Dave, as a participant in the course, and as someone who is very much in favour of open learning and open education, I have to respond to your post.

Frankly, some of the things that I shared in our sheltered area of the moodle were only for the eyes of the course participants. In particular, I related anecdotes of other people who I could not necessarily share about pubicly. I had permission to share in the context of the course (yes, I asked), but it would not have been prudent to share it publicly.

In order to protect my own digital identity, sometimes I have to filter content that I share publicly. I am very careful to NEVER openly criticize my employer or individuals in particular. This is important for many reasons, not just the fact that my own job could be at risk.

We can be engaged and participatory in any number of online spaces – public-ish and private-ish. While it is true that anything digital can be passed on (another reason to put that filter in place when using email or even writing a Word document), some spaces are still quite restricted to participants while others are open to all.

And thanks for giving me that kick in the butt to start saving some of my work in those “wall gardens”. I had a few worthy thoughts there that I should save for the sake of posterity…. 🙂