 is a rubber duck and here is probably how you are feeling right now. It seems an odd object to evoke in a digital literacy course but actually it is super relevant as I now announce the launch of the Digital Literacy Lab Forum and encourage you to participate in it. Especially when we are not learning face-to-face, a forum can help us better connect with one another and this is a really important part of the Digital Literacy Lab Forum but it also has a deeper purpose and this is where our rubber duck comes in. The rubber duck is a reference to an anecdote told in the influential book The Pragmatic Programmer. What did one programmer do when he found he had a problem with his code? Well, he would explain the code line by line to a rubber duck sat right in front of him. So why is this interesting for us? Well, there are two important points we can take from this so-called rubber ducking. Firstly that verbalising expressing one's thoughts is a super productive way of furthering work and or ideas and following on from this that this best occurs when those thoughts are directed at something or as we can do here, someone. So with the forum we can better the inanimate duck. The forum not only gives you the safe supportive space to give substance to our ideas, questions or concerns but also provides the opportunity to give and receive feedback and develop. When you come to use the forum think about that duck and try to explain things in the simplest, clearest terms possible. Meanwhile, it is up to the rest of us to be so-called active ducks and engage with your thoughts responding to you similarly with the simplest language possible. The forum will now stay open throughout the course but to first break the ice and draw connections I would like you now to introduce yourself to the digital literacy community on this forum. In a short paragraph I would ask you to 1. identify which region of the world you live in and work and what sort of school or education institution you work in. 2. outline your interest in digital literacy and 3. describe briefly what you hope to gain from the course. It goes without saying that as with any forum it is important that we all remain courteous and respectful of one another otherwise happy writing and responding and remember you're rubber ducks.