How would you create a PLN prior to engaging in a social media campaign on a topic of your choice?
I will choose the right social media tools for the topics I am interested in. For example, creating a Facebook account and followed influencers in my field, and joining a group to meet like-minded people. When creating my own PLN, I will focus on these three main points:
First of all, be more inclined to establish contact with strangers. Expanding my PLN to meet more people in the same field will help me a lot. Interaction patterns in digital platforms are a way to learn new information, meet more people and get more information from them. Whether I’m studying or working, expanding our PLN is a better way to learn about professional content. For example, in the course of edci338, we share our blog every week to make it easier for other group members to read, which is also a way to build PLN connections.
Secondly, increase interaction with people. Over half a semester, I found that by sharing my blog and reading the blogs of others, I was learning more from the group members’ blogs. This also proves that the most important thing to extend our PLN is communication. So far, my use of Matternmost has gradually increased, and I’ve been able to communicate with more people from other platforms.
Finally, pay attention to the privacy and security of social media platforms. When creating a PLN, I will be careful not to register my real information too much on the platform. For example, if I register my school as UVIC, then I should not use my real name as the name of my username. In addition, my address and credit card should be canceled immediately after use. We need to be vigilant against hacking attacks, which may lead to information theft and the potential loss of my property. As PLN users, we have to be responsible for ourselves and those who are in the audience, and vigilance is the best approach.
I agree with you that social media is very important for education. We will inevitably use all kinds of materials from social media in our studies. Especially in these two years, because of covid-19, we have been in the stage of the online classroom, where we use various platforms to enrich our information and communicate with classmates and professors. Communication between students can effectively improve the student’s communication ability and leadership abilities. Students can help their teachers and classmates when they have problems. Social media is always risky, some people use social media platforms to carry out cyber attacks on others, operating systems should take appropriate cyber security measures to help protect knowledge and research.
Community communications go beyond blogs and social media shares; how does a PLN help and hinder the development of thoughts and ideas in education discourse?
Community communication is sometimes more effective than blogs and social media, but it doesn’t spread as fast as social media. PLN helps us build our ideas in the network, customize variety and choose appropriate learning tools. The benefit of PLN for educators is that they can control the part of the discourse they like to engage in, and it’s up to us to get the message to the right community. Each community has its theme, and the professional level has become a considerable resource in the continuous updating of uploaded materials. Compared to social media, for example, if a post about celebrity gossip is posted in the education community, the message will travel slowly because people in the community will not be interested in celebrity gossip. Again, if the right message is delivered to an active community, it will spread quickly.
How do educators create discourse?
As an educator, I believe in creating a free, equal, open space for every learner. All communication needs to take place in a specific area. Everyone can express his opinion and be respected by others.
What is the role of social media in education?
Social media has been great for education, as it has always been the most immediate way to disseminate information compared to blogs and community communication. On social media, students can communicate with each other in time, and this kind of timely communication is essential in the learning process. In group tasks, everyone’s work can get timely feedback, and the communication between students can effectively improve the student’s communication ability and leadership abilities. At the same time, it is also essential to communicate with teachers through social media so that students can ask questions in time and get answers. I hope to get your reply very much. Over time, my thirst for knowledge may decrease because I have five courses in a semester, and I can’t devote all my energy to one study. Many teaching resources can be retrieved on social media, and these teaching resources can timely answer our questions. Therefore, I think social media plays an essential role in education.
What are some problems with social media communications in education settings?
While there are many good aspects to social media communication in an educational setting, there are also many risks. First of all, in terms of security, our personal information will be made public to others, which causes our privacy security problems. Secondly, we may have different opinions with others on the Internet, which may cause quarrels. There are always people on the Internet who will stop at nothing to generate traffic and make our social media experience worse.
Thanks for sharing your process of learning PLN and showing your ideas step by step. PLNS are diverse and infinite. Shelley Moore also mentioned in the video that learning is infinite and our mindset is also very important. I really appreciate your comments! You already know a lot about the topic, and at the end of your blog, you present your thoughts and give a good conclusion. Well done!
My current PLN has multiple components. There are people of all ages, nationalities and backgrounds. Most of us have the same interests, and we got to know each other because of the same interests. But on the contrary, we are in different cultures and regions, which leads to the fact that everyone has a different point of view on one thing. We can work together to build a stronger relationship, and I can get a sense of what others are thinking. The interaction and participation of each individual as a learner are embodied in the PLN.
Are you learning from a variety of diverse voices and are you expanding your understanding of the views of others?
Choosing to learn from different voices in PLN is a good way to learn. I usually express my opinions after listening to others’ voices, which helps me to think and learn more comprehensively. I also learn a lot from other people’s opinions. I believe that no matter what kind of status I am, teacher, leader, group leader or group member, everyone should not listen to others’ views because of their status. Respecting the opinions of others, I think, is an important step to blending in with the crowd. When we communicate with others, we can accumulate experiences that we may not experience in our lifetime. As we learn more, we become more confident in expressing our opinions to others.
What is a learning outcome of your PLN and how are you ensuring your exposure to diversity and inclusion?
My learning outcome in PLN is to listen to others to learn what others understand, express all my opinions honestly, and make progress in mutual communication. When I learn some theoretical knowledge, I am like an interviewer, just absorbing their knowledge, not applying it to practical experience. For example, if I major in economics, all I can do is finish my homework and exams, but if I really work in a bank, I think I may not be able to finish the job, this knowledge is just an empty shell for me. Therefore, I often ask my mother about her knowledge in the bank, she is a clerk in the bank, she is a correct teacher, and she will tell me what she is going through. I like to hear her point of view, which is something my teacher can’t teach me in class. I will also think from more angles and broaden my thinking, which is the best embodiment of inclusiveness and diversity.
Thank you for sharing! I think your post covers most of the points. PLN can improve learning in many ways. Being active on social media and engaging students in collaborative tasks is a viable idea, and I totally agree with it. You also mentioned that there are some cloned accounts for scams or traffic, which are very dangerous. All we can do is learn to judge these fake accounts. Regular publishing is necessary when creating a digital identity. Plus, VR Map!! 🙂
Thanks for sharing! You have a good summary of digital identity, but I think you can write more about the advantages and disadvantages of digital identity in the web. We are putting our personal information at risk when setting up PLN or social media accounts. It’s not just about false identities and information security. As we rely on the Internet, some social platforms require us to complete our personal information to get rewards, but such improved information is very dangerous. These apps will read our address book to introduce some people we may know, which involves our social relationship information. Some apps can also read our online behavior information. There are many aspects of network security, and you can describe more to improve your blog. That’s my suggestion. Great work!
What digital platforms are students currently using to develop their professional network?
I use Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Of these three social media, I like to use Facebook the most. Facebook has public platform pages where I can see their regular updates directly. In addition, Facebook can establish groups so like-minded people can gather together. In addition, it is different from the groups of social software. Each Group has its public homepage, and Group members can post posts in the Group and reply “like” to other members. I think Facebook is an excellent social platform.
There are differences between Twitter and Facebook. It can receive news, ask questions, follow people of interest, and chat. Twitter posts are character limited. The downside is that you can’t send a lot of content, but the upside is that you can browse a lot of information quickly.
Instagram is more like the Posting of personal status, and people are more in the Story app. The videos are short, and people can quickly scroll through a lot of content, but it’s not as popular as Tiktok’s short videos. Instagram is more about life sharing.
As for the academic category, I know more about Quora. Quora is an exciting site that feels a bit like a search engine, a social network, but it’s designed to give you answers and allow you to answer other people’s questions about a subject you know something about. Many of the questions were academic.
What could the student consider in expanding their professional learning network?
The main concern is how we can get the proper knowledge efficiently and accurately. In social media, I think there are several ways to do this:
1. Join a team or online community. PLN is about working with partners, sharing their knowledge, and asking questions. We might argue about some of the points when co-authoring, but it’s progress. Online communities have more advantages than teamwork because we can meet experts worldwide, and these issues are at different times. We can post your content wherever you want, and when people see it, they will post comments.
2. Find accurate public home pages or expert blogs. They usually publish academic content about relevant knowledge regularly. This information is up to date, and you won’t find it in a textbook. Learn to recognize which accounts are real and which are fake.
3. Build your platform. Although at first, as a beginner, we don’t know anything yet. But in our blog, we can organize what we have learned. Build your blog just like EDCI338, organize what you have learned into knowledge points, and then let other students comment on it. Other students are scholars of the same level as me, and I think such expected progress is very effective.
4. Take some online classes. Many universities have some online courses that are free, and everyone can take them. You can even get some certificates at the end of the course. The advantage of these courses is that their teaching information is accurate, and you can learn with confidence.
How do data privacy and security limit and/or promote a PLN?
As technology enables us to become more connected, it also brings potential dangers in the anonymity of its communications. We may encounter Sextortion, location exposure, daily life, and personal information leakage leading to the theft of our property. Or when our friends’ accounts are stolen, criminals may use their accounts to borrow money from us, which may also lead to the loss of our property. Network personal information security is a significant issue, and our personal information may be sold cheaply. In this respect, we can only do as much as possible to reduce the exposure of our specific information on the Internet. The benefit of PLN is that we can find like-minded partners in our personal learning community and even connect with experts, share our ideas, develop knowledge, and progress together. In an age of expensive education, a textbook may cost me $200. For me, I’m not too fond of these heavy books. I have no patience to read them. I prefer online teaching. Some free online courses can let us learn more about our major, and I think it’s good for me.
In your network how can you create a digital identity/ reputation?
Set up a professional public account and change your profile picture and profile. Avoid Posting my personal photos and real life information about my school. I will use my screen name instead of my name for the account name. I will delete my geographical location and try to avoid using my credit card. If I do, I will delete the information immediately.
How did pivots to work-from-home during the COVID-19 pandemic change how we should consider our social media connectivity and professional balance?
As a result of COVID-19, the school’s teaching has been turned into online courses. My internship has also become online, and my communication with colleagues has been used on social media. In fact, I usually use the Internet more people, and I think I can accept such a life. However, one of the disadvantages of remote work is that I can’t get timely feedback. Whether it is work or study, I always await a reply. I am not sure when I will receive a response. I prefer to solve problems face to face to solve the problem. Telework reduces work efficiency in communication. However, I don’t need to get up early to go to the company, so I have more rest time and improve the efficiency of my working time. There is a contradiction between the two.
In this day and age, digital identity refers to all of our online representations, relationships and data. Some social media platforms cluster large numbers of digitally identifiable users, dividing them into domains, users and creators. As a result, users and creators can have greater control over social platforms, where they communicate with people and better reflect how they see themselves and want to be seen. An early concrete manifestation of digital identity was the world of Avatars, our extension to the virtual realm.
In digital identity, people see its usefulness in the age of social media. Its appeal is immense and often depends on a desire for self-expression and interaction, which in today’s apathetic society is something everyone, including me, longs for. There is not only one social media; it has many platforms on the Internet: web pages, games, apps, etc. The invention of Google and Facebook logins. For exampleostensibly to make it easier for consumers to log in and help increase conversion rates on individual sites – has dramatically improved the user experience on many sites and provided advertisers with a valuable set of data. But it has also contributed to the convergence of different digital identities.
More people prefer to build their avatars – characters or images that digitally represent the user – than “real” identities. The reasons for this are varied, but it is most likely a desire to separate identities from real life and create different personas online to express the feelings they want to vent.
For me, there are several reasons to establish multiple identities on social media:
I would create multiple TikTok, Instagram or Twitter accounts. My classmates won’t get the accounts I use more often because I don’t want them to know the real me. I don’t want to tie my social background to the Internet or say that one of my accounts is only tied to specific content.
When I am playing online games, I will build a charming character as a way to show a version of myself. I will find like-minded friends in games. Compared with real friends, the friends on the network let me more without words.
My profile tells about my career and learning experience on some academic websites, and some articles and videos show my professional knowledge.
With multiple digital identities, I think there are also huge risks. This means that my personal information is exposed more on the Internet. For example, I may experience card theft, fraudulent phone calls, etc. So the digital identity of the future needs better technology to support privacy and security so that I can feel more comfortable presenting myself online.
In today’s age, the Internet has become a closely related and inseparable thing around us. By relying on the Internet, we can build PLNS for self-directed learning to develop learning skills and build relationships with professionals. It is developed primarily through social media, such as Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook and blogs. PLN can communicate, create and share experience and knowledge with contacts anytime and anywhere. It has no time limit or place limit. We can develop ourselves professionally through continuous learning.
How are we motivated to participate in networked publics?
Establishing PLNS is the primary factor. Professional networks offer various benefits, such as getting to know many people in the field, asking them questions when we encounter problems or getting advice on innovations. This professional knowledge only relies on the university is not enough, because The Times is progressing, a lot of knowledge is in the update, and the content in the textbook is just a kind of past tense. The establishment of network support groups on social media can raise awareness and get to know the progress of social knowledge for the first time. Person-to-person dialogue, communication and reflection are key enablers of knowledge creation in organizational environments. Therefore, we need to join the online professional community, make full use of our learning network, and progress together with the professionals.
What are the risks & rewards of public communications?
When we learn professional knowledge, we can get to know some like-minded partners. On the Internet, we can even get to know some experts, professionals and celebrities. We look up to them and learn from them. In the process of progress, we can get advice from others, and then reflect on our learning to make progress. This is the reward we can get from public communication. But on the contrary, with the rapid development of the Internet, many websites and apps require the registration of personal information on their platforms. Some need to register their addresses, phone numbers, and even their credit card information. The huge economic value contained in personal information is gradually noticed by people. Therefore, when we experience personalized service, we also face the security problem of personal information leakage. In recent two years, some large Internet companies have also had users’ information leakage events, and users’ information security is in jeopardy. The consequences of personal information disclosure are all kinds of misuse of personal information, including spam text messages, harassing phone calls, fraud, identity theft, credit card theft, and even the possibility that our DNA information could be sold.
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