Where I Stand on the "Visitors and Residents" Continuum

The “Visitors and Residents” videoby Dr. White discussed a new binary to address the types of individuals who are online. What I deemed to be the most interesting about this binary, is that he was careful to state how he meant these terms to represent the two ends of a continuum, and did not mean for them to necessarily be a dichotomy. It is my belief that dichotomies are often two restricting and not fluid enough to really describe where people are. The continuum approach for the types of people who are online seems much more appropriate. Throughout the presentation I quickly found myself placing some of my immediate family members, as well as myself, into the continuum. The description of the “visitor” as being “goal-orientated,” seemed to ring true for my mother. I would characterize my mother as using the internet much like the toolbox metaphor described by Dr. White. She stumbles onto the internet and rummages through the “toolbox” until she is able to complete the task she needs e.g. paying bills online. She checks her e-mail about once a week, but now that the e-mail comes directly on her new cell, she announced to me that she has decided to use e-mail more frequently as a means to communicate with her family in Mexico. I slowly see my mother as moving from the very early “visitor” stage of the continuum to more of a “resident” as her eyes are opened to the possibilities of better communicating with family through social media such as Facebook.

            As for where I see myself on the internet, I had initially at the beginning of the talk decided that I was definitely a resident of the internet. I have a Facebook and use it on more or less a daily basis, and I like to post pictures, and comment on friend’s pictures, etc. I indeed see the internet as a huge resource of tools, and am constantly excited to learn new things. In my family, I am the one who is usually turned to for the purpose of ordering specialty items online, or creating e-vites, or researching questions they have not been able to find answers to. But when Dr. White further complicated the “visitors and residents” continuum by placing it on an axis that considered the “institutional and non-institutional” I found myself reassessing my conclusion. Now I see myself as being more of a resident on the non-institutional quadrant. While, on the other hand I would say that I am currently a visitor on the institutional quadrant. I do now have twitter, this educational technology blog, and Edmodo, but I am still an aspiring resident on the institutional quadrant. I envision that by the end of this semester, I will be more of a resident in the institutional quadrant. I see myself as continuing to blog professionally as an aspiring educator.