Closure

As the semester is coming to an end, I have looked back and I have realized that I have learned so much. I learned about many thing I have overlooked or didn’t realize were important when it comes to my involvement in then internet. The book Net Smart  has definitely helped with helping me learn what it means to a good digital citizen and also how to become a good digital citizen

Some things I learned from the author, Howard Rheingold about becoming a better digital citizen include, being able to identify crap on the internet. We shouldn’t believe every thing we read online. Making sure it is a reliable source is crap detection 101. One thing I have learned to check on my sources is the date of the article or last time the webpage was updated. We never want old out of date data, especially when there can be new up to date information out there. Another thing I’ve learned to do is check their resources. Where are they getting their information and are their sources reliable and true. It good to explore around to look for these kinds of things to lower your engagement with misinformation. Another way to avoid misinformation is to look at sources you already know are reliable. There are many scholarly articles and journals we have access to.

Another thing I learned from Rheingold about being a better digital citizen is how to participate through the internet and social media. Like one of his chapters is named, Participation Power, we have the power to make changes if we get involved. The slightest participation can lead to great change. The Egyptian revolution is a great example. It started with just one person but participation from many people created a change. With the creation of a Facebook page in remembrance of a young man who was killed by policemen, people began to like, favor and share and the the story blew up. This lead to networking and even collaborating of these people who wanted justice and peace. Like in the Egyptian revolution, I think we can make many changes in the world and we can do so by participating and networking with people who have similar interests as us. I now more motivated to get involved in participating online if it is in something I have an interest in.

I think that I have grown as a digital citizen but I can improve a lot more. I see myself using social media a lot more, especially twitter. Doing the assignments such as lurking and engaging online made me realize that there is more than just communicating with your friends through the media sites. So much can be learned and I have learned so much from just lurking about the LGBT community alone. There is an endless amount of learning to be done and it doesn’t all have to be in the classroom. We can learn from one another, share interests, share our knowledge and use it to make changes.