Month: February 2023

• Building a reputation and trust in a connected culture can be difficult; how are you building a network of individuals who are dynamic, reliable, & participatory?

It is true that building reputation and trust in culture is difficult, there are some my personal strategies to build a dynamic, reliable, & participatory PLN.

First, building a reputation for myself is important. Only when I have a certain standard of constant high-quality work, responsive and insightful conversation and active communication delivery, there will be more chances for me to attract more excellent people be willing to share information with me and learn from each other. Second, actively engage with potential network members. For instance, actively connect with people who share the same background and profession, such as following them on social media, commenting and sharing their posts to generate more communication and thought collision. Finally, also the most important strategy, is to maintain the valuable network we create. I usually build a group chat for my PLN, and regularly and frequently share information in the chat. In this case, the PLN is not only limited in the form of commenting posts, but communicating anytime through private chat, which forms a constant and sustainable PLN.

• Are you leveraging healthy relationships from your PLN for growth?

I always use PLN as a good method to help me achieve personal growth in many aspects. Apart from professional development and career exploration, I’ve built other PLNs for various purposes, such as building a photography PLN to improve my photo-shooting skills, and nutrition PLN to discuss diet-keeping methods. The healthy relationships from PLN help me by actively sharing experiences, thoughts, and conclusions and strategies for photo-shooting and diet-keeping, which enables me to keep learning from them, in a constant and enjoyful way. I can always get the latest information related to camera updating and new diet ways and recipes from the PLN, avoiding me from detouring from correct way and improve my skills more quickly.

• How would you create a PLN prior to engaging in a social media campaign on a topic of your choice? Consider how you would introduce yourself to others consider how you would engage in initial conversation to generate interest in your campaign professionally.

Creating a PLN in advance is important to connect with the social media campaign on the chosen topic. First, I will choose the most suitable and relevant social media platform for my topic. Next I will build my digital profile to maximumly show my understanding, passion, competencies and achievements relevant to my chosen topic, in order to introduce myself and showcase my topic-relevant experience. The well-developed profile is more likely to attract more people sharing similar backgrounds and interests, and increase the opportunity of professional network and communication. Take me as an example, if I choose the topic of professional development and career path, I would choose Linkedin, Twitter or Facebook which are popular and most appropriate platforms for career development and network. Then when I build my profile, I pay attention to showcase my education, internship and project experience, my working values, and all kinds of my competencies that could attract and connect with potential employers or people in the same industry. During networking, it is also significant to generate meaningful and engaging conversation with people connected. When I was building my PLN, I always initiate the conversation to share and exchange information with others. I usually spend 5 minutes first to get to know and learn about the person, and at the same time introduce myself (my basic information and background) to them. Then I gradually start the information sharing process by asking questions about their professional experience, and something I am curious after I read their profile. When they ask me about my experience, I also try to conclude and share my refined thoughts with them, forming a good back-and-forth loop. From the conversation, both sides can learn more and gain more understanding about the industry, and at the same time enjoy the conversation and the process of information share. Finally, I usually say ‘Happy to talk to you. It’s very insightful and I enjoy a lot! Hope we could have another meaningful conversation next time.’ to invite people for further communication. In this way, an engaging and insightful conversation is generated.

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• Community communications go beyond blogs and social media shares; how does a PLN help and hinder development of thoughts and ideas in education discourse?

Education discourse refers to the communication among people that is either spoken or written. PLN is an effective method to conduct education discourse that it facilitates communication and knowledge sharing among educators during the education process. As educators connect and network with other educators shared the same interest and teaching direction with them, they are able to learn different perspectives of knowledge and the latest industry information. In this case, their knowledge level becomes higher, angles to view the issues become more diverse, and educational discourse ideas such as content and ways to teach students are generated and opened by obtaining insights from their peers. They are not only limited to their own knowledge, but could combine theirs with others’ into the discourse and better deliver it to students. However, PLN also contains some drawbacks that educators may rely too much on the knowledge sharing by others, which prevents them from thinking and developing their own ideas. The information is already digested and concluded by others, thus, may prevent them from independent thinking and processing raw material. They may gradually lose their ability for education discourse, such as teaching valuable knowledge and meaningful contents to their students.

• How do educators create discourse?

Educational discourse is basically the transfer of knowledge between all the participants during the education process using various forms of teaching language. For example, textbooks and presentations are both forms of educational discourse. Educators deliver knowledge to students through speech form. Besides, educators also create discourse for students, including assigning group projects and debates to students. By this way, discourse among students occurs that both group projects and debates allow them to exchange information and discuss their ideas with each other. Take myself as an example, my major professor hold debates surrounding the course topics among us every month. The debate enables us to communicate different ideas and our own understandings towards the course content through the form of competition and opinion collision. Our team expressed our knowledge to the other team and they also absorbed knowledge from us, achieving a transfer of knowledge and ideas. As a result, apart from the traditional way of discourse, teaching via speeches, professors also create education discourse among students by organizing discussion events.

• What is the role of social media in education?

Social media is a tool and a platform for inter-professional communication and networking among people who share same interests and professional direction, facilitating professional knowledge share and information exchange by seamlessly bringing people from all over the world together. No matter where they are located, as long as they registered in the social media, the digital platform provides them with opportunities to learn from each other. Thus, social media creates a new form of education, which is technology-based, by facilitating the professional communication among people, even they are from long distances. For example, Linkedin is a great example that it allows people from all over the world to connect with each other for the purpose of information exchange, professional development and career path seeking. By networking and communicating with people from the similar industry with the help of Linkedin platform, people gain education from their peers and improve their knowledge level.

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

One major problem for education through social media communication is the potential improper use of social media. Since there are many fun posts on the platform, students may be distracted by other information instead of focusing on professional learning communication. In this case, it is social media that prevent the effective education from being delivered. Another problem is the knowledge transferred through communication and chat on social media might be very abstract and fragmented. Not every student is able to integrate pieces of information into an organized knowledge system and utilize it. The difference from traditional education can also prevent effective education from occuring.

Reference

E. Reeder Last Modified Date: January 01. (2023, January 1). What is the role of discourse in education? Language Humanities. Retrieved February 8, 2023, from https://www.languagehumanities.org/what-is-the-role-of-discourse-in-education.htm

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

Digital platforms are not only designed to enjoy digital leisure, but also a useful tool for students to develop a professional network with others and seek a career path. Linkedin is a great and widely-used platform nowadays. People are able to create their own professional profile, including their demographic information and photos, education and work experience, and other professional achievements they achieved lifetime. Employers and recruiters can then based on the profile to reach out to people who have competencies and values they want, while people can also add potential employers as their connection and start to communicate with them. Thus, currently when students would like to find a co-op or internship, they choose to build a lindekin profile to show their professional background and competencies, and connect and network with ideal employers for potential career paths. Also, networking with people who have stronger professional background allow students to learn knowledge and gain more industry information to prepare for their careers after graduation.

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

Due to the rapid development of technology nowadays, networking starts to exist in the form of not only in-person but also fully online. For example, social media such as Linkedin allow students to connect with people from all over the world to share information and learn new knowledge. Social media has the power for students to develop learning network with all the people who share similar professional backgrounds from the same city, or even from different countries. As a result, they could consider how to properly use this characteristic of technologies and social media to maximize the opportunities to network with more professional people from the industry, and extend their professional learning network group.

• Thread Discussion: How do data privacy and security limit and promote a PLN? In your network, how can you create a digital identity/ reputation?

Data privacy and security may limit the professional learning network that if people want to keep their privacy, they may not be willing to share their information or knowledge with others since it must reveal some of their personal experience. For example, their career details. Also, people who worry about privacy may not trust and use digital tools for PLN, which reduces many opportunities to extend professional networking. However, data security can also promote PLN that if a social media platform respects customers’ privacy and engages in building data protection, people are more willing to use it to develop professional communication with others as they know their data is protected well.

Creating digital identity resembles ‘role-play’, which means showing aspects of an individual to make up a role on digital platforms, for personal leisure or developing a professional network. As more communications and networking are conducted, this individual may be known by more people in the particular field or area. Thus, digital reputation is built up.

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