Reclaim Open Learning

better online learning for higher ed

Digital Tattoo Project

September 20, 2013 by Claudia Caro Sullivan

http://digitaltattoo.ubc.ca/

Kathleen Kalk, University of British Columbia
Cindy Underhill, University of British Columbia
Julie Mitchell, University of British Columbia

The goal of Digital Tattoo project is to provide peer support for students to develop responsible, judicious and analytical approaches to their decisions regarding their online identities. The project aims to teach what to share, with whom and how best to participate across varied networks, both as a consumer and as a creator. Comprised of a website, workshop curriculum and teaching resources, the project hopes to raise questions, provide examples and highlight resources. It is essential in this digital age to encourage learners to think about their presence online and educate learners about their rights and responsibilities as digital citizens. Students create the content of the site acting as authors/bloggers, workshop facilitators and video producers.

The foundations of the Digital Tattoo project are notions of participatory culture and digital literacy which come from the works of critic, writer and teacher Howard Rheingold (2012) , media scholar Henry Jenkins (2009) and social media researcher danah boyd. The Digital Tattoo website themes, workshop curriculum and teaching resources introduce both chances for reflection and opportunities to take action related to their own use of online tools. The topics are varied and wide-ranging covering issues such as cyberbullying, privacy, collaborative online learning, copyright and digital identity as it impacts career prospects. Supporting our project students who are authoring this content requires a sophisticated understanding and synthesis of the goals we are trying to achieve.

The Digital Tattoo Project is designed to raise questions, provide examples and links to resources to encourage students and educators to think about their presence online, navigate the issues involved in forming and re-forming digital identity and learn about the rights and responsibilities of a digital citizen. The content is created by students from the University of British Columbia and is constantly evolving to keep pace with the newest trends in social media. The website is fully interactive with comment treads, blogs and an active social media presence.

The Digital Tattoo Project was created with the goal of providing open access materials to the Vancouver community and beyond. The site material is geared toward both university students and educators. It contains interactive quizzes, learning tutorials and quirky Youtube videos to engage a first time user. It also contains an updated wiki with teaching materials including lesson plans and sets of slides. All of the Digital Tattoo Projects materials are embeddable, allowing universities from anywhere on the planet to teach the importance of a positive online identity.

The Digital Tattoo Project works to create an active conversation by writing a weekly blog entry focus on recent news stories which concern digital identity. The blogs are written by UBC students and reach out to their peers on subject such as Snapchat, UBC scandals and personal branding for young adults. We have learned that university students are much more interested in their online privacy and identity then the media gives them credit for. We hope to grow in our reach and to encourage more conversation. We know from our workshops that high school and university students are interested in our research; we would like to reach a wider audience though educators using our materials and the students themselves.

Additional Resources:
http://www.youtube.com/user/digitaltattoo
http://digitaltattoo.ubc.ca/blog/
http://wiki.ubc.ca/Documentation:Digital_Tattoo_Curriculum

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