Month: November 2023

How likely individuals are going to continue with their created content and their network?

Individuals are much more likely to continue with content creation and building their personal learning network if they are receiving support from others around them. This can act as a source of motivation if their presence on social media is stagnant for a while and can help deter any insecurities that come along with starting to present yourself and your passions on social media. It will also be more motivating to continue if the individual sees that goals are being achieved, even if they are small ones, as this will make the dream of amassing a large following to share your content to much more attainable. Setting goals also provide a specific purpose within the larger movement that one can work towards, as it may be overwhelming or daunting to work to the vague larger end goal of creating a large network of individuals. However, like Jesse and Olivia discussed this week during our learning pods, the era of influencing does not have complete longetivty, especially as the market right now has become extremely saturated with thousands of ‘micro influencers’ all attempting to become larger. As Jesse said, many of these influencers will end up falling off the map when their content becomes unrelatable or repetitive, especially as there are many influencers doing the exact same thing as one another. Olivia also expressed that these individuals, even the extremely successful ones, will be unable to remain an influencer for the entirety of their career and into late adulthood. Most of them are in their late teens and early twenties, and will probably be unable to remain at the same level of popularity on TikTok or Instagram as they reach adulthood.

Are the skills that they developed applicable in professional practices?

In some ways, the skills that social media influencers develop are applicable in professional practices. Especially if influencers want to remain successful in the long term, it is common to see many branching out into other business ventures outside of content creation, including working with brands, and even creating their own businesses. These management skills are extremely useful for professional practices, as they are in charge of meeting with executives, curating a brand image, promoting, creating a product. One example that comes to mind for me is a youtuber named Ashley Alexander that I’ve been watching for a few years. She started out vlogging her life and built up quite a big following, then recently collaborated with a swim company to release her own line of bikinis that she had designed. Now, she just announced that she’ll be starting her own Matcha company in the coming year, as she has been vlogging herself making matcha for years and it is a signature drink of hers, making it a great business move to branch out into production of the tea.

Using your PLN to engage business, career opportunities, and relationships.

Your PLN can be a great tool to engage and boost your professional opportunities and relationships in many ways. By connecting with peers and meeting new individuals, you are able to hold powerful and productive discussions on your business sector of interest, promote yourself or your company, get advice, develop new ideas and learn from those around you who may be more advanced in the field. With the advancement of social media and the internet, this can be done way easier through virtual events, webinars, online courses, podcasts, instagram lives and more. LinkedIn can also be a great way to seek out career opportunities, as it compiles all job offerings in one place and allows you to market yourself professionally to potential employers, as well as engaging in conversations with them.

Take your PLN from local community to global community.

Social media is a great way to advance your PLN from the local community level to the global community. Engaging online opens up discussion space with so many individuals who may not be from your direct vicinity, and allows you to reach out and create connections with people all over the world that would be impossible to connect with face to face locally. It also allows you to get informed on issues that are happening around the world, not just in your own community, and you are able to contribute through social media by raising awareness, signing petitions, sharing important information, raising money and learning from those abroad who are being affected. This allow allows your PLN to gain a more worldly and cross cultural perspective, as you are not only receiving information from those around you who may have similar customs, values, belief systems and backgrounds. Diverse perspectives and backgrounds allow for a deeper understanding to be had, as you’re not just thinking from one perspective, but many.

What is Media Literacy?

Media literacy can be described as one’s ability to analyze and think critically about the media they are consuming by looking deeply at the different aspects of the messages. This could involve being wary about the motivations behind the media, potential biases and coming at it from not just your own perspective.

Why is it Important?

Media literacy is important because it allows us to gain the full picture of what we are consuming, as well as allowing us to stay vigilant against false or misinformation created to skew what we think or how we’re thinking. It is also important because of the sheer amount of information we are constantly exposed to and have to sift through, and it allows us to determine what is reliable content and what is not.

Why is it Dismissed?

As I said in this weeks learning pods, media literacy can often be dismissed because it can threaten the skewed or one sided information that someone may wish to put out for their own gain of power, whether that be politically, economically or otherwise. Media literacy requires critical thinking of those in power positions which may involve holding them accountable or them losing membership if people become aware of their skewed informational views. Without this critical thinking, those in power can use media to push their own agendas and ideologies without any checks in place to see if what they are saying is objective or accurate.

Why Should you Aim for Varied Views but the Factual Consensus in your PLN?

In my Personal Learning Network, it is important to look for varied views, because different perspectives allow you to gain a more worldly point of view as you can think about things open-mindedly, and not just in your own path of thinking. At the same time, it is important to aim for a factual consensus for your PLN because that will conclude that the information you are taking in through media is actually reliable and objectively accurate. Both of these aspects of a PLN are extremely important to its integrity, and ensuring that media literacy is taking place.

What is the Benefit of Having a PLN that Values Media Literacy?

Having a PLN that values media literacy is beneficial in so many ways. It allows you to communicate better with others through the media literacy skills that relate to Information and Communication Technology (or ICT), through the best use of networking tools that allow for us to create, share and connect with others through information. It also allows us to make critically thought out decisions about the information that we are taking in and consuming, where we are getting our information from, who is supplying it and if there could be any biases. It also allows us to stay informed on the events of the world and be as unbiased and understanding as possible, especially when it comes to complex and multisided events or issues.

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?

A PLN can help develop the thoughts and ideas in educational discourse in many ways, and can also hinder it in a few. One of the main ways that it can help is through connectedness to likeminded, as well as diversely thinking peers and colleagues. In the reading this week, “Designing for Open and Social Learning”, the importance of social interaction and networked learning through the use of digital technologies was emphasized. Digital technologies can help through the ease and consistency of online communications, and can open up spaces for educators to provide their ideas, solve problems, discuss future plans and build relationships online. As I mentioned in the learning pods this week, similar relationships can also be build through our PLNs offline. I used the example of my mom, as she is a teacher, and has told me about how often her peers and colleagues would share information, resources, lesson plans and classroom decorations with each other. Even though she did not know all of these other teachers directly, this was able to happen through overlapping spheres of PLNs, as friends of friends can connect through their mutual relationships, allowing for more knowledge to be spread. It can also occur through district wide learning conferences for teachers, where they are provided with a physical space to learn, develop, share and build connections. This aspect of PLNs was also discussed in the reading, as it was stated that “social capital and connections contribute to the development and facilitation of a personal learning environment”(Veletsianos, 2016). This development could be hindered based on the time that it takes to form these relationships and have discourse. Especially in the educational field, I know that free time for teachers can be extremely limited, as their days do not end when the children leave their classrooms, and often start much earlier than the beginning of the school day. Due to tasks such as marking assignments, setting up and rearranging classrooms, and lesson planning, many teachers are not left with much time to build the connections with their peers that allow for the transfer of information.

What is the Role of Social Media in Education?

Social media can be an extremely useful tool in education, and can be utilized in many different classroom settings. For example, educational youtube videos can be shown to add substance and uniqueness to a lesson, that provides students with a fun and entertaining way to retaining the course material. Video channels such as “Crash Course” with Hank Green were often shown in my high school and middle school classes as they were funny, animated clips that provided quick facts on many topics including history, art and science. Social media is also a great way for students to communicate with each other about the class. I know for many of my classes there have been discords set up by students so that we can all communicate, ask questions, make study groups and provide insight to others. It is also a great way to make friends in large lecture style class settings. Social media can also be used as an engaging way for students to complete assignments, by filming and posting an educational TikTok or Youtube video about a certain subject they have researched. This can be way more exciting to students than simply writing a paragraph response on a topic, they may feel more inclined to learn more information, and it may stick better in their heads because of the increased engagement.

What are Some Problems with Social Media Communications in Educational Settings?

One of the biggest problems of the use of social media communications in educational settings is that it can be a major distractor for students. Especially with scrolling apps such as TikTok and Instagram, and social apps such as snapchat, children may be more inclined to use social media during class time instead of focusing and retaining the lesson at hand, or using social media productively. Another may be that lower income students might not have access to personal devices and may not have the ability to create a social media account.

When working with the Vulnerable Sector, how Does Social Media fit Into Professionalism and Regulations?

One of the biggest ways social media fits into professionalism and regulations when working within the vulnerable sector is the importance of remaining strictly confidential. Especially with how pervasive social media is now adays, it is very common that individuals working in the vulnerable sector may feel inclined to snap pictures or update their friends as they go about their work day. However, this could cause a slip up in which a patient or client’s confidential information is accidentally exposed or publicized, violating these boundaries for safety. Even things that may seem trivial like a patient’s name could be a confidentiality breach. It is also important to make sure that if pictures are being taken purposefully for reasons such as marketing, everyone in the image has given consent to having their picture not only taken but posted to social media.

References:

Veletsianos, G. (2016). chapter Nine: Designing for Open and Social Learning. In Emergence and innovation in Digital Learning: Foundations and Applications. essay, AU Press.