Having watched the Visitors and Residents video, this activity asks you to apply it to your own practice. Using this perspective to think about how you use different tools is a useful means of mapping your online identity.

First, try creating a Visitors and Residents map for yourself, as shown in the video in Step 4.6.

Draw a horizontal line labelled ‘Visitor’ at one end and ‘Resident’ at the other. Now draw a vertical line that crosses your horizontal line in the middle, labeled ‘Personal’ at the top and ‘Institutional’ at the bottom. This will create four areas, where you can place boxes to represent your use of online tools.

You can draw this with pen and paper as in the video, or you might use a tool such as Word, or PowerPoint to create the grid, or a drawing package if you have one.

Consider the different technologies, tools and apps you use at work and in your personal life. If your personal use of a tool is very much as a Visitor, add a box for that tool at the top left. If you use a tool very much as a resident while at work, add a box for that tool at the bottom right. Tools you might add include search engines such as Google; social media such as TikTok; fitness apps such as Strava; navigation tools such as Google Maps; networking sites such as Mumsnet; conferencing tools such as Zoom; academic tools such as Google Scholar; institutional tools such as an intranet; office tools such as PowerPoint; and specialist tools associated with your personal or institutional life.

Then discuss with your fellow learners whether you found this a useful way of considering technologies and how you engage with them. For example, was it difficult to map some technologies?

Share your thoughts in the discussion forum.

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