According to Boyer, scholarship is the generating and acquiring of knowledge through research or teaching and involves four functions: discovery, integration, application and teaching (Veletsianos, 2012). Unsworth describes the basic functions of scholarship as discovering, annotating, comparing, referring, sampling, illustrating and representing (Weller, 2011). These activities can be carried out in a traditional analogue manner or enacted using digital tools and workflows. Contemporary scholars are using technology, to varying degrees, to undertake the scholarship activities that Boyer describes.

When I included this paragraph in my digital scholarship interpretive discussion paper it prompted me to reflect on my own digital practices. How have I enacted these functions in my own scholarly activities at CSU over the past three years?

Evidence of a digital scholar or just one big mess? #inf537 pic.twitter.com/dPVygs2zII

— Karen Malbon (@KMalbon) August 27, 2017

Discovery:

• Use CSU online library catalogue to search and discover online books and journals
• Use Google Scholar to search and discover online resources
• Use search engines, RSS and social media to discover resources
• received guidance/mentoring by academic subject coordinators

Integration:

• Used a wiki to collaborate and create a group artefact
• Produced digital artefacts using Creative Commons licenses: Copyright Confusion or Creative Commons and Digital Curation for Senior Students
• Made some of my images open access on Flickr using Creative Commons licenses

Application:

• Blogging
• Forum discussions on Interact2 learning management system (LMS)
• Online collaborative meetings with Blackboard
• Twitter – chats, personal learning network (PLN) and discovery
• Curation – Pearltrees, and Diigo
• CSURU online global collaborative activity
• Cultivation of my digital identity

Teaching:

• Produced a learning module (collaboratively) for teacher professional development
• utilised a variety of open resources developed by other educators

My studies at CSU have contributed greatly to me being an open, digital and networked scholar (Weller, 2011). Before my studies, as a teacher librarian, I was already sharing openly online (mainly in the area of curation) and had begun to develop a personal learning network (PLN) but I have been exposed to so many more possibilities in the last three years.

Is your experience similar or different to mine? What tools would be in your digital scholarship toolkit?

My digital Scholarship Toolkit  
https://www.symbaloo.com/mix/digitalscholarship

References

Veletsianos, G., & Kimmons, R. (2012). Assumptions and challenges of open scholarship. 2012, 13(4), 24. doi:10.19173/irrodl.v13i4.1313

Weller, M. (2011). The digital scholar. [Kindle version]. London: Bloomsbury Academic. Retrieved from http://www.amazon.com.au