Month: February 2021

“The people around you have a wealth of information” Wood stated this opinion in 2013. It also raises a question about how to engage in a topic with unfamiliar people or strangers? Based on my previous experience, Twitter acts as an effective communicating way for strangers to interact. Hashtag (#) is one of the methods to connect with other people online. Individuals are encouraged to use hashtag on Twitter to start a conversation or join an existing forum. “If someone you follow tweets something interesting, tweet an insight back. ” This is a useful method to rapidly construct relationships and gain insights from different points. People may reply to others when facing an interesting topic or in a particular area which you are familiar with. Proactively learning online leads to optimistic learning outcomes. “These conversations are important because they’re another way to trigger insights from others”. Effectively and efficiently using social media such as Twitter and facebook would help us to create our own Personal Learning Network.

Reference:

Woods, Bianca. “Building your own PLN: seeking new insights and ideas? Expand your personal learning network.” T+D, vol. 67, no. 11, Nov. 2013, p. 70+. Gale OneFile: Business, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A348998538/ITBC?u=uvictoria&sid=ITBC&xid=1010abdf.

My existing PLN in university contains different educational topics and diverse students from various racial, ages, and countries. For instance, my friends come from Canada, China, India, Mexico, and America; we interact and share knowledge within the same topic, which may arouse new conceptual understanding thoughts. Hence, when constructing a personal learning network, I think one crucial element should be diversity. As we all students, who may keep learning in a long time frame, opinion diversity will cause more consensus and arguments. The learning environment of each people will bring various ideas, promoting more scholarly communication. I prefer to engage in a wide range of topics and listen to others’ comments or opinions, and I believe this behaviour could expand my view and my PLN.

When discussing inclusion, we do not package people together with the same language, age, or race. Shelley stated that the year of birth is the only thing students were in common. I think how we define the word ‘inclusion’ leads to how diverse is our PLN. Inclusion represents diversity in terms of education; it collects meaningful voices to strengthen education. We can not deny the variety, as it is part of our life. Each individual is unique or diverse. For students, we can interact more in society. People are welcomed to start with their strengths, based on voluntary mechanism, to communicate and share within the group. 

After watching the video, I think inclusion contains diverse, meaningful voice, people, and topics. Education evolution starts with an exclusion, then segregation, integration, until inclusion, and represents how we interact with other people. If we accept diverse voices, we are successful in today’s educational evolution. We progress because we can hear others’ opinions. We attempt to adopt meaningful various to broaden our view and PLN, which is advantageous to education.

Reference:

Moore, Shelley. One Without the Other : Stories of Unity Through Diversity and Inclusion, Portage & Main Press, 2017. ProQuest Ebook Central, https://ebookcentral-proquest-com.ezproxy.library.uvic.ca/lib/uvic/detail.action?docID=4832579.

Questions:

* How diverse is your existing PLN?

* In your PLN, are you learning from a variety of voices or are you the loudest in the room?

* Do you participate in a silo of information sharing (similar themes or wide-range of interests)?

* How can you use a diverse PLN to broaden your views of inclusion?

* In your professional setting of choice, do you think inclusion is actively embraced?

* What is the learning outcome of your PLN and how are you ensuring your exposure to diversity and inclusion?

* How has your thinking about inclusion and PLN evolved after reviewing the videos and readings?

Visitor & Resident Map created by Yi Yan

Digital platforms produced from advanced technology provide students with various studying options. Based on my Visitor & Resident Map, Zoom, Microsoft team, and Mattermost can be considered digital platforms, benefiting students’ develop professional work. Mattermost is being used in EDCI 338 course, which connects students and allows us to share knowledge about each week’s topic. Another example will be the Zoom; it is widely used in university teaching under the pandemic condition. The student with a valid account can host or attend video conferences with their colleagues, groupmates, and professors. Students may get professional support during the virtual meeting.

Students who are collaboratively learning with others or outside materials will be considered a Professional Learning Network (PLN). As a student, I would recommend using Twitter as an extra learning resource. Students are encouraged to engage in an academic topic to share/comment on some ideas. They can also expand their PLN by joining the educational forum. 

I prefer to use Google Drive to record my professional works, categorizing each document from the course, term, and interest. It’s safe to use this kind of online document recording system after login with a username and password. Besides, the operationality and convenience of Google Drive are two advantages for a learner who does not want to waste on researching the utilizing method. Moreover, WordPress is another digital platform taught by the professor to construct our own digital identity. Students use categories such as ‘edci338’ after completing their blog post to induce posts together, created by other classmates. Students under the same category can read other’s post after he/she permits.

LinkedIn is a professional app for both employers and companies, which offers great job opportunities online. Employers can search for a career through this path, which benefits both stakeholders. While the privacy and legal issues occur accordingly, many online activities invade personal information when interacting online. An individual should be aware of what they want to do before the action. Digital images effects employment pathways; a more respectful digital image may deep one’s good impression, and vice versa. This can block or promote one’s employment. Developing a nice digital image is necessary.

Answering questions of :

• What digital platforms are students currently using to develop their professional network?
• What can you (as a student) consider to expand your professional learning network?
• In your network, how can you create a digital identity/reputation?
• Consider what a local employer would do if you applied for a job with them – can they search the content, is it of benefit to the career path, does it hinder the opportunity of employment?