Month: August 2023

Following this course on personalized learning and social media, I believe I will utilize my personal learning network (PLN) I have developed to seek out further business and career opportunities. I am now aware of how useful having a PLN is for finding out about available opportunities and being discoverable for them, and for forming connections and maintaining relationships. Now especially, I realize the significance of social media. It is a great platform to find information quickly, as well as to connect with others. It is also a very valuable place to maintain current relationships and stay connected with others.
My only hesitations, as touched on in a group discussion with Shalan, Maddy, and Maika, would be the sheer amount of misinformation and fake news out there. Additionally, I would strive to protect my privacy and safety by keeping my social media somewhat private and only available to those I would like to network with. Although, this is a fine line because I would also like my social media to be open to networking, opportunities, and connections.
Taking my PLN from a local community to a global community would be very valuable to me. As of right now, I only really engage with others in my local community, however, following this course I realize how many more opportunities there are if you expand your PLN globally. To boost my professional skills and knowledge I may seek out professional connections around the world, join groups and forums, and search for information and events globally to give me more perspective and knowledge of what is going on around the world.
In our group discussion, we went over how we can all benefit from taking advice and following global examples of success. Especially for urgent issues such as homelessness, climate change, etc. As well, when we share our own global experiences it may inspire others to expand and seek out global opportunities, thus developing networks further.
Overall, I think the course has taught me a lot about what I can do to personalize my learning network to seek out the opportunities I would like and how important it is to form connections to gain opportunities and learn.
To help professional-development post-course, I will focus on keeping my online presence active, discoverable, and professional while striving to maintain my safety and privacy. Additionally, I will seek out professional opportunities and this may include engaging on more social media platforms and globally as well.
For my PLN to be reliable, I will engage with those with reliable reputations and credentials, keep my information accurate and up to date, be open to new connections and networking, and always own up to any mistakes to stay trustworthy and accurate.

Having a Personal Learning Network (PLN) helps the development of thoughts and ideas in education discourse because the connections you form while networking provide more perspectives and additional opinions that promote discussion and thought, thus providing valuable learning opportunities. These factors may enhance your thinking to be critical and inspire creativity. Additionally, networking and forming these connections teach about collaboration and working with others.
Although these are all helpful aspects, having a PLN can hinder thoughts and ideas. As discussed in our group discussion with Maddy, Shalan, and Maika, a PLN may inhibit thoughts and ideas because often, we network with like-minded individuals hence, we are not opening ourselves up to new ideas and discussions. This may also narrow our thinking as we are only engaging in specific areas. However, a reason that may account for us only engaging in particular areas is that because the information is abundant in the networked public, it can be overwhelming to try and sift through it all.
Educators can create discourse by providing the opportunity for group discussions and by encouraging collaboration with group work. For students to become comfortable with discourse, it is important that the educator creates a safe space for the students and is encouraging rather than critical. Helpful examples of creating discourse may include providing resources, videos, examples, texts, and other media and asking the student follow-up questions to generate discussion.
The role of social media in education is that it provides a global platform accessible remotely with a wealth of information and knowledge to be gained. Social media is a great place to share information and create discussions with others, expanding your PLN. As well, you can access information globally, broadening your learning experience.
Although, some problems with social media communication are that it may compromise privacy and security because your personal information is accessible to anyone and leaves a digital footprint. Additionally, social media lacks face-to-face interactions, thus connections may not be as meaningful.
Social media can be a dangerous place because it provides a platform for cyberbullying, discrimination, harassment, and unfiltered content that may be inappropriate, unreliable, or contain misinformation.
Communication in social media can be especially difficult because of the sheer amount of content that can be distracting and compromise ease of use.
A final issue with communications in social media is that it requires digital access that not everyone has, thus impacting its equitability.
Social media platforms that I have found to be beneficial in education are Tik Tok, Instagram, and Youtube for educational videos with experts sharing tips, tutorials, and supplemental information, Twitter to find ideas surrounding education and for collaboration, Discord for communicating with other students, and Reddit for finding information on specific classes.
Social media can prove difficult to fit into professionalism and regulations with the vulnerable sector. When considering social media use for anyone, but especially a vulnerable population, it is important to be aware of maintaining privacy and confidentiality for safety reasons, obtaining consent to share others on your social media, and following any professional guidelines about sharing others on social media.

I believe media literacy to be the ability to engage with various media resources effectively and appropriately. It is not only knowing how to communicate through the media properly but additionally, how to utilize all the tools and resources at your disposal. The criteria for media literacy is that an individual needs to provide reliable, accurate information. Being literate in the media allows you to inspire creativity and influence others as well as supplying information and knowledge.

Notable individuals are using media to promote themselves and their projects very effectively. Access to the media allows them to network and form connections globally, thus they can partner with other individuals or companies. Importantly as well, notable individuals are using the media to speak out on current issues, news, and events.

The benefit of being in the public eye to your personal learning network (PLN) is that it gives you exposure, allowing you to expand your network and form connections. Public PLNs are great opportunities to learn from and teach others.

Oftentimes employers provide tools and media for employees to build an online community. Although building a community with online tools from an employer can be beneficial because of its accessibility, the connections it may foster, and the easier access to support and help, there are still risks involved. This may affect an employee’s sense of autonomy as there is no choice in platforms, this makes the experience less personal and may inhibit creativity.

Building a PLN to rely on requires using reputable sources and websites, as well as multiple sources to cross-check information. Finding experts on social media, joining webinars, virtual events, and forums, and watching videos or talks are all effective ways to create a reliable PLN.

The way veteran storytellers minimize spreading misinformation is by using accredited sources, and multiple sources, by keeping information accurate and up to date, and by connecting and working with others.

How I would personally curate my social media with a critical public audience is by ensuring that I keep it professional and reliable. I would avoid spreading misinformation by first fact-checking what I am sharing, as well as gathering information from reliable sources. Additionally, I would collaborate with others and stay active and up-to-date to produce the best content. Another value of mine would be to always acknowledge mistakes, thus building trust and respect.

The benefits of building an audience and a large following in the media are that it allows you to expand your PLN, and develop connections, and it gives you influence and a reputation, with this all leading to more opportunities. However, along with all of these benefits, there are risks associated. The risks include a significant decrease in privacy and safety, receiving hate and negative comments, as well as the possibility of you being misinterpreted. This is a serious consideration when building a following because these consequences may cause social and mental anguish.

How to best address negative comments according to my values would be to not react emotionally. Giving yourself time to cool off and think avoids a situation where you say something you might regret. As well, I would always react professionally and respectfully because I believe in treating everyone with respect. It is not worth riling up the negative commenter and escalating the situation. These negative experiences allow you to learn and grow from them and teach you how to avoid them in the future. I also think it is important to be able to move on from the situation, otherwise, it will stay haunting you, limiting your development.

Open dialogues about media literacy and information can often create conflict. This may be because people have different ideologies and criteria about what it means to be literate in the media, as well they may misinterpret media literacy. Another reason people may create conflict surrounding media literacy is that they do not possess media literacy themselves and therefore do not understand it.

Overall, I believe it is very beneficial to have a PLN that values media literacy. This gives you credibility, shows your reliability, forms deeper connections, as well as generates discussion.