Explore the video provided and reflect on the themes of a PLN in a professional capacity.
Through listening to Brad Baker’s statement on how he sees and uses his PLN in the online community. He states that the professional community is our support system. By engaging in our PLN, we are not only facilitating ourselves in expanding knowledge and experience as well as positively contributing to society. What we should do by engaging in our PLN is to use the knowledge and contribute to our community, while it pushes us to continue challenging ourselves to work harder.
Which social media platforms are beneficial in education?
Some platforms are designed to facilitate learning in schools, while others may be more open and encourage open dialogues about things outside of school. We use forums on CourseSpaces and BrightSpaces to exchange ideas on concepts learned in class. WordPress blog is also widely used for online education in universities; people also use it to share things that interest them or thoughts around public issues. Other social media such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter that people use to communicate for open topics, sharing thoughts and learning experiences from others. Connectivism suggests that emerging technologies (hardware, software, and the internet) are important in how people learn knowledge (Veletsianos & Couros, 2010;2014;). No matter what social media platform is, we learned new knowledge while we constantly communicate and exchange ideas online.
Consider the equality that exists when all have the same platform to engage community dialogues.
While people communicate on the same social media platform, each has the equal opportunity to speak their voice and hear others. The social media platform itself has the same functionality for every user, and the difference is people’s choice of how to use it. Some people would like to absorb knowledge by hearing others, and some would like to express themself to the public. It is our choice of whether to engage in community dialogues or not (and in what degree of engagement), but we have the same opportunity when we use the same platform.
Consider as an additional piece, when working with the vulnerable sector, how does social media fit into professionalism and regulations?
When working with vulnerable groups, we have to pay attention to the information we transferred and the attitude we expressed. When we are small, we believe in everything teachers and parents tell us. As a person that transfers knowledge or opinions to vulnerable groups, the information must be critical and positive since they would believe in any information they received.
References
Miller, J., & Baker, B. (2021, June 10). Brad Baker Edci 338. YouTube. Retrieved November 5, 2021, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C5z8iHxW2n4.
Veletsianos, G., & Couros, A. (2010;2014;). Developing Personal Learning Networks for Open and Social Learning. In Emerging technologies in distance education (pp. 109–128). essay, AU Press.
November 19, 2021 at 11:59 pm
Hello, Yifeiwang.
Thank you for this blog, it is very informative! I am interested in your response to the question of “Consider the equality that exists when all have the same platform to engage community dialogues”. You said that “The social media platform itself has the same functionality for every user, and the difference is people’s choice of how to use it. Some people would like to absorb knowledge by hearing others, and some would like to express themself to the public.” This reminds me of the resident and vistor activity, and I think nowadays, digital natives are becoming the content creator (the resident of the internet), and they are delicated to do leave their digital footprint to the internet. As students, most of our time has spent in school, and our use of the internet is more reaserch-wise, what do you think of University students’s role in participating the internet world?
November 21, 2021 at 4:26 am
As you said that as university students we spend most of our time in school, our role in participating in the digital world is more like a learner. As an ordinary university student (by “ordinary”, I mean there are some university students who already have their own business or had experiences in many fields, and that’s not me), I am more towards gaining experiences from others rather than teaching my experiences to the audience. In another hand, university students also have many unique thoughts and creative ideas, and these thoughts and ideas are welcome to be expressed on the internet. In my opinion, university students can be content creators as well.