1 Taking stock

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Figure 1 Thinking it through

During this course you have had the opportunity to engage with various aspects of life online.

In Week 1 you thought about the technology and the digital skills you use in everyday life. You also started to develop your reflective journal.

In Week 2 you used The Open University’s Digital skills framework to assess your confidence levels across a range of skills relevant to study and work. You identified the resources that are available to help you in areas where you feel less confident, and prioritised three activities to try out.

During Week 3 you thought about your digital identity and how you can ensure you have a good digital footprint. You reflected a little on your digital journey and what it means to be a digital citizen.

Week 4 tackled the important topic of e-safety and ethical behaviour online, including the rights and responsibilities relating to material that you or others put online. The topic of ‘digital well-being’ was introduced and you thought about how you can maintain the right balance between your digital and ‘real’ life.

In Week 5 you explored your information landscape. You were introduced to some techniques for smarter searching, dealing with information overload and judging the trustworthiness of online sources, whether those are people or information.

Week 6 was all about choosing and using apps to help you in all areas of life. In particular, you thought about how apps can help you with communicating, connecting, creating, collaborating, keeping up to date and managing information.

In Week 7 you read about how developing digital skills has helped others. You were asked to advise them on how they can use their digital skills to achieve their goals. Now you’ll do the same for your own situation.

In the next few sections, you will reflect on each part of the course and apply what you have learned to your own life. Make sure you have your reflective journal to hand as you do so.

2 Skills development