Who am I and Why am I here?

Greetings, fellow bloggers!

Never thought this day would come, but here I am, writing my very first blog!

I have often found blogging or posting any of my ideas in cyberspace to be intimidating.  Sure, I have posted some pictures and made a few comments to friends and relatives on Facebook, Instagram, and recently Twitter (sent my first Tweet about two weeks ago!), but sharing my thoughts with the world seemed very unsettling.  One of the reasons for avoiding blogging was my lack of understanding of social media.  Although I grew up using some technology, I consider myself to be more of a digital immigrant vs. digital native.

Now that I have shared why I have stayed away from blogging, let me share a bit about myself.  I am passionate about learning.  I love reading anything that is worth reading about, and will help me further develop my understanding of ideas.  I enjoy hands-on learning and trying new things, although I am very cautious and sometimes need a little push to get started! This blog is a perfect example: all it took to get started was a school assignment! Finally, not too long ago, I discovered that I have a flair for helping others learn, and that lead me to pursue a degree in education with a focus on Adult Education.  I am happy to announce that I will be graduating this June (yay!), and I am looking forward to starting my career as a corporate learning facilitator and doing something I truly enjoy.  Some of my hobbies include reading (if that was not obvious already!), painting, photography (started exploring that field recently), playing guitar, listening to music, and running.  I enjoy traveling, and visiting countries I have not been to before.  Last year, I had the opportunity to go to Maui, Hawaii, and San Francisco, California.  This year, I m setting my sight to somewhere in Asia (have yet to decide which country to visit).  I am committed to achieving any goals I set for myself, and 2016 already has a few goals lined up for me to accomplish.  Looking forward to realizing all my goals!

Recently, someone (whom I sincerely respect) encouraged me to get bolder!, and I think this blog will help me achieve this objective.  I see this blog as an opportunity not just to share what I know and am learning in this course, but also to and acquire knowledge from my peers.  I am glad I enrolled in the Learning in Digital Contexts course, as there are many things I have yet to learn about social media.  Happy to announce that learning has already started!  One of the ideas I learned in this week's lesson was about the Nine Elements of Digital Citizenship proposed by Ribble (2015), and which are based around the principles of REP: Respect, Educate, and Protect.

(Fractus Learning, 2014)

"These nine elements serve as the basis for appropriate technology use and form the foundation on which the digital society is based." (Ribble, 2015, p. 16)

I think every citizen should take a crash course on digital citizenship and understand the digital footprint they are leaving behind.

So who am I and why am I here?  I am a new blogger who is looking to acquire the digital literacy necessary to participate and become a contributing member of the cyberspace community.

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References

Ribble, M. (2015). Digital Citizenship in Schools (3rd ed.). Arlington, VA: International Society for Technology in Education.

Fractus Learning. (2014). Retrieved January 15, 2016 from http://www.fractuslearning.com/2014/09/09/digital-citizenship-poster/