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Folio Thinking and Digital Literacy: Integrating Social Media and ePortfolios

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Bibliographic Details
Title: Folio Thinking and Digital Literacy: Integrating Social Media and ePortfolios
Language: English
Authors: Candyce Reynolds, Melissa Shaquid Pirie, Sonja Taylor
Source: New Directions for Teaching and Learning. 2024 (180):97-106.
Availability: Wiley. Available from: John Wiley & Sons, Inc. 111 River Street, Hoboken, NJ 07030. Tel: 800-835-6770; e-mail: cs-journals@wiley.com; Web site: https://www.wiley.com/en-us
Peer Reviewed: Y
Page Count: 10
Publication Date: 2024
Document Type: Journal Articles
Reports - Evaluative
Descriptors: Digital Literacy, Portfolios (Background Materials), Electronic Publishing, Social Media, Technology Uses in Education, Skill Development
DOI: 10.1002/tl.20613
ISSN: 0271-0633
1536-0768
Abstract: This chapter invites instructors to consider practices to help students explore the intersection of social media and academic digital spaces. It argues that doing so increases digital literacy and digital citizenship in students.
Abstractor: As Provided
Entry Date: 2024
Accession Number: EJ1452010
Database: ERIC
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  Value: <anid>AN0181439514;ndt01dec.24;2024Dec09.02:20;v2.2.500</anid> <title id="AN0181439514-1">Folio thinking and digital literacy: Integrating social media and ePortfolios </title> <p>This chapter invites instructors to consider practices to help students explore the intersection of social media and academic digital spaces. It argues that doing so increases digital literacy and digital citizenship in students.</p> <p>Social media is ubiquitous. Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat, TikTok, Twitch, Instagram, and YouTube are some of the most popular platforms and are powerful influences in our students' lives. Most students enter higher education with years of experience in navigating and communicating on a variety of social media platforms, often without completely understanding the impact on their identity, self‐esteem, and their communities (Dodgen‐Magee, [<reflink idref="bib6" id="ref1">6</reflink>]). While social media may be a huge presence in students' lives, many faculty do not incorporate social media or the skills learned from its use in their courses and programs. In doing so, faculty miss the opportunity to leverage social media as a way to showcase their learning, apply concepts of digital literacy and develop a more nuanced and authentic digital identity.</p> <p>Leveraging existing social media practices in classroom assignments can support the integration of a learner's personal and academic digital spaces. Helping students see these connections will increase students' motivation and expand their learning (Reynolds & Patton, [<reflink idref="bib16" id="ref2">16</reflink>]). When students see the connections between their digital social communities and their professional educational digital spaces and communities, they are equipped with digital literacy skills that will support them both personally and professionally in the future (Mogaji, [<reflink idref="bib14" id="ref3">14</reflink>]).</p> <p>No one would argue that digital literacy is not important in today's society. Nearly every aspect of our lives is now intertwined with technology. Education, work, entertainment, and communication requires the use of technology for participation and success. We often imagine that young people, who can be considered digital natives, are experts in the realm of technology, simply because they begin using it at such an early age. However, some only have expertise in social media and/or gaming platforms (Jones & Czerniewicz, [<reflink idref="bib10" id="ref4">10</reflink>]). The ability to navigate social aspects of technology does not automatically grant a person skills to use that knowledge responsibly and with intent. Scholars have long warned that assuming digital natives use technologies appropriately and can navigate the risks of the internet is misguided (Palfrey & Gasser, [<reflink idref="bib15" id="ref5">15</reflink>]).</p> <p>Spires et al. ([<reflink idref="bib18" id="ref6">18</reflink>], p. 12) argue that digital literacy is "essential to make judgments about when and how to apply information to solve problems and share new knowledge." They propose three categories for digital literacy: (a) locating and consuming digital content; (b) creating and curating digital content; and (c) communicating digital content. In addition to these three digital literacy categories, we find the concept of digital citizenship and its S3 framework—Safe (protect themselves and others), Savvy (educate themselves and others), and Social (respect themselves and others) offers avenues for the continuous development of appropriate, responsible, and empowered technology use, and is useful in helping faculty understand what learners should know to safely use technology (Ribble & Park, [<reflink idref="bib17" id="ref7">17</reflink>]). Digital literacy and digital citizenship are complementary and overlapping frameworks that when embedded into educational practices can shift the habits of social media users. Providing critical thinking skills around the concepts of digital literacy and citizenship may ensure that social media participation and interactions do not become a source of harm to themselves or others.</p> <p>This paper examines how faculty can leverage social media into instruction and apply both digital literacy and digital citizenship concepts to promote learning. We will first share the context we come from and then explore the role of social media in our students' lives, examining both the advantages and challenges associated with digital engagement. Next, we will provide suggestions for faculty to facilitate exploration and understanding of social media through integrated activities aimed at helping students navigate the complex digital landscape. Faculty developers may find this integrative approach helpful in supporting faculty who want to incorporate concepts of digital literacy into their classroom practices.</p> <hd id="AN0181439514-2">CONTEXT</hd> <p>The authors of this paper are higher education faculty members who have worked in a variety of programs at several institutions. We worked together in a first year general education program that emphasized communication, including the use of technology. We developed multiple assignments that integrated digital technologies to advance learning in this area as well as support all of the program outcomes. For example, we are big proponents and users of ePortfolios as a way to help students explore their identities as well as demonstrate their ongoing knowledge and skills. The product of an ePortfolio is digital, and contains both reflection and evidence of the author's accomplishments in a student's course, program, or degree (Light et al., [<reflink idref="bib11" id="ref8">11</reflink>]).</p> <p>The process of creating a portfolio allows students to make connections that might not have otherwise been made. This process is what Light et al. ([<reflink idref="bib11" id="ref9">11</reflink>]) call folio thinking. We realized that ePortfolios and social media both allow students to curate, make connections, reflect on previous thinking, and provide evidence of their lived experiences. We found that students were less enthusiastic to undertake what we thought were our fun and clever digital ePortfolio assignments, but were certainly interested in exploring and/or using social media. It became clear that folio thinking practices could happen through social media.</p> <p>In observing our student's behavior, we were also dismayed by what we observed. While these students would be considered digital natives, interacting with multiple platforms with ease, they often did not possess the ability to navigate complex social aspects of technology. The potential and the reality was that some of them were hurt when participating with social media, emotionally and financially, as well as misinformed by entities they thought were trustworthy. Clearly, part of communicating with technology needs to be rooted in digital literacy and digital citizenship. In order to do so, understanding the benefits and challenges associated with social media for our learners needs to be explored.</p> <hd id="AN0181439514-3">STUDENT EXPERIENCE OF SOCIAL MEDIA</hd> <p></p> <hd id="AN0181439514-4">Benefits of social media</hd> <p>As social creatures, social media provides connections with friends, relatives, and new people that might have never been possible. The ability to connect with others via social media platforms, can help strengthen social ties and keep us more attuned to our mental and physical health. For example, Burke and Kraut ([<reflink idref="bib2" id="ref10">2</reflink>]) found that when we receive targeted, personalized communications from people with whom we have strong ties, such as a direct message or comments on a photo we share, our sense of well‐being tends to improve. Dragseth ([<reflink idref="bib7" id="ref11">7</reflink>]) found that student learning and engagement in an asynchronous, social media environment can aid in building community and sharing knowledge. Notably, provided a helpful framework to understand the dynamic between well‐being and social media. They suggested that social media practices can either be connection‐promoting (e.g., interacting with someone over a shared interest) or non‐connection‐promoting (e.g., scrolling through a feed).</p> <hd id="AN0181439514-5">Drawbacks to social media</hd> <p>There are also challenging aspects to engaging with social media, including privacy concerns, exploitation of consumers through targeted advertising, and most importantly the negative consequences related to mental health. Privacy concerns have been in the forefront of the critique of social media (Palfrey & Gasser, [<reflink idref="bib15" id="ref12">15</reflink>]). The proliferation of social media platforms has created an ever‐expanding digital universe of "big data" that can be used for collecting data on its users which can create privacy concerns (Xie & Karan, [<reflink idref="bib20" id="ref13">20</reflink>]). Unlike other sources of big data, social media platforms rely on users' self‐disclosure and advertisers are particularly interested in how consumers see themselves, understanding that this can give them insight into how they market their products and services. It is possible that intensive social media users develop an emotional or psychological connection with its use; thus, it has been incorporated into their everyday lives so much so, social media users tend to disclose private information on social media regardless of whether they are aware of who may receive or have access to these, thereby potentially allowing marketers to collect and categorize their use into big data that are then formulated to target their future use (Xie & Karan, [<reflink idref="bib20" id="ref14">20</reflink>]).</p> <p>One of the drawbacks of using social media is the influence of advertisers and marketers. While these are challenges associated with social media on an individual level (Bozzola et al., [<reflink idref="bib1" id="ref15">1</reflink>]), the implications for targeted marketing are potentially manipulative at a large scale when it comes to social, cultural or political constructs. For example, Zarouali et al. ([<reflink idref="bib21" id="ref16">21</reflink>]) investigate the impact of microtargeting political ads focused on personality traits of social media users. Unsurprisingly, the authors find that users are more strongly persuaded based on ads that align with their personality traits (Zarouali et al., [<reflink idref="bib21" id="ref17">21</reflink>], p. 1082).</p> <p>Social media users often end up in what is called echo chambers, a digital space composed of people who hold similar viewpoints (Cinelli et al., [<reflink idref="bib3" id="ref18">3</reflink>]). Echo chambers can reduce discourse around often disparate lived experiences, as social media users then can be subject to algorithms that generate affinity groups and their content. Individuals or entities who want to spread disinformation then take advantage of these affinity groups and disseminate misinformation within the semi‐closed community (Ruiz & Nilsson, [<reflink idref="bib5" id="ref19">5</reflink>]).</p> <p>An additional challenge with social media is its noted impact on mental health. Bozzola et al. ([<reflink idref="bib1" id="ref20">1</reflink>]) share that this was a problem well before the pandemic started and has expanded as we all were drawn to connections online. As young people develop their own sense of self, they are often bombarded with messages about how one should look, think, and feel. This social pressure to be like others can be immense. Vidal et al. ([<reflink idref="bib19" id="ref21">19</reflink>]) acknowledge the potential positive impact of social media, but also describes in a review of the literature study that since the advent of social media, depression and suicide rates have increased. While social media does not account for all of this, they note that there is clear indication that social media is associated with depressive episodes. Adults are not free of the influence of social media on their mental health. Dodgen‐Magee ([<reflink idref="bib6" id="ref22">6</reflink>]) notes that online interactions can stifle human connectivity, lower self‐esteem, make people feel more isolated, lonely, and stressed. Dodgen‐Magee ([<reflink idref="bib6" id="ref23">6</reflink>]) also described how interacting online impacts people's brain development and creates a milieu for anxiety and depression. People often draw comparisons and measure themselves against the successes and accomplishments of others. Dodgen‐Magee ([<reflink idref="bib6" id="ref24">6</reflink>]) also noted that this can foster inauthenticity and a sense of disconnection with others, in spite of the sometimes constant interaction online.</p> <p>The challenging aspects of social media are complicated because they are interwoven with perceived benefits or positive aspects of social media access. Although it is possible for information that is shared to be exploited for targeted advertising, social media users may perceive a benefit in quickly being directed to products that seem tailored to them. Echo chambers limit the breadth of understanding that social media users can gain about a particular issue, but they may also feel a sense of solidarity and belonging in communication with those who agree with their views. Critically, while challenges related to mental health and social media use are well documented, there is also research that suggests a role for social media in developing resilience, if we can take what we know and intentionally embed supportive practices (McHugh et al., [<reflink idref="bib13" id="ref25">13</reflink>]). To leverage the advantages and mitigate the challenges associated with social media, a focus on digital literacy, digital citizenship and the practice of folio thinking is needed.</p> <hd id="AN0181439514-6">ENGAGING POSITIVELY WITH SOCIAL MEDIA IN THE COLLEGE CLASSROOM</hd> <p>Clearly, social media can have both positive and ill effects. The question for us as faculty became: How do we support our learners to harness the positive aspects while mitigating the challenges of social media use? We believe there are opportunities to embed the critique of social media as well as leverage its use to promote self‐discovery and identity development in almost any academic setting. We have experimented with a variety of ways to engage our students in this process. The remainder of this article will provide a description of classroom activities that can help students examine and better understand the role of social media in their lives, as well as explore alternative ways to understand and represent themselves in the digital space. We have found that these activities help integrate digital literacy and digital citizenship into our curriculum.</p> <hd id="AN0181439514-7">Integrative folio thinking classroom activities</hd> <p>The practices that are highlighted reflect our commitment to using the concept of folio thinking to guide our work ("folio thinking", [<reflink idref="bib8" id="ref26">8</reflink>]). Folio thinking is a process that encourages the collection, organization, reflection and connection that leads to a person's ability to speak intelligently and tell the story of one's learning experiences, what they mean and their value, and how the experiences relate to each other ("folio thinking", [<reflink idref="bib8" id="ref27">8</reflink>]). Folio thinking practices do not require an ePortfolio product be completed. Engaging students in the process of making connections across experiences and platforms, their social identities and ways of knowing, can allow them to understand themselves and the world that they live in. Folio thinking practices provide an immense amount of support for digital literacy offering the learner opportunities for locating and consuming digital content, creating and curating digital content, and communicating digital content (Spires et al., [<reflink idref="bib18" id="ref28">18</reflink>]). Along with digital literacy, we found the exploration of the concept of platform literacy, which works to provide a sense of agency to learners in digital spaces, and increases their sense of comfort with platforms in general (Lawrence, [<reflink idref="bib12" id="ref29">12</reflink>]).</p> <p>The assignments described below also highlight our commitment to integrating learning activities that are not stand‐alone assignments. Digital literacy and digital citizenship are woven into our discussion in our courses in an integrative manner.</p> <p> <emph>Reflection and discussion on social media usage</emph>. We use a variety of methods to open the discussion and examination of social media. In an interdisciplinary first year general education course we have taught, we have spent dedicated time in our classroom as well as reflection assignments used throughout an academic term in addition to casual conversations. Providing multiple opportunities to reflect and discuss their social media use brings it out of the shadows and allows them to understand the role of social media in their lives and make important decisions. We talk to our learners about digital literacy and citizenship as it relates to their understanding of their own social media practices, and make choices about what and how to share. We capitalize on the folio thinking practice of audience selection and the implications of such selections. As an interdisciplinary, multidisciplinary, or single discipline scholar, the audiences may vary greatly. Applying the elements of digital literacy and citizenship also helps learners to continue to develop appropriate reflection and evidence selection for their experiences and claims.</p> <p>We invite them to see social media as an opportunity to challenge our beliefs and see the world from a different perspective. Lastly, we encourage our students to see the social media space as a more intentional pursuit and space where we can clarify our thoughts, ideas, and identities. As faculty, we hope to facilitate authentic and engaged discussion in academic online spaces. How is it that online class discussions may appear forced and yet a thread on social media can elicit a multitude of meaningful thoughts? We explore why and how they may authentically engage in one space, but not the other, and encourage them to experiment with discussions across different platforms. When thinking about the essential skill of platform literacy, the concept of agency is imperative for the user's comfort. Recognizing that our learners may feel a stronger sense of agency over their social media sites than they do academic digital spaces is a key learning take away for us as faculty. This type of exploration of agency in digital spaces usually leads to a sense of empowerment. We discuss ways to mirror their social media practices and activities in a scholarly setting with a higher level of awareness. Students discover that the voice they use in social media can be a scholarly voice also. Students are consistently using multiple apps to engage in their social life and to navigate the systems they encounter. Directly discussing the challenging aspects of social media with them allows for acknowledgment. Knowledge and acknowledgment lead to future actions in relation to their digital literacy. Looking through the lens of digital citizenship at privacy issues, marketing exploitation and the creation of echo chambers, however, is often a surprise for them. After these discussions, students want to explore this even further, sometimes choosing to do their research projects on social media and its impacts.</p> <p>Lastly, we invite students to examine social media usage, considering how much of their time is used for connection‐promoting interactions or non‐connection‐promoting activities (Clark et al., [<reflink idref="bib4" id="ref30">4</reflink>]). In addition, we ask them to monitor their mood during both of these types of experiences. Doing this kind of monitoring for even a brief hour or two can be enlightening. Students are often aware that they are distancing themselves from non‐connection‐promoting activities but are surprised how related it is to their mood. Conversely, they see the linkage between well‐being and connection‐promoting activities more clearly. This kind of reflection promotes digital literacy around their technology use and motivates them to be more intentional about their use of social media.</p> <p> <emph>Digital ecosystem mapping</emph>. Our learners are increasingly participating in digital landscapes, and we often show learners images, or maps, of digital activity often using a tool from the Cheswick Internet Mapping Project ([<reflink idref="bib9" id="ref31">9</reflink>]). These maps show the geography of information and relationships across the globe by providing an overview of ISP providers and the information being exchanged on a second‐by‐second basis, a physical and visual reminder that this digital landscape is a place we go to regularly. Once they see the visual representation of digital space, we ask them to participate in thinking about the unique digital ecosystems they participate in: academic (our organization), professional (work), and personal (social). Each learner starts with themselves at the center of a mind map and responds to a series of prompts. Where do you "go" online? What systems or intermediary platforms do you use at those locations? What do you do in those systems? How often do you go there? Who is there with you? Who manages your content, storage and recall of that same content? Do these systems interact or communicate with one another (interoperability)?</p> <p>We give students paper and pens and invite them to be creative in drawing their maps. Inevitably they are surprised by both the extent of their digital ecosystem and by how much overlap exists across the three spheres of their digital engagement. Ribble and Park ([<reflink idref="bib17" id="ref32">17</reflink>]) highlight nine themes of Digital Citizenship: digital access, digital commerce, digital communication and collaboration, digital etiquette, digital fluency, digital health and welfare, digital law, digital rights and responsibilities, and digital security. During this activity students' awareness of digital citizenship elements grew. Specifically, they had the opportunity to become aware of multiple digital citizenship elements; communication and collaboration approaches, practice digital fluency and etiquette, assess where they are experiencing digital commerce, and examine their digital health and welfare in these spaces. These new levels of awareness lend themselves to additional digital citizenship elements that potentially go underdeveloped in our digital practices in academia, highlighting the three elements of digital citizenship that can feel elusive. These additional three elements are digital rights and responsibility, digital law, and security and privacy (Ribble & Park, [<reflink idref="bib17" id="ref33">17</reflink>]). Importantly, they notice that their personal use is almost solely social media and their institutional use is related mostly to spaces that they often lack equitable autonomy over. In other words, they are not intentionally transferring their autonomous skills from the social media spaces to the digital landscape of their student/professional life. By setting the tone with this digital ecosystem mapping exercise, we invite students to consider how they might bring their disparate experiences in the digital world together, in a kind of digital identity that weaves the different aspects of their social identity together. We explicitly invite them to consider their academic identity as one aspect of their social identity to intentionally bring critical thinking into digital spaces. This provides students with an understanding of how they inhabit various digital spaces and then encourages the use of folio thinking habits for collecting evidence of, organizing, and making connections across their learning experiences that can be shared in a variety of learning and showcase contexts.</p> <p> <emph>Integrating Social media, personal branding and co‐branding through an ePortfolio assignment</emph>. Social media and personal branding follow organically from our shared conversations about digital ecosystems, in particular from our conversations about intentional use of social media. The awareness rises for the learner regarding social media engagement that may have lacked overall intention. As opposed to the intentional practices of folio thinking that include audience selection as a key factor for the content they share. Focusing their efforts on understanding how they represent themselves to various audiences, and why, emerges as a critical thinking and folio thinking practice. As they begin to think about personal and intentional curation they progress to thinking about who they are, their social identities and lived experiences, and how those relate to larger social, cultural and political constructs, a particular approach to self‐representation, or what we call "a personal brand."</p> <p>Developing a personal brand requires both reflection and intention. In addition to those practices, audience selection is crucial to the process of determining which competencies comprise their unique skills and brand. The practice of owning and maintaining an ePortfolio becomes a mindful practice that consistently asks them to think, Who am I sharing this with? What parts of my collected evidence and reflection should be shared with that audience? How do these selected contents truly represent my social identity? Essentially capitalizing on folio thinking practices to broaden awareness of an organized brand across their digital ecosystem (less censorship, more ownership). This portion of folio thinking is a highly self‐centered set of activities which we then strive to broaden, by placing their social identities in context with the meaningful relationships that support their brand, or what we call the practice of co‐branding.</p> <p>Co‐branding is less of a personal pursuit, and more a desire to represent relationships that support and enhance your identity, past, present, and future. These relationships can be either real or imagined. A learner may include a cause they work for, and yet also a company or person they have not had a personal relationship with, but still find strong alignment with the ethics, values, research or achievements of that particular co‐branding inclusion. These representations can include a homage to ideas and beliefs, as well as represent real affiliation across our lives. We encourage learners to review any location in their reflection and evidence they have used nouns and then to see these persons, places, things, and causes as a part of their social identity through the practice of co‐branding to maintain an awareness of their alignment and their communities of practice. An example of this may be a research student locating, linking to, and reflecting on previous academic researchers in an area or topic. Fostering these co‐branding selections and considerations during folio thinking sessions replicates the social media processes of tagging, posting, and sharing, but with clear intention and curation. All of these activities support the thoughtful approach to the electronic exchange of information and lend themselves to strengthening the learners' digital citizenship element of digital communication and collaboration by helping them define how they will share their thoughts and relationships so that others understand the message (Ribble & Park, [<reflink idref="bib17" id="ref34">17</reflink>]).</p> <p> <emph>Other ePortfolio use</emph>. Once students have engaged in understanding the digital landscape through explorations of social media, it is often easy to help them consider alternative ways to represent themselves and their ideas in the digital space outside of social media. Our students can recognize that the use of ePortfolios serves as another way to practice digital literacy and citizenship, creating a safe digital environment for practicing the skills of reflection, exposing metacognition, and identity building in digital spaces. Building an ePortfolio allows students to see and understand how the digital space can be a place of authenticity as well as a place for documenting growth. Representing themselves in community with their co‐branding becomes essential for them to understand their physical and digital communities.</p> <p>ePortfolios can take many forms. They can be showcase‐portfolios–demonstrating the skills that students have achieved in a course or program (Light et al., [<reflink idref="bib11" id="ref35">11</reflink>]). The product of a showcase portfolio is what we typically think of a portfolio. Students collect, reflect, and curate the best demonstrations of what they have learned. ePortfolios can be more interactive and learning‐focused, however, such learning portfolios flow naturally from our exploration of social media. One example is a scaffolded learning portfolio geared toward developing academic identity across the yearlong interdisciplinary course we have discussed. These portfolios ask for targeted reflections from students and are developed in tandem with exploring social media use and digital citizenship across the year. Each of these three learning portfolios includes folio thinking practices of collecting, organizing, reflection, and making connections across student experience as they progress through the courses. In the "Explore" portfolio at the beginning of the year, students provide images that represent them and ask them to reflect on what it means to become a college student. This assignment mimics good digital citizenship practices. During the middle of the year, students complete a "Challenge" portfolio that includes images and a reflection of a community or communities they belong to. This assignment relates to the co‐branding activity we highlighted, helping students consider who they are and who they want to be affiliated with. Toward the end of the year they complete an "Imagine" portfolio that asks them to reflect on the most meaningful aspects of the year and reflect on their next steps. These academic identity portfolios link directly to their evaluation and use of social media platforms.</p> <hd id="AN0181439514-8">CONCLUSION AND REFLECTIONS</hd> <p>Gaining competence in digital literacy and digital citizenship practices are complex and challenging. The act of mapping and subsequently integrating learners' digital ecosystems lead to an understanding of their digital use. Exploring their sense of agency, or platform literacy, in these spaces can shed light on where they feel empowered, and where they have intention. Identifying and capitalizing on their social media use helps them to make explicit connections between digital social media practices and professional/educational digital spaces. In our work, social media has provided avenues for learner connections that might have never been possible, aiding our students in taking control of their digital spaces and understanding their agency extends into the academic digital realm.</p> <p>In this article, we have provided an analysis of how social media can have both positive and ill effects on users. The practices that we highlighted reflect our commitment to leveraging the practice of social media to align with the practices of folio thinking and we have suggested classroom activities that can expand digital literacy and citizenship competencies for our learners while maximizing agency and minimizing negative consequences. Across these activities our students were surprised by both the extent of their digital personal, professional and academic ecosystems and by how much overlap exists across the spheres of their digital engagement. We explicitly invited them to consider their digital identity as a holistic one to intentionally lean into digital literacy and citizenship to guide them in that pursuit.</p> <p>When students focus their efforts on understanding how and why they represent themselves to various audiences, their sense of agency and intention emerges as a critical function. Building on their digital identity through the additional practice of co‐branding helps them maintain an awareness of their alignment amongst their digital communities. Selecting these co‐branding representations within their portfolios can replicate their social media processes of tagging, posting, and sharing, but with clear intention and curation.</p> <p>We suggest that the process of folio thinking and generating the product of an ePortfolio can also serve as an effective way to embody digital literacy and citizenship, creating a safe environment for practicing the skills of reflection, using metacognition and identity building in digital spaces. The process of building an ePortfolio allows students to see and understand how digital space can be a place of authenticity as well as a place for documenting growth. Ultimately, the integration of their social media use into academic digital spaces has been shown to aid our students in developing digital citizenship and becoming more digitally literate.</p> <ref id="AN0181439514-9"> <title> REFERENCES </title> <blist> <bibl id="bib1" idref="ref15" type="bt">1</bibl> <bibtext> Bozzola, E., Spina, G., Agostiniani, R., Barni, S., Russo, R., Scarpato, E., Di Mauro, A., Di Stefano, A. V., Caruso, C., Corsello, G., & Staiano, A. (2022). The use of social media in children and adolescents: Scoping review on the potential risks. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 19 (16), 9960.</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibl id="bib2" idref="ref10" type="bt">2</bibl> <bibtext> Burke, M., & Kraut, R. E. (2016). The relationship between Facebook use and well‐being depends on communication type and tie strength. Journal of Computer‐Mediated Communication, 21 (4), 265 – 281.</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibl id="bib3" idref="ref18" type="bt">3</bibl> <bibtext> Cinelli, M., De Francisci Morales, G., Galeazzi, A., Quattrociocchi, W., & Starnini, M. (2021). The echo chamber effect on social media. PNAS Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 118 (9), 1 – 8. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2023301118</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibl id="bib4" idref="ref30" type="bt">4</bibl> <bibtext> Clark, J. L., Algoe, S. B., & Green, M. C. (2018). Social network sites and well‐being: The role of social connection. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 27 (1), 32 – 37.</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibl id="bib5" idref="ref19" type="bt">5</bibl> <bibtext> Ruiz, C. D., & Nilsson, T. (2023). Disinformation and echo chambers: How disinformation circulates on social media through identity‐driven controversies. 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The net generation and digital natives. Journal of Computer Assisted Learning, 26 (5), 317 – 320.</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibtext> Light, T. P., Chen, H. L., & Ittelson, J. C. (2011). Documenting learning with ePortfolios: A guide for college instructors. John Wiley & Sons.</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibtext> Lawrence, A. (2021). Platform literacy. Webinar. PebblePad: Coast to Coast. https://us02web.zoom.us/rec/share/TRw1FnlRNjMrA_l3Z5a29_Yp3qxMgrcmc1pryXLBG2SpmY1CpbZcwXFRIez4hvfJ.cyT1krlK8UjbvgQB</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibtext> McHugh, B. C., Wisniewski, P., BethRosson, M., & Carroll, J. M. (2018). When social media traumatizes teens: The roles of online risk exposure, coping, and post‐traumatic stress. Internet Research, 28 (5), 1169 – 1188.</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibtext> Mogaji, E. (2019). Student engagement with LinkedIn to enhance employability. In A. Diver (Ed.), Employability via higher education: Sustainability as scholarship. Springer.</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibtext> Palfrey, J., & Gasser, U. (2008). Born digital: Understanding the first generation of digital natives. Basic Books.</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibtext> Reynolds, C., & Patton, J. (2014). Leveraging the ePortfolio for integrative learning: A faculty guide to classroom practices for transforming student learning. Routledge.</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibtext> Ribble, M., & Park, M. (2019). The digital citizenship handbook for school leaders: Fostering positive interactions online. International Society for Technology in Education.</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibtext> Spires, H., Paul, C. M., & Kerkhoff, S. (2019). Digital literacy for the 21st century. In M. Khosrow‐Pour (Ed.), Advanced methodologies and technologies in library science, information management, and scholarly inquiry (pp. 12 – 21). IGI Global.</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibtext> Vidal, C., Lhaksampa, T., Miller, L., & Platt, R. (2020). Social media use and depression in adolescents: A scoping review. International Review of Psychiatry, 32 (3), 235 – 253.</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibtext> Xie, W., & Karan, K. (2019). Predicting Facebook addiction and state anxiety without Facebook by gender, Trait anxiety, Facebook intensity, and different Facebook activities. Journal of Behavioral Addictions, 8 (1), 79 – 87.</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibtext> Zarouali, B., Dobber, T., Pauw, G. D., & de Vreese, C. H. (2022). Using a personality‐profiling algorithm to investigate political microtargeting: Assessing the persuasion effects of personality‐tailored ads on social media. Communication Research, 49 (8), 1066 – 1091.</bibtext> </blist> </ref> <aug> <p>By Candyce Reynolds; Melissa Shaquid Pirie and Sonja Taylor</p> <p>Reported by Author; Author; Author</p> <p></p> <p>Candyce Reynolds, PhD, is the Director of General Education (General Education) at Boise State University. She is a long‐time user of ePortfolios to increase student identity, agency, and digital literacy. She is the co‐author of Leveraging the ePortfolio for Integrative Learning: A Faculty Guide to Classroom Practices for Transforming Student Learning.</p> <p>Melissa Shaquid Pirie, EdD, is the implementation specialist at Pebblepad and has served in higher education faculty and administrative roles in both university and community college settings for the past two decades across programs that relate to learning support, undergraduate research, teaching with technology, ePortfolio development, dual enrollment, faculty training and development, and student services. These experiences have deepened her belief that education can be socially and emotionally transformative, and in her current role as an Implementation Specialist, she has the rare opportunity to work with educational thought leaders across the globe.</p> <p>Sonja Taylor is the director of the Dual Credit High School Senior Inquiry Program, University Studies (General Education) at Portland State University. She is deeply committed to helping students weave their stories into their academic identity through ePortfolio construction and digital literacy. In pursuit of digital agency, she attempts to make explicit connections between folio thinking and social media use, bridging the gap between the classroom and the community where students spend their time.</p> </aug> <nolink nlid="nl1" bibid="bib16" firstref="ref2"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl2" bibid="bib14" firstref="ref3"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl3" bibid="bib10" firstref="ref4"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl4" bibid="bib15" firstref="ref5"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl5" bibid="bib18" firstref="ref6"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl6" bibid="bib17" firstref="ref7"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl7" bibid="bib11" firstref="ref8"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl8" bibid="bib20" firstref="ref13"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl9" bibid="bib21" firstref="ref16"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl10" bibid="bib19" firstref="ref21"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl11" bibid="bib13" firstref="ref25"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl12" bibid="bib12" firstref="ref29"></nolink>
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  Data: This chapter invites instructors to consider practices to help students explore the intersection of social media and academic digital spaces. It argues that doing so increases digital literacy and digital citizenship in students.
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