Natalie Priester
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“Visitors and Residents”: Return to Being a Resident

6/7/2015

4 Comments

 
As I viewed Dr. David White’s video “Visitors and Residents” (2013) and learned about the visitor/resident theory of internet use motivation, I saw my own movement along his continuum.  I was rapidly moving away from the visitor end of the continuum toward the resident end around six years ago, but I have allowed my resident role to regress over the past four years.  Fortunately, I am now moving back toward the role of a public educator on the resident end of the continuum.     

Around five years ago, I figured out how the edtech world of Twitter, blogging, and conferences worked.  I had the skills to become a strong resident and tested the waters.  I engaged by making my classroom public, writing reflective blog posts, sharing resources, participating in chats, and attending conferences.  However, I noticed that the amount of time and energy it took to maintain this level of participation distanced me from my classroom.  I was connecting with other educators instead of my own students and their invested adults.  I was focusing on trends in education instead of developments in educating traumatized foster youth.  I intentionally migrated back toward the visitor end of Dr. White’s visitor-resident continuum.  

But, I went too far.  I zoomed too far into my campus.  I practically stopped reading educational texts, stopped Tweeting, abandoned my classroom and professional blog, and moved my classroom’s online presence to a closed learning management system.  I focused on building relationships with, and learning from, adults on my campus from partner agencies and instructional coaches provided by my district’s new administration team.  I increased my responsibilities on campus by adding varsity volleyball coach and ASB advisor to my existing role as English 9 & 10 teacher and yearbook advisor.  My professional online identity began suffering from neglect--but so did my teaching.         
However, I still used Instagram to connect with educators in my personal learning network. This nudged me back over to the resident side of Dr. White’s continuum. Among a feed of pictures of my friends’ pets, children, and dinners, I began to see posts of creative projects from Reuben Hoffman (@reubenhoffman), makerspace tinkerings from Mark Rounds (@markrounds5), and conference networking adventures of Jeff Heil (@jheil65).  They were having fun and just plain doing cool stuff.  They made me want to jump back into the world of learning, taking risks, and sharing.  I started photographing and posting events on my campus.  But, I noticed that I was not posting many images from my classroom---because nothing worth photographing was happening!  When I pulled back from reading, writing, and sharing with other educators to focus on campus, I had unintentionally pulled back from learning and challenging myself.  Even though I had not heard of Dr. White’s visitor-resident continuum at the time, I realized that I needed to push myself back into participating in conversations in order to continue learning.  

So, I am back!  I am now intentionally pushing myself along Dr. White’s continuum from the visitor position I regressed into and back toward the resident side where I know I need to be in order to be an effective educator.  I am Tweeting again.  I am reading educational text--including books about trauma.  I am teaching lessons worth sharing on Instagram.  I am registered for conferences.  I am learning Google+.  I am locked into a Master's program that I know will hold me accountable in case I get distracted.  And, I am writing my first reflective blog post in four years.     

Works Cited
White, D. (2013, May 30). Visitors and Residents. Retrieved June 7, 2015, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0sFBadv04eY  

4 Comments
Jake Bowker link
6/7/2015 08:53:48 am

Natalie,

I can completely relate with your story and the reasons for fluctuations in Dr. White's spectrum of resident vs. visitor. Although I had never established residency on the Internet (aside from Facebook), I had completely immersed myself into the small island community of Avalon. I became advisor to several school clubs, coached boys varsity cross country and volleyball, gave up my conference period to teach additional classes--I was trying to do everything the students wanted and/or needed me to do. The problem is that I didn't allow myself to do anything but visit the Internet, and that was even difficult with so much on my plate.

Getting married and having a son put things in perspective. Sure, my students mean a lot to me, and I will always to out of my way to help them, but I also need to prioritize my time. This program has created a new energy for me to establish online residency.

Just as you mentioned using online posts of creative projects you see from other educators, such as ideas from makerspace, I have found the small network we have established since this cohort began as motivation for dozens of projects and ideas. There's a wealth of knowledge between everyone in our group!

Dr. White's video inspires us to be transparent in order to share ideas in a nebular manner, rather than private and convergent in nature (White, 2013). It seems you're doing a great job balancing your time and energy so you can reestablish your online residency. I look forward to continuing to share ideas with you and our cohort, via our personal learning networks, for the sake of our students. Thank you for your great depiction of your experience with Dr. White's resident vs. visitor spectrum.

Reference:

White, D. (2013, May 30). Visitors and Residents. Retrieved June 7, 2015, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0sFBadv04eY

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Andrea Jacobs link
6/7/2015 09:12:37 am

Wow, what a journey! I have never really ventured to the "resident" side of the spectrum because I tend not to want to post opinions, tweets, pictures publicly. After reading everything that you had accomplished by maintaining a presence online, I now know there is value in it. It may not have worked for you in the beginning but it sounds like you are finding a balance now. I have accounts on various social media websites, but they have always been private accounts. Publicly sharing things was not considered "appropriate" because students may see. I know most of my students have social media accounts also so having a public presence online can be challenging if they have access to your profiles. However, I know that is changing. I do know that being a teacher has always made me extra careful about what I post online. This may have had an influence on how much I have engaged with the internet, but now I know I can maintain a presence in a professional manner that will be good for my students and I.

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Polly Macuga link
6/7/2015 09:30:50 am

Great cautionary tale. We do need to be careful to maintain a balance, we should not be so involved in our online life that we forget or neglect the students and others we have before us. It is challenging to keep a good balance. I have not been able to balance this in my professional life. I have posted very little professionally and mostly use the internet as a toolbox to accomplish the task at hand. I am looking forward to be able to have a more effective online presence and think this course will definitely help me accomplish that.

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Kelly Urena
6/8/2015 05:27:56 am

I have very similar thoughts as to Andrea, in that I don't like to post comments, opinions publicly. I love to read what others post (on twitter) like it, retweet but I have yet to post my own original thought or link to a blog post. I don't know if it is the fear of rejection or someone judging me but I have stayed away....until now! I think a balance of posting and sharing both publicly and personally is key as you mention. I too had not heard of White's continuum but after listening to him describe it, it was something I has always been thinking about it. I am thankful for this course as it has already pushed me into the uncomfortable zone....no going back now!

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    A collection of my learning from SDSU EDL 680 Seminar in Personalized Learning 

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