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Blog Post #11

Reflect on your experience in the course, your development of PLN, your use of social media platforms and networked publics. Note any changes in your perspective of social media in professional settings and personal use. Submit a closing blog post about your experience and consider how you can pivot your PLN into your next steps.

In this term, I learned the concept of Personal Learning Network, and its development through the course. Jesse encourages us to widely use Mattermost to share our opinion in terms of the weekly blog topic. Some students suggest using Twitter to expand vision, and knowledge, where hashtag is an effective tool to connect hot topics and personal content. Via the hashtag, people will explore other’s oversight and their experience; thus, benefiting learning and new knowledge gaining. We created the PLN chart in the previous week to understand professional and personal learning tool differences, and we consistently update our chart to include more technology tools to broaden our knowledge. Youtube is widely accepted by students to accept knowledge online. Messenger is the most frequently used communication tool in university as it provides a convenient way for people to chat and interact. I started to focus on Youtube videos to explore the world. Our professor, Jesse Miller, uploaded a weekly video on Youtube as well. He used interviews to connect guest topics with our weekly learning objectives, which provide a fantastic way to spread knowledge. In the future, I will continuously search for useful technology tools to expand my PLN by connecting more people together to share each thoughts and utilizing the advantage of technology to promote better learning ways.

Blog Post #10

Consider how you can use the PLN interactions of this course to further your digital identity post-term. What does it mean to have a digital identity in your industry of choice and can your current PLN be used to help professional development post-course? Additionally, as you progress through the steps of your career, can your PLN be relied on to open professional opportunities?

Starting to use a Personal Learning Network indicates an individual is developing own digital identity through exploring new knowledge and connecting with other people. I will continuously use PLN interactions in my post-term for gaining more knowledge and opinions from different people and aspects. People with various gender, sex, social experience, living enviornment, relationship will directly lead to a differ value of thing. It’s advantageous to view perspectives from different regions. Meanwhile, obtaining a digital identity in the industry can help people recognize who you are. What you post online and share with the public will build a unique digital identity. It not only describes personal information including name, gender, age, but also it contains personal interest through each clicking on the site and topic. Professional development post-course also need PLN to build and process, as students use social media to recognize and communicate with each other in the course. It is critical to understand then utilize professional PLN. My current professional PLN should always be updated to fully match my future course. This is a process which needs to be frequently altered and updated

Blog Post #9

Media Literacy is the ability for individuals to develop while using social media, including how to differentiate fake news, understanding various information, and generating appropriate opinions. Center for Media Literacy (2012) states that this ability teaches people to access, analyze, evaluate and create messages on the different social media. It helps people to express their own feelings and satisfy self-inquiry. Students must develop media literacy skills because it is critical during the learning process; students should distinguish social cliché, jokes, coverage, etc. As students, in terms of media literacy skills, they should first analyze media from understanding why they spread this message and what it aims for and interpreting messages from different perspectives; secondly, they need to create media products from understanding and using media functions to convey thoughts and ideas.

Media provides more than thousands of information daily, and people should realize that some news is only created because of business value, and these are nutrients which satisfy people’s demands. “News is not an objective reflection of reality”. When people realize this concept, they will have the sense of distinguishing true and false messages; thus, developing personal understanding of the media and also pay attention in producing messages. Developing media literacy skill is a cognitive process, as people may be familiar with the policy or rule through discovering online resources and messages; people can access information more effectively because they have the ability to analyze and exclude fake messages.

Speaking about why people hold factual consensus and varied views on some opinions, I would say it relates to the type of information. For example, when people encounter problems such as whether PLN works for university learning, some may hold opposite opinions. However, when discussing whether we need policy to regulate online discussion, most people would agree. Especially in PLN, it is meaningful when people discuss in various opinions as this is the way of learning, learning from different people in different fields, age, and social experience. Therefore, during using the media, we should learn media literacy to help us distinguish bad “news”.

Reference

Trilling, B., & Fadel, C. (2012). Digital Literacy Skills. In 21st century skills: Learning for life in our times. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.

Blog Post #8

– How does a PLN help and hinder the development of thoughts and ideas in education discourse?

Personal Learning Network in the educational area helps people develop insight and ideas, especially under the COVID-19 pandemic. Most students take online courses for a whole year, where we lose the opportunity to communicate with friends and classmates face-to-face. We are not able to share learning thoughts and exchange knowledge due to the disease. While PLN allows us to interact online, some apps, such as Mattermost, Facebook, are widely used in education discourse. These apps are helpful for students to exchange information and develop their thoughts through reading other’s opinions. PLN boosts proactive learning to some extent, and it encourages people to accept different voices from several working/study fields. 

– What is the role of social media in education?

Brad Baker said social media benefits healthy dialogue, especially for indigenous people, who have the same right to share their feelings and thoughts about education without being racialized. And professional network learning allows them to react and to tell them true stories, not just spread by other people. People using social media can hear first-hand information and bypass the second or third hand, which will lose its initial meaning at some perspectives. Social media allows actual messages to put up, but also multiple messages. People can hear different voices worldwide, from various fields, life experiences, to improve their personal learning in the education area. Veletsianos (2010) also stated that dynamic learning connects people, information, and digital interface. People with the ability to discover knowledge is excellent than just knowing the knowledge.

– What are some problems with social media communications in education settings?

The initial purpose of creating social media is to encourage effective communication, allowing more interactions with others. However, some social media will not provide identity verification, which might cause spreading the wrong message without being accountable. People who are anonymous will perform negative behaviors and do not need to take responsibility, which leads to problems with social media communication.

Reference:

Miller, J. (2021). “EDCI 338 – BRAD BAKER.” YouTube, 04 Mar. 2021, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dy63SmEpvCw.

Veletsianos, G. (2010). Emerging Technologies in Distance Education. AU Press. Ch.6. pp. 114-115, and 128–138.

Blog Post #7 – Jody Vance

After reviewing Jessie’s interview with Jody Vance, who is the first woman sports broadcaster in primetime in Canadian history, her stories are really encouraging. She spreads positive attitude through inspiring females to search for opportunities in social related workplace and to maintain self characteristics whenever you are, as a veteran storyteller. She seized opportunities to expand her personal learning network (PLN) and recognized Larry Gifford, who brought her into the broadcast area. Even though her mother told her “the sky is limit”, she still climbed up to realize her dream and became the first woman to host a sports show in Canada. She spoke about the benefit of constructing a PLN which provides connections to finding a career. As my HINF professor says, she encourages us to use LinkedIn, which is an employment-oriented online service, and to chat with the corporation’s manager about the latest career information and self plan to seek for more co-op positions. That’s the value of building PLN, besides gaining more educational knowledge. 

The basic function of PLN is to connect others and expand one’s knowledge and network through interactions. Even though notable individuals utilize PLN much in the same way ordinary ones would use it, their advantages are apparent. As many benefits of using social media, notable individuals should always mention their tone of voice and attitude. It can help them to promote social influence, grow business, and connect individuals in different fields. Since notable individuals have been under public attention, their claims and behaviors are more influential and could reach out to a large group of audience. I would argue that though supposedly they are fully responsible for their personal social media accounts, I consider these accounts public. These personal accounts are often used to promote personal and corporate interests for commercial and political reasons. Taking the example of former U.S. President Donald Trump, who is famous for ‘tweeting’. He used twitter to deliver political messages, from a wide range of domestic political events to diplomatic relationships, In Navigating Social Journalism: A Handbook for Media Literacy and Citizen Journalism, Hirst states that traditional forms of media suffer a declination as the new media emerges. Trump’s use of twitter maintained public focus and benefited himself in achieving political goals. However, Hirst also mentions that new media faces the problem of credibility because of the freedom granted to it. When Trump used Twitter to denounce his political enemy, the public should really reconsider his claim and testify its credibility. 

Reference:

Hirst, M. (2018). Navigating Social Journalism: A Handbook for Media Literacy and Citizen Journalism (1st ed.). Routledge. Retrive from https://doi-org.ezproxy.library.uvic.ca/10.4324/9781315401263

Blog Post #6

When investigating the relationship between social media and communication engagement, it would not be surprising that social media influence and motivate the public communication, including both positive and negative chats. Under the effect of social media, Clark and Patricia (2011) stated that “there’s more choice, more chance for conservation and curation, more collaboration with media makers and much more creation by users”. Users will not be excluded from the conversation due to their identity, sex, race, age or financial status; instead, they are equal and are incentived to participate online. Social media provides user’s right to freely communicate online, advocating more useful and meaningful discussion. Obtaining a diverse and inclusive Personalized Learning Network (PLN) will bring a new value of the world. People without discriminate and racism may start to appreciate and learn new things from other people. As Simpson (2021), who is a member of BC Community Alliance, said, people who judge diversity do not think about their advantages; we need to realize how containing diversity promotes our life, work, and society. When people eliminates discrimination and racism, they will gather information together to create a more inclusive community. 

In addition, chatting on social media decreases the issue of locating different regions and time zones, allows users to chat asynchronously, sometimes anonymously, and connects people with the same interested topic (Clark & Patricia, 2011). Medias such as Twitter, Facebook, and Weibo play similar functions to convey information, inform users, and even educate users. Using Hashtag (“#”) is a popular function in Twitter to interact and communicate with strangers online. Users can share comments about a specific topic such as #Social media influence, #Gender discrimination, etc. Within the discussion, user will explore diverse thoughts across race, gender, sex and age. People can reply to others by just quoting the comments, which reflects the advocacy of communication by using social media.

The usage of mobile devices increases conversations through social media utilization, which like to social development as well. Video apps such as Youtube, Bilibili are incentivized in educating people by providing virtual courses such as language learning, excel instructions, ppt tips, etc. I often take Korean learning courses on Youtube, which saves my time travelling to educational institutions and increases learning efficiency. I can watch the video depending on my schedule. University courses such as EDCI are taught on WordPress, offering student’s chance to create blogs online to share learning outcomes. Students can engage in weekly topics asynchronous and outside traditional classrooms, where students are able to choose a more comfort environment besides the classroom and more flexible time to learn.

I would like to hear different voices and learn lessons from other people because I believe each person has their advantages which I could learn and enhance. When people comment on my blog post, I am so glad to receive it. These comments will not only help to strengthen my understanding but also expand my knowledge. When I encounter opposite values on a topic, it’s an opportunity for me to learn from the other side; therefore, integrate my understanding from multiple levels. Diverse and inclusive PLN in social media allows participants to recognize themselves as “a member of [the] public”. “Publics are the element that keeps democracies democratic”, Clark and Patricia (2011) pointed to the function of social media. The public is necessary to engage in a diverse and inclusive PLN to know the current event.”

However, some side effects of social media may interrupt or impede the communication. Less governmental policies to regulate online conversation will bring negative influence. People who are anonymous can leave fake comments online which affect online security and environment. It is critical to double-check the content before users attempt to post online. People are required to have privacy policies to protect their identities and regulate their behaviours in social media usage. Clark and Patricia (2011) illustrated that policy about online participation should be enacted effectively and immediately, which includes “dedicated support for robust communication infrastructure, policies for privacy, freedom of expression and access, and education for self-expression”. With the enhanced policy, online communication safety will be guaranteed. More meaningful thoughts and comments could be produced from a diverse population in an inclusive community.

Reference:

Clark, J., and Patricia, A., “A New Vision for Public Media: Open, Dynamic, and Participatory.” Media and Social Justice, PDF file , Palgrave Macmillan, 2011, pp. 55-67.

Miller, Jesse. “EDCI 338 – 2021 – 02 – 22 Markiel Simpson.” YouTube, 22 Feb. 2021, www.youtube.com/watch?v=yCSpm1Lx8-A&feature=youtu.be.

Questions:

– what are the benefits of a diverse and inclusive PLN in social media sharing that understands where you are coming from with messaging that impacts the community?

– How does social media engage in advocacy communications?

– How does social media use in public discourse potentially challenge advocacy communications?

-Does your PLN amplify the views of others?

-The policies of employer social media communication expectations.

-How to better use social media to Build PLN – Influencers & Commentators

Blog Post #5

“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.

Blog Post #4

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?

Blog Post #3

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?

Blog Post #2

Before starting the digital identity, I would like to clarify ‘what is identity.’ Identity is one’s personality, looks, and qualities that differ from other people, such as the student ID card, BCID, which presents one’s age, sex, address… And digital identity represents an individual’s engagement online, including their shared information, blog posts, comments, photos, social media account, and so on (Stoller, 2016). Everything people share or post online will form a digital identity. Thus, I think it is more like a virtual database than paper-based identity documents to record one’s footprint online. Digital identity could be professional or personal, depending on how you present online. A professional approach allows people to connect and collaborate with others in the line of work or study, facing more formal events such as job searching. A personal approach refers to people connecting with family, friends, or some organizations which deliver topics you are interested in. Some applications like Snapchat, Facebook, link people together to promote casual communication.

Jawed et al. argued that students spent heavy time on social media, which resulted in a negative academic performance. These personal approaches regarding study interact negatively with social media. Students will lose face-to-face communication and interpersonal ability (Jawed et al., 2019). Stoller (2016) stated an individual had a lifelong learning journey, too professional approaches to digital identity may lose ‘joy of learning.’ It has become a common way that people post blogs or share comments on social media using their personal account, which reflects freedom of expression. It is recommended to develop two accounts for both personal and professional usage, avoiding the privacy risk of sharing too much daily life or personal information to public/a larger audience. Moreover, in the professional approach, colleagues or leaders may not want to see your personal beliefs or values, as they are not related to job or work. Although Personalized Learning Network provides great opportunity for students to exchange ideas, thoughts, and knowledge online, it’s encouraged to differentiate the usage and influence of personal and professional identity intersection (Jawed et al., 2019). 

In the Youtube video, an economist said over 75 million people have access to the internet at the beginning of 2019. Digital identity provides convenience for developing countries such as India. It gives non-registered citizens a chance to identify themselves online, meaning they will have an online ID to prove their status (Davos, 2019). In 2022, over 60% of the global GDP would be expected to be digitized. People, devices, and businesses will interact more online. Nilekani, who attended the conference, said that India had implemented the digital identity for more than 10 years. It enhances the public service efficiency and convenience, allowing the public to access the service more effectively. Meanwhile, some economists at the Davos conference argued that the government should conduct concrete policies/laws to control one’s online movement, including accessing and retrieving personal data. Leakage of privacy date and online movement is an issue consistently disturbed the public. The public has the right to know who has accessed his/her database. Moreover, Stoller (2016) said that online fake news would confuse the public, which was not permitted. Punishments should be developed to control people who posted not real information.

Digital wallet as a product from technology and digital identity, provides conveniences for the public. Apple-pay, PayPal, and Alipay are the most common applications nowadays. As Davos conference (2019) referred “all the time we can save, with the trusted, secured digital identity we can build many digital services to make our life much easier”. I usually use Apple-pay when I go to the grocery store, and it is quite easy to purchase goods by using the phone to tap the machine and the payment is done. It reduces the payment process of giving changes and can be widely used under the COVID-19 pandemic, avoiding unnecessary body contact. When people enjoy the benefits brought by the digital wallets, they should always be aware of the potential risk behind this innovation. Whether the public should trust the digital wallet and how companies gain public trust is still a question. Wallet information, payment history, personal data will be easily stolen from the scanning of credit/debit cards. Hence, in order to protect the public safety and promote a more convenient way of life, the government should create and enact related policies immediately; technology should be developed to strengthen the digital wallet protection.

Reference:

Davos.“Press Conference The Value of Digital Identity for the Global Economy and Society.” uploaded by World Economic Forum, 5 Feb. 2019, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1-V7yxrOmw

Stoller, Eric.“What is Digital Identity.”Youtube, uploaded by University of Derby, 25 November 2016, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u0RryRbJza0

Jawed, Saira, Usman Mahboob, and Rahila Yasmeen. “Digital Professional Identity: Dear Internet! Who Am I?” Education for Health (Abingdon, England), vol. 32, no. 1, 2019, pp. 33-35.

Questions:

– What is a digital identity?

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

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

– Can a digital wallet provide trust in networked publics?

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