Month: July 2022

Engaging your PLN

Can your PLN be used to help professional development post-course?

Social media can be viewed as a networking tool that exposes your interests, your history, your curiosity, and your place in the world. It can obtain information that may benefit you and others. It may also help develop PLNs that have a history of media literacy and openness.

On the other hand, social media platforms like Youtube, Google, Twitter, and Instagram can be used for educational purposes that can support learning. Each PLN is unique. As such we can personalize our own networks and shape our own learning community based on our interests and needs.

In order to create a PLN and maintain one, we must follow these steps to help ensure best practices are being made. First off, users should critically analyze any media they are pertaining to and identify what the message is actually trying to portray. Secondly, we must identify privacy regulations that can help eliminate online behaviour that can have legal consequences. Users must understand the concept of ownership, as many users think they can get away with it. Finally, users should understand that engagement and collab within social media are crucial when deciding to create or maintain a personal learning network.

Can your PLN be relied on to open professional opportunities?

Social media as a whole are more and more becoming a part of us without realizing it. It is a common pattern that more and more schools are leaning towards using technology in education. Every social media platform has different offerings to the ways it can be instilled into a classroom setting. These platforms can help host online classes alongside being able to communicate information directly and instantly online through direct communication between teachers, students and parents.

PLN & Education

Explore the video provided and reflect on the themes of a PLN in a professional capacity.

After watching Brad Bakers’ video, I have noticed he encourages others to follow him as he stands for positivity rather than racism. I got a feeling after watching the video to be personally more engaged in this kind of social issue in my PLN, as it has great effects on individuals.

Which social media platforms are beneficial in education?

I believe this will all come down to the setting and audience in which the platform will be used. In terms of internal academic platforms for students at UVic, Brightspace is seen being used for the majority of the courses offered at UVic. Brightspace creates a professional environment for both the instructors and the students to use for academic purposes such as doing quizzes, submitting assignments, engaging in discussion posts made by the instructor, and many more.

Terms of an external academic platform that students may use, could be the likes of Chegg, Coursehero, Quizlet, Khan Academy, and many more. The likes of these platforms are banned by institutions across the world, as they have been used in ways that may result in cheating or plagiarism. I believe though, if these platforms, like any online, are used in the way they are set up to be, I think great things can arise out of these platforms

Lastly, there are open source platforms like Reddit, youtube, Twitter, Quora, and many more. Students tend to use open source platforms for quick and efficient information, but not all the information displayed on these platforms is true or reliable. As anyone with an existing account can create and post information. These platforms tend to have a lot of engagement between people, and this can be used as a benefit in contrary to the other platforms where their wont be as much engagement.

When working with the vulnerable sector, how does social media fit into professionalism and regulations?

When working in a vulnerable sector, I believe that everyone should be set as equal. I believe there are many different ways that one can go about setting regulations to create a professional environment in vulnerable sectors. Examples like enhancing strict rules and regulations with consequences, as a result, this will create a formal and professional setting where people are interacting appropriately.

References

Miller, J., & Baker, B. (2021, June 10). Brad Baker Edci 338. YouTube. Retrieved Jun 10, 2021, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C5z8iHxW2n4.

Veletsianos, G., & Couros, A. (2010;2014;). Developing Personal Learning Networks for Open and Social Learning / Alec Couros- Chapter 8

Public PLN & Media Literacy

In general, social media is an important part of our daily lives, at least for the majority of us. Nonetheless, everyone uses social media for a different type of reason. Some may use it for marketing, news, selling music, concerts, etc. There are many different reasons why people use social media daily. This is just like appearing in the public eye PLN, which can portray the information to be very impactful on people. For example, celebrities with millions of followers tend to have a lot of attention around them. With every picture, post, and the word being viewed by many people, they need to be careful of what they say or do, as it may have serious consequences. Celebrities may also be able to use this as leverage to reach out to people who are in power and normally don’t respond to “normal” people who don’t have the same following.

Also, having a well-constructed PLN which has reliable sources in today’s world is very valuable. As more and more information is being spread, not all of it is factual and correct. That is why having verified and trusted sources can lead to a form a lot of a controlled setting without and reason to worry or panic. Add on, this is why people must improve their ability to distinguish between the real and factual information so that they can build a dependable PLN.

When I first created my Instagram page, I had it set to public, and as a result, I had a lot of random people that I never know follow me and like my pictures. Although it was an online follow, it creeped me out that I actually don’t know that person, and they could be doing something to my pictures or to get something out of me. My intention when creating a social media page was not to have a large number of followers, rather, it was to have a community where I share my thoughts and feelings through pictures with my friends and family, and that’s when I chose to go private and only have followers I know. Just like real life, social media has different walks of people from all over the globe, and this results in both benefits and risks when engaging with people of such. That’s why having a public page is not for everyone, as not everyone is using social media for the same purpose.

We live in a powerful media world where the media can influence us in many different ways that we have never thought of, and we don’t get how powerful this influence is. All of us social media users should analyze media to understand both how and why media messages are being created, and for what purpose that is? We must understand and learn media literacy. This also includes the ability to read through the lines of a message, depicting what’s wrong to right and vice versa. Alongside being able to use the power of information to create and use these messages to act on certain things in our world, which can have a positive impact.

References

Miller, J. [MILLER]. (2021, June 6). EDCI 338 – MEDIA LITERACY with JULIE SMITH [Video]. Youtube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=57r3-aEnci0

Miller, J. [MILLER].(2022, June 6).Sophie Lui – EDCI 338 [Video]. Youtube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=57r3-aEnci0

I moved to Canada almost 4 years ago now, and I was living in Muscat, Oman. Oman is a Muslim country. As a result, when I first moved to Canada, I got culture-shocked. I was used to seeing a specific look of dress that people would wear back home for both women and men. Coming to Canada opened my eyes humbly to experience diversity and inclusion. Being an immigrant alongside many others in Canada made me feel less excluded. I have already realized that being secluded in only one group may feel like “home” and “normal”, but the reality is that you could be missing out on different opportunities that one wouldn’t have thought about being in one group only.

I believe that inclusion brings forth diverse and great interactions among heterogeneous students who tend to favour a single group rather than a whole. Reading the book “Stories of Unity Through Diversity and Inclusion by Shelley Moore and Leyton Schnellert” helped me shape my definition of inclusion. I thought of it as being a part of a group with other people, but in fact based on the reading, inclusion really just means that there is no one else.

It is always interesting to listen to both perspectives of the video was quite interesting. One of the lines that struck me was, “everybody has their own preference on how to use social media.” This can result in a delusional effect that some people tend to live life through their social media.

After watching the interview with Shelly Moore on PLN diversity, inclusion, and social media from the course’s youtube channel. One line struck me and it was when she mentioned that she created this book club that anyone can join with a nickname. People come on to share their daily lives or struggles that they might be going through. This environment that Shelly created has no society to discriminate against people, instead, people use nicknames and have the freedom to express their true thoughts unfiltered. One more quote that also connects to the previous one, was when she mentioned “create a network to allow you to be authentic and identify how you fit in your social media community.”

Social media interacts with different kinds of communications. This creates a challenge in communication, in particular with sarcasm or a meme. Sure, it might be inclusive as everyone has the same resources to engage within. The only difference is that one user might not feel as welcoming as the other base of the people around. With my PLN, I amplify the views of others that I am interested in. The most known benefit of having such a diverse and inclusive PLN is that you get to see other points of view you wouldn’t have thought about normally, and as a result, give you a better overall perspective and insight.

We live in a powerful media world where the media can influence us in many different ways that we have never thought of, and we don’t get how powerful this influence is. All of us social media users should analyze media to understand both how and why media messages are being created, and for what purpose that is? We must understand and learn media literacy. This also includes the ability to read through the lines of a message, depicting what’s wrong to right and vice versa. Alongside being able to use the power of information to create and use these messages to act on certain things in our world, which can have a positive impact.

References

Miller, J. [MILLER]. (2021, June 1). EDCI – 338 Markiel Simpson [Video]. Youtube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rsoDHGaXNNs

What digital platforms are students currently using to develop their professional network?

One of the most well-known professional applications that students are using is LinkedIn, and it’s not a surprise. Students tend to use LinkedIn to build connections, follow their interests, and also be able to search for and find jobs that fit their criteria. LinkedIn is a great tool for students overall is it helps them connect to their workspace and their industry.

Another useful thing that students may use to develop their professional network, is their UVic webmail service. Every UVic student is given an email. This creates a professional setting for formal and organized emails to be communicated between the student and the recipient.

What could the student consider in expanding their professional learning network?

Everyone got a different view on the use of social media. Nowadays, we can choose who we can connect to, and to expand one professional learning network, a practice that a student might consider is to connect to people who have similar educational backgrounds or interests. This will result in a good practice that can help mitigate connections with people outside of their interests.

In your network, how can you create a digital identity/ reputation? Consider how an employer would respond if you applied for a job with them and they assessed your social media presence via your digital identity.

An employer nowadays can easily look up someone’s digital identity. An employer would do such a thing to help mitigate the risk of doing bad hiring which could affect a company.

Personal Learning Networks and Digital Identity

What is a Digital Identity?

Digital Identity can be thought of as your own collection of data that is permanent and is available online. From posting pictures on any social media platform to writing comments under posts and sharing photos/videos, digital identity is who you are online (Stroller, 2016). Anything that you may do on the web, can be traced as your digital identity. Having a digital identity creates ample opportunities for connections made throughout the internet like YouTube or Instagram, Snapchat etc.

How do personal versus professional approaches to digital identity affect social media use?

It is expected by 2022 that over 60% of the world’s GDP will be digitized (Davos, 2019). How we use our digital identity can vary depending on what our intentions are meant to be. Digital identity can provide people with a probabilistic image of who they are based on comparison to other people (Boyd, 2012). For a professional approach to digital identity, one can showcase their work like blog, portfolio, website, or whatever it may be, if posted online, it can be viewed by anyone which can create opportunities (Stroller). And this can easily make an employer who may want to hire online reach out to that person. On the other hand, there can be a dark side to digital identity which can deteriorate your career or chances of getting a job based on your comments or actions that are showcased on your digital identity. On the other hand, a personal approach to digital identity would change the use of social media, as you are not sharing your personal work, rather you are sharing your personal life without any form of intention.

How do digital identities converge in networked publics – what are the impacts and/or benefits?

This can vary depending on what and who you are as a person. With a digital identity, the truth can come to the surface and that can be devastating for some people whose intentions online are vastly different from in real life. This can cause harm to companies if an employer has said or posted something online that has caused a lot of negativity towards that company.

References

Boyd, Danah. “Networked Privacy.” View of Networked Privacy, https://ojs.library.queensu.ca/index.php/surveillance-and-society/article/view/networked/networked.

Davos. [World Economic Forum]. (2019, Feb 5). Press Conference the Value of Digital Identity for the Global Economy and Society. YouTube. www.youtube.com/watch?v=1-V7lyxrOmw&ab_channel=WorldEconomicForum

Stroller, Eric, director. What Is Digital Identity? YouTube, YouTube, 25 Nov. 2016, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u0RryRbJza0&ab_channel=UniversityofDerby. Accessed 23 May 2022.