DIGI CITIZEN

Am i a Digi citizen? There are a lot of things under this theme. As a Digi citizen you have to manage digitalization of your life.

First, if I want to access e-services (like Kela and OmaKanta) in which the identity of the user must be verified i have to do identification verification. In Finland there is Suomi.fi e-Identification. It is a shared strong identification service of public administration e-services. It enables to log into the electronic services of public administration. To log in you have to use identification method, those are banking codes, a mobile certificate card or a certificate card.

Kela

Kela defines itself as the Finnish social security system and witch grants benefits to persons in different situations. The benefits are defined in Finnish law. I have used Kela’s benefits often. These days my family get’s child benefit. I’am familiar with the benefits of paternity allowance, parental allowance and maternity package (which is known widely). Kela really is involved in a persons life in different situations example unemployment, disability, sickness and when attending school. I have had European Health Card already for years now, i have it because i was studying abroad years ago.

OmaKanta

OmaKanta is one online service from my own field of expertise. There you can view your health data. It increases awareness of one’s own health. It is field of my expertise because you can check the results of laboratory tests from there. As a user, i usually use the request a prescription renewal service, which is practical because i don’t have to call anywhere to get my prescriptions renewal.

Digitalization and digital gap

I have one example from digital cap for those people, who do not use virtual services. This is from my own field of expertise. For laboratory blood tests you can you book an appointment in online. If you don’t, and you have to go to the laboratory test, there may be possible that you have to wait in the waiting room for approx two hours, because there are not many places where laboratory tests can be taken without an appointment. If you schedule an appointment it’s faster. But sadly, there isn’t enough appointments for laboratory tests in the same day, so you will have to wait few days to get tested. Digital gap comes because you can call to make an appointment too, bur i think that when you book from online you can choose the best times first (usually morning times). And when you book from online, you can book it 24/7 and if you call you can book, move or cancel an appointment by phone in 12-14 on a weekday, so there is a difference between who uses digital services and who doesn’t.

Digital competence -test

I took the digital competence wheel -test and here are some results of it. I learned a lot about myself trough this test. The competences are merged into four main areas information, communication, production and safety. My overall sum of 4 areas in digital competence wheel where at level 4 (intermediate) which I take for a good result. Best results i had from the test is in communication and information. In level 4, I can perform well-defined tasks independently. Also, I solve non-routine problems on my own. There is only 2 % leap to overall advanced level, so that’s my goal for this course. I wanted to go trough these test results in my blog, because it was actually a learning trip for me about my digital competence. And also i really like this kind of tests and what they offer for me to improve myself. Digital competence wheel -report gave instructions to take advantage of the competences that you are already good at and use them as a steppingstone to explore and learn new ones.

Communication is one of four main competence areas in the Digital Competence Wheel. My level in communication were 5 (advanced). That means, that i have the ability to communicate, collaborate, interact with and participate in virtual teams and networks as well as make use of appropriate media, tone and behavior. Communication is a cluster of the competences of active participation, collaboration, social awareness and choice of media. Digital communication is characterized by the fact that communication is communicated via digital media.

Also my information competence where at level 5 (advanced). This means that i have ability to identify, locate, retrieve, store, organise and analyse digital information and evaluate relevance and purpose. Information is a competence area that covers several competences and a large number of digital aspects, all of which are about digital information.

Competence comes from smaller parts. My top 3 where critical evaluation, self-service and law. This meant that I have ability to process, understand and critically evaluate digital information when sent and received, ability and desire to seek out and benefit from online self-service solutions, have the knowledge about current laws and licenses for digital behavior, information and content. All of them where at level 6 (advanced level). Highest level in the digital competence wheel is 8 (highly specialized).

I open two smaller parts of the competences with the lowest score, where I can improve myself. I’ve got poor results in automation and search; both were in level 2 (foundation level).

Automation

The reason why I got so poor result is that I don’t have good understanding of how applications and websites are developed and build, and I don’t mind at all, why should I? Benefits of learning more about automation is that we can increase our skills in a negotiating situation with external suppliers so that they cannot easily fool us. The digital competence wheel gave me suggestions of how I can strengthen the automation competence is that I must exercises on how to make a simple website to get a better understanding of how one is developed. I can use one of the many learning programs for this and I can investigate how a typical software development process is executed. For example, agile processes. But I don’t know where I would use this kind of skill? I prefer to use my advanced communication skills and talk to a software developer if I had any problems. And this is what the test mentioned that i I have to take advantage of the competences I’m already good at and use them as a and learn new things. This is how i can upgrade my competence to at least intermediate level and get better result from the overall sum. So, I think that I can use little of my time to improve automation competence trough communication.

Search

With this search competence I got poor result because I understood the proactive search -question wrong way. “I have a very proactive attitude towards finding and collecting information from the internet”. And then there was an example; “I intuitively  and as the first option look up train schedules, facts, opening hours, and news on the web”. I do have proactive search attitude, but I never pic the first result, because they are usually “sponsored” -links. So, I answered lowest option.

Self-reflection

As you can tell, the digital competence test was for me really fun thing to do! Maybe the test result would have been higher if if I had taken the test again, because it is based on one’s own point of view. Overall experience from digitalization is that it makes everything easier an faster to those who have the skills to use e-services. Teacher said in her blog that Digital citizenship is described through themes, i think i fulfill all the boxes, so I really am “Digi citizen”!

After this assignment I do recognize changes and describe internet accessible working environment, which facilitates collective action, communication and networking. I know principles of safe information sharing and has adequate information management skills.

I commented on Titta’s site, Outi’s site and Lotta’s blog. Commenting on other blogs, I can coordinate distant work, group working and can participate in discussion forums.