Courtney's Blog Corner

This week’s module focused on participatory culture , virtual communities , and what it means to develop a public voice online . Reading Chapter 3 of Howard Rheingold’s Net Smart really expanded my understanding of how engagement in digital spaces isn’t just about clicking “like” it’s about becoming part of a community. Rheingold explains that participation helps shape digital culture, and that when we actively engage by creating content, responding to others, and contributing ideas, we’re not just using the internet. One part that stood out to me was Rheingold’s Power Law of Participation . It shows how online engagement ranges from low-level interactions like tagging and liking to high-level leadership actions like moderating or writing.  I realized that even though I scroll a lot and occasionally comment, I’m more of a lurker. To really participate, I need to be more intentional about joining conversations and contributing original content, especially as I build my blog. Rhein...

This week focused on three core types of literacy that are essential in today’s digital environment: information literacy , digital literacy , and media literacy . Each of these plays a different but connected role in how we search for, evaluate, and use information online. In “Googlepedia: Turning Information Behaviors into Research Skills,” Randall McClure highlights how most students start their research with Google instead of academic databases. He writes that “nine out of every ten students begin the process of searching for information on the Web” (2011, p. 221), which shows why information literacy is more important than ever. Information literacy helps us identify what we need, find it effectively, evaluate it for accuracy and credibility, and use it responsibly. Digital literacy builds on this by adding the technical skills needed to navigate online tools and platforms. It includes everything from knowing how to search databases and use online collaboration tools to unde...

This week we focused on digital authorship :  how writing online transforms not just the way we write, but who we are as writers. One idea that really stood out came from Sean Michael Morris, who wrote that “digital writing is action.” He explains that once something is written and shared online, it starts to move and evolve without the author’s control. Readers become part of the process, and authors don’t get to keep full control of what their words will mean or how they’ll be interpreted. That idea connects to Barthes’ Death of the Author , which basically argues that readers create meaning, not authors. It’s the audience’s job to interpret a text and digital writing makes that interaction even more visible. Blogs, for example, blur the line between writer and reader. In Adlington and Feez’s article, they explain how blog comments help shape future posts. In that way, readers actually co-author content. It made me think about how I’ve responded to online content before, and how...