not represent you well online (Cristina, 2014, Google Hangout). Similarly, we need to be sceptical whenever we are asked for our personal details online (Olja, 2014, Google Hangout). With that in mind, I will be more cautious with the next social network registration.
In conclusion, I’m glad to confirm that consistency across all our digital identities is essential no matter how many digital identities we have. If you find it difficult to maintain consistency across your digital identities, all you need to do is to link them all up. We can still choose to remain anonymous but remember, it will not be that forever. So why not be open about it? If you are afraid of being judged by others, I leave you with this quote.
Credits: pixgood.com
Thank you once again for reading my reflection; do share your thoughts if you have any. Stay tuned for more 🙂
Here’s the link for my comments on my classmates’ blogpost:
An online identity is the sum of all your characteristics and online interactions (Internetsociety.org). For instance, my online identity is Elisha Pay and all the other interactions surrounding me. When you have multiple accounts of different identities on Facebook or other network sites, you are likely to be termed as having one or more online identities. As comfortable as we may get with the digital world, we will never share everything about ourselves for fear of identity thefts and bad reputation at stake. For instance, we do not openly share about the bad habits we have.
Before this module, my Twitter account was private. I uses two-way authentication for security purposes on some of my personal accounts. When I first created my social network accounts, everything was public until I was hacked and had a bad stalking experience. I appreciate the creation of security tools but it’s a nuisance when I can’t remember the correct password and get locked out.
Having more than one identity
The argument for having more than one identity is to cope with the fear of being exposed and overexposed. (Jeff Jarvis, 2011) For instance, you would never want to expose your drunken state after drinking with your friends, on your Facebook for fear that your boss will see it and ‘downgrade’ you on a Monday morning. We all have that fear in us, haven’t we? However, being anonymous allow us to have that high-ranking superheroes status without revealing our real identity.
However, in reality, everyone wants genuine consistency. When people found out about your secret ‘superhero’ ranking status, they may look down on you for being a coward. It gets worse when it leads to trust issues or even acceptance (Cristina & Ricardo, 2011). For instance, if you are able to spend that much of time in build up your gaming profile, you are capable of fulfilling your current but you failed to.
As much as having multiple online identities may lead others to think that we are inconsistent, the problem does not lies with having single or multiple online identities. In fact, the creation of even one single account marks the beginning of our digital self (Cistina & Ricardo, 2011). On second thought, it is quite impossible for us to remain connected to only one social network given the fast-growing technology pace. Therefore, the only concern that we should have is to be consistent no matter how many identities we have online.
To be or not to be, the importance of Digital Identity in the networked society | Costa | Educação, Formação & Tecnologias – ISSN 1646-933X. 2014. To be or not to be, the importance of Digital Identity in the networked society | Costa | Educação, Formação & Tecnologias – ISSN 1646-933X. [ONLINE] Available at: http://eft.educom.pt/index.php/eft/article/view/216/126. [Accessed 01 December 2014].
After having a look at other people’s blogpost about Visitors and Residents, I believe all of us now are fully aware of the differences between visitors and residents. According to David White, he mention that the difference between visitors and residents is visitors do not leave any traces of existence on the Web but residents do (References – a). Another online article that I came across mentions that we could be residents in some spaces but only ‘short-lived’ (References – b). This means that the current digital space that we are living in might just be substituted by something else as time passes. Anyone remembers Friendster? It has been replaced by Facebook in the current years. Who knows what will be next to take over Facebook?
References – c
One of the things that I found out about digital visitors and residents, in order to understand them better, we have to get behind on what motivates them to come back to the digital world (References – d)? We are clearly aware that age is not a factor that defines whether they are visitors or residents. No doubt that the older generations might not be used to the network spaces because they do not grow up with them. However, as they ‘stay longer’ on the digital space, they will be used to the digital platforms just like how the young people do nowadays.
In conclusion, I guess it doesn’t matter so much whether we are a visitor or a resident. In realities, we could be both a visitor and a resident. For instance, in the visitor mode, I could be researching on different types of flowers to fulfil my science project. I can also be a resident sharing on my Twitter about my weekend. The key takeaway is, will we be prepared for what is ahead of us now or we just remain as where we are now?
References
a. Visitors and Residents – YouTube. 2014.Visitors and Residents – YouTube. [ONLINE] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sPOG3iThmRI. [Accessed 28 November 2014].
d. Visitors and residents: what motivates engagement with the digital information environment?. 2014.Visitors and residents: what motivates engagement with the digital information environment?. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.informationr.net/ir/18-1/paper556.html#.VHggj9KUc1J. [Accessed 28 November 2014].
ELISHA PAY WEN HUI 
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