Category: EDCI338

My group members：Thomas Nguyen, Minrui Han, Catriona Borys, Wanqin Jiang (me)

Final Assignment Video

Participation Notes

Peer Review/Contribution

Can your PLN be used to help professional development post-course?

As known, PLN is super helpful for professional development and learning, especially in the university course that allows students to communicate with each other and share information and resources. However, not only during the course time, effective PLN also facilitates professional development in post-course period. Take my experience as an example, I used to form a very friendly and effective PLN in one of my major courses. In the group chat we created, we discussed about our assignments, share information and resources gained from the class, and also review together for the exams. Because of the network and connection, we made progress together and gained good grade for that course. After the course was finished, we did not just dismiss the PLN, but keep connecting with each other for other aspects, such as sharing latest information about co-op finding, career path and directions, etc. We all obtained useful information from each other, which makes it much easier for our post-course career exploration. Thus, it indicates that an effective PLN can help both course and post-course professional development through useful connection and information exchange.

Can your PLN be relied on to open professional opportunities?

People could rely on PLN for more professional opportunities to some extent, for instance, continuing my own PLN example in previous answer, I formed a very effective PLN that helps both in-course and post-course professional development. Back to last August, one of the members in my PLN was working as a junior data analyst in Vancouver Coastal Health. Since I was working on the same career direction as her, I asked her about her experience as a healthcare data analyst, such as what is her work content, and how to perform everyday tasks, etc. She told me very precious experience and knowledge that makes my direction much more clear, and at the same time she said if it is possible, she will try to recommend me to her manager using the employee referral. It is a great professional opportunity for me to open my career path, as the result of my PLN built and maintained. Whereas, opening professional opportunities cannot be fully relied on PLN. The reason why the member is willing to recommend me is I also share much useful information, and always maintain the connection with her and other members. I also provide many useful resources to exchange with her. So, she exchanged resources with me this time, for further potential collaborative progress and professional development opportunities. In conclusion, PLN can be relied on to open professional opportunities to some extent, but for more sustainable and long-term professional opportunities, individual competency development is still the most important.

Media literacy can be explained as “a framework to access, analyze, evaluate and create messages in a variety of forms, build an understanding of the role of media in society, as well as [develop] the essential skills of inquiry and self-expression.” (Trilling, B & Fadel, C 2012). In the other words, media literacy provides people platforms such as video, website, audio, pictures to help them to learn the full view of the medias in the society from different perspectives. Meanwhile, as people could gradually understand the significance of social medias’ existences, they also could develop the abilities to collect the data, judge the information, develop personal thoughts, express individual opinions, and finally connect with the society more closely. As Jesse and Smith Julie mention that literacy is not limited only by the paperwork, such as reading books, but also could be displayed by medias because “the media have their own text also they have their own language”(8:20). For example, scientific or educational YouTube channels belong to video medias which provide people with knowledge that may not be seen on the books. Therefore, medias in society provide diverse ways for people to receive timely information about the world and learn new knowledge which may not be included in books. Media literacy is an opportunity for people to touch and connect with the social environment by watching and accepting the changes of the world from medias. If the medias are not exist to spread information and build the image of the society, people may be derailed from society because they cannot know how the world is changing. Meanwhile, without understanding the develop trends of the society, people would lose their senses of stability and belong because of the unknown future. However, at present, medias in society are more likely to be considered as entertainment. People could get relaxation from entertainment, but at the same time addictions would occur. Focusing too much on entertainment information would occupy people time and energy of studying; also, because entertainment information are not serious or scientific, so everyone has the right to publish any legal entertainment information on the internet. Therefore, entertainment information could be unverified resources which misguide people to believe in them. In addition, not only the entertainment information, but also some seemingly scientific knowledge resources are actually fake information. These fake information are easier to be instilled in people’s brain and spread to others because they are “scientific”. These are the reasons that why the media literacy would be dismissed. Actually, most time we could find that people’s PLNs are more likely to include varied views but no the factual consensus. I think this is because people are more likely to leave their footprints in the topics they are interested with no matter the information are truth or not. As I mentioned before that medias in society would be considered as entertainment in most time, so people access these topics may just because interests rather than learning knowledge. Therefore, personal PLN would include more varied views instead of the factual consensus that they need to learn or accept as knowledge. As Smith Julie mentions that in the large amounts of information in social medias, “it is impossible to figure out what is real” (4:20), so the open dialogues about media literacy and factual information would create conflicts. For example, the makeup blogger may promote the cosmetics could improve the skin conditions, but this is not all true actually. If a person has really bad skin condition, he/she had better not to do makeup for a short period because some cosmetics would clog the pores and result in worse skin conditions. The most parts of blogger’s audience would be the people who must do makeup everyday, they could get some comforts after listening and believing with the blogger’s speeches no matter the speech is true or not. Therefore, people are more likely to seek and believe in the speeches in media literacy that they prefer to accept even the speeches are not factual information. When standing at the bystanders’ perspective, other people could feel the speeches in open dialogues are conflicted with factual information. Therefore, having a PLN that values media literacy would be important. Valuing on media literacy means that everyone needs to focus on improving the media environment, such as improving the authenticity of information resources. All citizens need to ensure that they publish and spread factual information on their PLNs. As the accuracy of information increased, people would be more likely to trust in the medias in society, and less people would be misguided by the false information.

References:

Smith Julie. “EDCI 338 A01- SMITH, JULIE” YouTube, uploaded by Miller, Nov 2, 2020. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z_T9RghwJlI

Trilling, B & Fadel, C (2012). Digital Literacy Skills . Media Literacy Chapter 4 pp.66. https://learning-oreilly-com.ezproxy.library.uvic.ca/library/view/21st-century-skills/9780470475386/fade_9780470475386_oeb_c04_r1.html

· How does social media engage communications?

As the rapid development of Information technologies, the social medias have gradually become the focus of modern people’s lives. The advanced public network society results in people’s diverse and inclusive PLN when using the social medias. At the same time, the benefits always come with the diversities and inclusiveness. As the chapter 4 says, “Social media tools can be used for rabble rousing or for engagement across difference”(Clark, J., & Aufderheide, P. 2013). People would expand their views by discovering different topics in social medias, some topics they may never connect with before; some topics may seem familiar but people are unclear with the contents; some topics people may learned about them but never go into them seriously. The process of discovering could motivate people to learn more knowledge, skills or information; also, most people would engage in this process. As people’s views become wider, their inclusiveness would become larger, so the diversity of the topics in their social medias could become more. In the other words, as the diversities and inclusiveness of people’s PLN become larger, the more topics and information they could come into contact with, so their views could be expended. Therefore, the benefits which are brought by both people’s and internet’s diversity and inclusiveness are bidirectional, and it is also a circular process.

· How does social media challenge communications? Is it inclusive?

The social media uses in public disclosure potentially challenged the advocacy communication. For example, before the appearance of social media, people would learn information through public medias (television, newspaper, or radio), comments on some events are just after-dinner chit-chat to talk with people beside. At this time, individual’s speech could no be seen by population around the world because public media “limited in generating vigorous public conversations by the one- to- many structure of mass media.” (Clark, J., & Aufderheide, P. 2013). Most people receive the information one-sided, their speeches may just be shared and persuaded people around them. However, the appearance of social media expands the ability of spreading ideas largely. Almost everybody have a common daily habit at present: unlock their phones frequently, refresh their social medias to check the updates and look for several topics they interested. When they see unexpected information appear, they would choose to express their thoughts directly on the platform. These thoughts could be spread and seen by world-wide people who also interested in this topic. Therefore, if someone wants to tell some ideas to the public, the more effective way is to put it on the social media instead of just doing advocacy communications with some people around you because the audience of social media is much wider. Also, as I mentioned people would be persuaded by the opinion of majority, if a bad opinion has arisen on one issue in society, people could change the direction of public opinion by sharing this issue on social media for comments.

· Does your PLN amplify the views of others?

I think my PLN amplifies views of others. I am not kind of person who like to express my thoughts in social medias. Instead, I am more enjoy with reading others’ thoughts. For example, If I found interesting posts or thoughts of others on Facebook, I may share these posts to my community but not comment on it. Therefore, most contents of my PLN are my footprints of viewing and spreading other’s thoughts. However, I know not expressing my personal thoughts in my PLN is not a good idea. For example, if I want to apply a job, the employer would like to learn my information by looking my PLN( such as profile, community or posts). If I do not share anything in my PLN, the employer cannot see my shining points, so I would lose amount of success rate compare to other candidates.

· The policies of employer social media communication expectations.

I think as a employer, the most important polices of social communication expectations are honest and responsible. The employee should chat with the employer with his/her real self information when applying for the job. During the work, the employee should not exaggerate his/her abilities and responsible for his/her speeches and tasks. Of course, the employer her/himself also should follow these policies when communicate with his/her employees and cooperative partners.

· How to better use social media to build PLN – Influencers & Commentators

inally, I think building a better PLN cannot live without commentators if you are an influencer or if you want to be an influencer. More commentators would bring more flows, more positive flows would bring the influencer with larger reputation. As more people get to know this influencer, this influencer would have larger commercial value, so the commercial activity suppliers would be attracted by his/her flows and reputation. As the influencer connect with more suppliers, the influencer’s PLN would be expanded. In addition, as Simpson mentioned in the video, the way he develops his voices is start from expressing his opinion in university courses. (11:26). If an influencer could express more significant voices in his/her PLN, more commentators would be attracted by this influencer, this is one of the ways to increase the number of commentators.

Reference:

Clark, J., & Aufderheide, P.(2013). A New Vision for Public Media. Retrieved from http://ezproxy.library.uvic.ca/login?url=http://www.palgraveconnect.com/doifinder/10.1057/9780230119796

MARKIEL SIMPSON. “EDCI 338 – 2021 – 02 – 22 MARKIEL SIMPSON”, YouTube, uploaded by MILLER, 22 Feb, 2021 of publication, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yCSpm1Lx8-A&feature=youtu.be

Comment:

• 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.

Comment:

• 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

V&R Map:

• 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.

Comment: