Monday, June 28, 2021
Question 2- POE Digital health and wellness
Question 2: Digital Health and Wellness
The four different psychological issues in the digital world:
Sleep Dysregulation: Sleep dysregulation also known as delayed sleep occurs when a person’s biological clock is irregular compared to those of other people (Harrison and Lucassen, 2019). This disorder affects sleep duration, peak activity, core body temperature, rhythm, hormones and other daily cycle (Harrison and Lucassen, 2019).
For example: Right before bedtime people usually want to quickly check their emails or messages on social media and then sleep, but end up seeing something interesting that may make them stay up for more minutes or even hours looking through videos or trends.
Cyber-stalking: Cyber-stalking can take many forms, but in broad sense, it is harassment that occurs through online channels such as social media, forums or emails (Tripwire, 2018). Cyber stalking often starts with harmless interactions or unpleasant messages which may even amuse you but as time goes by the messages received from the stalker become annoying, inappropriate or violent which instills fear in the receiver of the messages (Tripwire, 2018). For example, women who enters beauty pageants such as local beauty competition, Miss South Africa, Miss Wildcoast and Miss Universe receive a lot of messages from their fans on Social media, some fans send messages of admiration. Whereas others who are not really fans but wish to see the contestant leave the pageant may continuously send threats or discouraging messages, which may leave the contestant threatend , fearing for her safety and depressed. In most cases these stalkers use various accounts and when the victim blocks the stalker’s account the stalker comes back with another account with the intention of carrying on from where they have left off.
Addition (Internet addiction): Internet addiction is when an internet user spends excessive time on the internet which results in changes in the behaviour of the user and the relationship the user has with people is now compromised (Shaw and Black, 2008). People addicted to the internet tend to almost not focus on their academics or careers, which are also negatively affected as time goes by (Shaw and Black, 2008). This person focuses for on what is happening online than what is happening in reality. For example, A teenager who is addicted to the internet spends more time online looking for the latest trends and keeps checking for updates on public figures. And he does not interact with the people who are physically around him because he is constantly on his cellphone. He ignores his school work for social media and also uses his sleep time to browse social media. So his personal relationships are affected, his school work is affected and he doesn’t get enough sleep.
Online disinhabitation effect: Online disinhabitation effect occurs when an individual who does not communicate in real life feels much safer or confident communicating on an online platform usually in anonymity (The IIE Digital citizenship module manual, 2021). Online disinhabitation effect can be both positive and negative. For examples in universities students are usually given surveys and questionnaires to rate and give comments on their lecturers in anonymity because when asked one on one about the lecturer they may feel uncomfortable to raise issues in front of that lecturer or other students. In a case of it being negative it may lead to bullying. Bullies are able to hurt others in anonymity.
Thursday, June 10, 2021
Digital Etiquette
Digital etiquette refers to the the correct use of digital platforms and following the rules. Bad netiquette is the inappropriate conduct while online that is found to be impolite and discourteous.
l Cat-fishing: Cat-fishing is when a person steals other people’s identity, uses their images and other information and uses it to create an identity and convinces people that that’s who he/she is (The IIE Digital citizenship module manual, 2021).
l Cyber-bullying: An act or acts in cyberspace intended to make life unpleasant for another person. It is the use of technology to intimidate, threaten, embarrass and harass other people (Touro University Worldwide,2015) .
l Typing in Capital letters: Typing in capital letters in cyberspace means that a person is shouting or yelling at the person that the message is directed to (The IIE Digital citizenship module manual, 2021) .
l Using inappropriate language: Inappropriate language is the use of words which are found to be very impolite, offensive and a taboo such as swear words (The IIE Digital citizenship module manual, 2021).
l Inappropriate Jokes: Making jokes that are considered to be offensive. For example making offensive jokes towards disabled people, racist jokes, sexist jokes or jokes which are degrading towards another person (Touro University, 2015).
l Spamming other people: Spamming is the act of sending unwanted messages, images or any other files usually as an act of advertising to a large numbers of internet users (The IIE Digital citizenship module manual, 2021) .
l Uploading inappropriate files: Uploading pictures and videos that are adult material or uploading pictures and videos without considering sensitive users of the digital world, this can be considered sharing illegal material (The IIE Digital citizenship module manual, 2021) .
l Hacking: Hacking occurs when a person unlawfully gains access to another person’s accounts through computers and smartphones. And according to Eloff (2018) in terms of Electronic Communications Act, anybody who gains access to another person’s data without permission commits a crime which is punishable by law.
l Not engaging with others: Users of social media who only broadcast and not interact with others are found to be annoying (The IIE Digital citizenship module manual, 2021).
l Flooding: This is when a user of social media communicate and get upset because the receivers do not reply immediately (The IIE Digital citizenship module manual, 2021).
Reference list
Independent Institute of Education .2021. IIE Digital citizenship module manual. 1st ed revised edition 3. Johannesburg. Independent Institute of Education.
Eloff, H. 2018. Hacking leads to jail time in South Africa. Lowvelder , 15 February 2018. [Online]. Available at:https://lowvelder.co.za/422577/know-hacking-leads-jail-time-south-africa/ [Accessed 29 May 2021].
Touro University. 2015. Digital Threats: The effects of cyber-bullying , 15 July 2015. [Online]. Available at:https://www.tuw.edu/health/impact-of-cyberbullying/ [Accessed 29 May 2021].
Digital Communication
Digital Marketing:
Social media influencer marketing: Influencer marketing involves promoting goods and services to individuals who have influence over things that others purchase through social media posts (Marketing schools, 2020). This market influences comes from a person’s ability, fame, or notoriety, these persons are known as social media influencers (Marketing schools, 2020) . Using a real life example, Jessica Nkosi a well-known South African actress is the Ambassador of Volvo (SA) and part of her duty as an ambassador is to promote the Volvo brand. So on most pictures she uploads when she goes to work, vacations or shopping she will be either posing next to her Volvo car or inside and caption the picture with the positive experiences she has with the vehicle. Jessica’s fans will become more familiar with the brand and become more likely to purchase it.
Chat bots: A chat-bot is a man-made artificial intelligence programming tit can reenact a discussion with a client in characteristic language through messaging apps, websites, mobile apps or through a telephone call (Nigel Graber, 2020). Companies use chat-bots to improve customer service or to advertise , more efficiently. For example Vodacom introduced Tobi, a chat-bot who can assist in customer care 24/7 and can assist a large number of customers at the same time.With the use of Tobi customers don’t have to call Vodacom and wait for almost five minutes in order to speak to a consultant when they have queries. Tobi can be accessed immediately through the My Vodacom app.
Visual search: Visual search displays related items based on the user’s input into a search engine (Topdraw, 2020). Artificial intelligence is being used for the search engines to better analyse image inputs than ever before (Topdraw, 2020) . Artificial intelligence is used to determine the context of an image, with use of search engines in quickly displaying related content and images and enhances a user’s experience by allowing them to access items on the internet without using a text-based search (Topdraw, 2020) . For example, when scrolling online and coming across a house and home advertisement and a sudden interest in the vase occurs. The picture on the advertisement will be attached to the search engine. Then once the search is done, the exact item and related items will be displayed along side the prices, where they can be purchased and the various colours that come with the type of vase. Pinterest, Google, Microsoft, Instagram and Amazon have added this feature (Topdraw, 2020).
Digital Communication:
Video conference: Video conferencing is a live visual link, over the internet or collaboration platform that simulates a face to face conference between two or more individuals who can not meet face to face. This trend became very popular in 2020 (Whitlock, 2021). For example last year 2020 during lockdown businesses had to close down and employees or management could not meet face to face to do work. So they used platforms such as Zoom and Skype to connect with each other.
Virtual events: This type of event refers to an hosted online at a certain date and time (Whitlock, 2021). These events became popular last year 2020 during lockdown. Djs held virtual parties in order to keep their fans entertained during the lockdown. Even in 2021 universities held online orientations for first year students.
Reference list
Golden Spiral. 2021. 20 Reasons why virtual meetings are better than live, 7 January 2021. [Online].https://goldenspiralmarketing.com/insights/20-reasons-why-virtual-events-are-better-than-live/ [Accessed 2 June 2021]
Marketing school. 2020.Influencer Marketing: Exploring the strategy of influencer marketing, 20 November 2020. [Online]. Available at: https://www.marketing-schools.org/types-of-marketing/influencer-marketing/#section-0 [Accessed 2 June 2021].
Microsoft. 2020. The benefits of chatbots, 14 April 2020. [Online]. Available at:https://www.microsoft.com/en-ca/microsoft-365/business-insights-ideas/resources/how-chatbots-are-the-future-of-marketing [Accessed 2 June 2021].
Topdraw. 2020. Visual search in 2020 & beyond, 21 May 2020. [Online] . Available at: https://www.topdraw.com/insights/visual-search-in-2020-and-beyond/ [Accessed 3 June 2021].
Digital Citizenship, Fluencies and Access
Fluency skills are a very important set of skills that all people should have. With these skills a person can effectively interpret information, find meaning, develop content, accumulate knowledge and exchange ideas in a digital world (The IIE Digital citizenship module manual, 2021) . And due to the fact that technology keeps changing and updating, learning these skills is essential because it will assist in adapting to the changes in technology and succeed in the learning (school) and work environment where digital technologies are mostly used (The IIE Digital citizenship module manual, 2021). The five fluency skills are, Information fluency, Solution fluency, Creativity fluency, Media fluency and Collaboration fluency.
Figure 1: Global Digital Citizen. 2013. Information fluency. (The Global Citizenship Foundation, 2013).
Information fluency
Information fluency is the skill to interpret information from various platforms and to extract credible, authentic and accurate information(The IIE Digital citizenship module manual, 2021) . This is done by asking, acquiring information, analyzing the information, and apply the information to the real- world task. For example; When a student has to do an assignment which requires research the student will have to find the information either in books or the internet. But before the student makes use of the information on the internet or book they will first have to analyze whether the information is reliable and not misleading, that the information has been written by a reliable source and the information on the publication dates are provided. After the information has been deemed as credible authentic and accurate the student will then proceed in using it to complete the assignment.
Figure 2: Global Digital Citizen. [s.a.]. Solution fluency.( This is how the Solution Fluency looks in everyday life, [s.a.]).
Solution fluency
The Solution fluency is a skill that involves finding solutions to problems posed to us through an intuitive process (The IIE Digital citizenship module manual, 2021). The Solution fluency goes hand in hand with information fluency because it is required that the information is correctly interpreted and knowledge is extracted from the information in order to find the solutions to the problem at hand (The IIE Digital citizenship module manual, 2021) . For example; a student was completed his assignment which is based on research but the lecturer questions the credibility and authenticity of the source that the student used. To solve this problem, the student together with his lecturer make use of the hyperlinks that the student has provided as a reference to analyze and verify if the source is reliable.
Figure 3: Future focused Learning. 2016. Creativity fluency. (The power of creativity, 2016).
Creative fluency
The Creative fluency is a skill to generate various ideas through language, science, mathematics, ,music and bodily movement (The IIE Digital citizenship module manual, 2021). For example; A Bachelor of Music graduate is a musical person who loves and enjoys singing and playing musical instruments. Because of the love for music, this person would normally think in patterns, rhythms and sounds and they would find it rather very quick and easy to recognise patterns and notes, which means they have a deep understanding of music (The IIE Digital citizenship module manual, 2021). Therefore a simple word can result in a new idea for a song.
Figure 4: Media and Collaboration fluency. 2020. (Media and Collaboration fluency, 2020).
Media fluency
Media fluency goes hand in hand with Collaboration fluency in order to be effectively digitally literate (The IIE Digital citizenship module manual, 2021). Media fluency involves literacy and communication aspects .Media fluency is the skill to easily interpret messages convoyed on various types of media and to also communicate using various multimedia formats (The IIE Digital citizenship module manual, 2021) . For example, when students are able to use collaboration platform such as Whatsapp group chats or communication over chats on blackboard collaborate and can understand the various informal and formal writing styles used on these platform. And included in media fluency is the responsible use of media which is to consider the audience and what is deemed to be appropriate and what is considered unacceptable. For example in certain modules students have to create threads on Blackboard and write about a relevant topic in the module and other students are required to give feedback on the thread. It is required that students respond with respect and to also provide positive feedback.
Figure 5: Media and Collaboration fluency. 2020. (Media and Collaboration fluency, 2020).
Collaboration fluency
The term collaboration means to work together with others to achieve a common goal. In terms of the Collaboration fluency in the digital world, in order to collaborate there needs to be communication using digital multimedia tools (The IIE Digital citizenship module manual, 2021). This is why the Collaboration fluency and Media fluency go and in hand. Therefore it is important to know the different media platforms that can be used when collaborating with others (The IIE Digital citizenship module manual, 2021). When collaborating you need to know what the appropriate collaboration tool to use for certain events. For instance, during the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020 contact learning was suspended for several months and academic lectures had to move to a digital platform. Therefore lecturers needed to use a platform which allows them to share information with the large number of students and also when needed making use of camera by students. Lecturers decided on using either Zoom or Blackboard to teach their students as it was much easier than teaching over platforms such as Whatsapp. Also students who had to worked on tasks together over the Covid-19 lockdown used the collaboration platforms to put the task together.
It is very essential that students achieve digital fluency skills because it will help them to be efficiently make use of technology, decipher data, solve problems creatively, gather data (The IIE Digital citizenship module manual, 2021). These skills not only guarantee a student success in the learning environment, they also enable the possessors of these skills to adapt to changes in the technology in their school life, work life and personal life.
Reference list
Media and Collaboration fluency. 2020. Media and Collaboration fluency. [Online]. Available at:
[Accessed 9 June 2021].
The Global Citizenship Foundation. 2013. Information Fluency. [Online]. Available at:
Independent Institute of Education .2021. IIE Digital citizenship module manual. 1st ed revised edition 3. Johannesburg. Independent Institute of Education.
The power of creativity. 2016. Information fluency. [Online]. Available at: https://www.google.com/search?q=creativity%20fluency%20pictures&tbm=isch&client=ms-android-samsung-gj-rev1&prmd=ivn&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0CHgQrNwCKABqFwoTCPCAssOxjfECFQAAAAAdAAAAABAH&biw=360&bih=512#imgrc=eRdWISGo3cjSVM&imgdii=27K7QQbLw7SkjM [Accessed 9 June 2021].
This is how the Solution Fluency looks in everyday life. [s.a.]. Solution fluency. [Online]. Available at:https://www.google.com/search?q=solution+fluency+process&client=ms-android-samsung-gj-rev1&prmd=ivn&sxsrf=ALeKk03V_FxWv7pC5w0--y1WdXTn8wq96Q:1623357952936&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwia4oLR943xAhVdRkEAHW2WAmUQ_AUoAXoECAIQAQ&biw=360&bih=512&dpr=1.5
[Accessed 9 June 2021).
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