Xiaoqi Wang EDCI 338 Class

Tag: #personallearningnetworks

Who Needs To Know About My PLN

November 29, 2020 / / 0 Comments

When I started working on my Personal Learning Network (PLN), it was clear to me that I need to establish my objectives as to why I created my PLN. In the first few weeks of the class, I learned that one of the objectives of my PLN is to help me become a good economist in the future. For this reason, I joined forums created for aspiring economists. In addition to this, I also followed the Twitter accounts of known economists and I also discovered other professional economists because of them. Moreover, as the course progresses, I also learned that I should expand my horizon and use my PLN to develop new skills. I find this convincing because, I should not limit myself to my future profession alone. Also, I wanted to give myself an opportunity to try new things and learn new things especially that a lot of information are readily available online for free. Aside from economics, history is also one of my favorite subjects. Because of this, I also followed contemporary historians in Twitter and join forums created by history enthusiasts. After joining the forum created by history enthusiasts, the members of the forum recommended other forums that they think I might like. This helped me further expand my horizon and I really find this learning journey meaningful.

Towards the end of the course, I thought that I already learned everything that I needed to learn about PLN. However, I was surprised when our professor asked us to ponder on who needs to know about our PLNs for this blog. Looking back, I thought I am contributing to the learning of others wheneve I join conversations and discussions in Twitter threads and forum discussions. Nevertheless, I learned that I must also promote my PLN to others to guide them in their learning journey. Just as Erik Qualman (2012) said, digital leaders like me should inspire awareness and engagement.  To do this, Qualman (2012) recommended that digitial leaders need to provide sufficient information so as not to cause confusion. Additionally, digital leaders should also make people conscious of the situation and guide others to understand it. This is because, it is only when people understand the situation that they become fully engaged to identify their strengths and weaknesses. Qualman’s words made me realize that my PLN, in addition to helping me become a good economist and expand my horizon, should also empower others.

EDCI 338 is one of the subjects I enjoyed this semester because it granted me freedom to rule over my own learning and help others in their learning as well. All my life, I thought that the idea of education is just about teachers teaching the students inside the classroom. This subject helped me understand that students can be responsible for their own learning when given the chance to. Lastly, another thing I learned from this class is that social media can also be an effective tool in building one’s professional career.

References

Qualman, E. (2012). Empower others. In Digital leader: 5 simple keys to success and influence. Retrieved from https://learning-oreilly-com.ezproxy.library.uvic.ca/library/view/digital-leader-5/9780071792424/ch16.html

 

 

On Why Media Literacy Matters in your PLN

November 8, 2020 / / 3 Comments

It is true that media can grant users unlimited access to various sources of information. Correspondingly, this allows them to be informed and it also grants them opportunities to learn new skills. In fact, there are hundreds of universities online that offers wide-range of courses for free. Nevertheless, in order to enjoy the vast resources of information that the internet can provide, users need to have media literacy skills. Media literacy skills, according to Center for Media Literacy, allow people to access, analyze, evaluate and create messages in different forms, understand how media affects the society, and develop the necessary skills of inquiry (cited in Trilling & Fadel, 2009). People need this particular skill because not everything they saw online are real. For example, there are news online that are created with the intention of spreading malicious information. If one is media literate, he/she will double-check if this certain news is true before sharing it with others. On the other hand, if he/she is not media literate, he/she will just carelessly share the information with others. Thus, making him/her responsible in spreading malicious lies or fake news.

No matter how important media literacy skills are, especially now that it is already the Digital Age, open dialogues on media literacy and factual information actually create conflict. This is because, not everyone agrees on the concept of media literacy and not everyone sees it as an independent concept. In the interview of Prof. Miller to Prof. Smith, Prof. Smith mentioned that there are some people who are surprised to learn that media literacy is actually different from “literacy” that we know (Miller, 2020). This implies that people have this notion that for as long as you know how to read and write you are considered be literate and that you are media literate too. Consequently, people often dismiss media literacy skills because they think that they already have it and there is no need for them to learn it anymore.

On the contrary people needs to learn media literacy skills because it will help them navigate through the Internet. Also, just as Prof. Smith mentioned, media changes every day and it is not as constant as math (Miller, 2020). For this reason, it is exciting to know what will happen next. On other hand, the unpredictability of media makes others fearful and instead of learning how to use media, they would rather be alarmed and put their walls up (Miller, 2020). For me this kind of reaction is dangerous because this will deprive people of the necessary skills they need. In order to learn media literacy skills, people can build or be a part of a PLN composed of people who values media literacy. People who values media literacy are critical thinkers, they can also be reliable sources of information, and people who are not familiar with media literacy can learn from them. Being part of a PLN will also help users to see varied view of different people on a certain topic. However, users must make sure that factual consensus is present because this indicates that the PLN maintains healthy discussion and harmonious relationship.

References

Miller, J. (2020, October). EDCI 338 A01: Smith, Julie [Video]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z_T9RghwJlI&feature=youtu.be

Trilling, B., & Fadel, C. (2009). 21st century skills: Learning for life in our times. John Wiley & Sons.

Community Engagement and My PLN

October 25, 2020 / / 4 Comments

As an avid user of social media, I would say that social media both foster and challenge community-based communications. Social media can foster community-based communications because social media has the ability to put together the members of community in online space. For instance, Mike Russell said that there is a subreddit for people living in Canada (Miller, 2020b). This subreddit allows Canadians to interact with one another and in the case of Russell, since the redditors know that he is a cop, the redditors ask him various question in relation to his job. In this case, Russell brings the community of Canadian redditors closer to the police. This kind of communication rarely happens in face to face because when people see cops, they have the tendency to get intimidated. Nevertheless, social media could also challenge community-based communications simply because miscommunication and misinformation are rampant in social media. Kermer explained that one of the challenges of the online space is that your manner of writing is different from your manner of speaking (Miller, 2020b). This means that whenever one communicates online, there is no way of knowing if the community properly received his/her message. Indeed, social media both foster and challenge community-based communication.

To reduce miscommunication, it would be better if one would always make it a point to be polite whenever he/she wanted to communicate something online.  In public media 2.0, the core function of the publics is to “keep democracies democratic” (Jansen et al., 2011, p. 59). This means that people online have the freedom to share their thoughts and opinions but they have to keep in mind that when they go overboard, they will be called out. To avoid unhealthy situations like these, one must keep his/her opinions in tow through being sensitive to other cultures and balancing professional expectations and personal beliefs. It is true that social media is sometimes used for personal reasons but one has to keep in mind that he/she is still an employee and part of being an employee is being professional inside and outside of the company.

In conclusion, as my online community learns more about who I am, I believe that the best thing I can do is to be polite. This means that I should avoid getting involved in issues that other people might find offensive. In addition to this, I will also refrain from posting very insensitive comments. If I really wanted to communicate a personal or sensitive topic, my best option is to send a private message. This way I could get to connect with people in my community that I wanted to connect with without fearing that other people might see our conversation. Lastly, I will make it a point not to overshare. By saying overshare, I will not share very personal information like my phone number, address, and even my birthday. If I share this information, strangers in the internet can easily disguise themselves as me. These cases are very rampant and I do not want any forms of crimes to be connected to my name especially when I did not commit the crime.

 

 

 

References

Jansen, S., Pooley, J., & Taub-Pervizpour, L. (2011). A new vision for public media. In Media and social justice (pp. 55-67). Springer.

Miller, J. (2020, October 18). EDCI 338 A01 – Russell M [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vH_UiTWYYwU&feature=youtu.be

Miller, J. (2020, October 18). EDCI 338 A01 – Kermer, A [Video]. YouTube. https://youtu.be/73KOxy_fMSM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

My Personal Learning Network (PLN) and Inclusion

October 11, 2020 / / 0 Comments

One good thing about my Personal Learning Network is that it is very diverse. It is diverse because my PLN is composed of professionals, students like me, researchers, and teachers as well. Aside from being diverse, there is also equality in my PLN because no one has the loudest voice in the room. I would not like it if I would have the loudest voice because that means that I am dominating the discussion. On the other hand, I would also not like it if one of my fellow learners in my PLN would have the loudest voice because that means that he/she is taking over the discussion. Since education is supposed to be democratic and inclusive where everyone has their own roles, responsibilities, and peer connections (Five Moore Minutes, 2018a), I wanted my PLN to be democratic and inclusive.

With diverse and inclusive PLN, I was encouraged to participate in silo of information through sharing my thoughts and opinions on topics like economics, education, and digital learning. The diverse group of people in my PLN enabled me to view things from different perspectives. For instance, teachers have different views on education compared to students and so are researchers and other experts in the field. Because everyone in my PLN has different views on a certain topic and no one is pushing them to think alike, it made me interested in the concept of inclusion. In inclusive education, educators do not force their students to think alike. Like many kids who struggled to fit in the archaic system of education that Shelly Moore mentioned in her video titled “Don’t Should on Me: It’s not easy being NOT green” (2018), I also struggled to fit in. Fitting in is not a good thing especially when you are really different from others. I want the inclusivity that I could feel from my PLN and I believe that engaging in my PLN more would help me see inclusivity in action.

The learning outcome of my PLN is to get the learners engaged and to make them lifelong learners. In order to ensure exposure to diversity and inclusion, I will not be picky in choosing my PLN members, for as long as their profiles are not dummy accounts, I will include them in my PLN. Just as Moore and Schnellert (2017) said, the paradigm shift in education is long overdue. This means that if as a student, I can do something to revolutionize my education, I will take the necessary steps to do it. After reading about inclusion and PLN I realized that education should not really look for the “not wavy” ones and fix them. I believe in finding strength and embracing diversity and this philosophy can be turned into practice. To turn it into practice, Moore (2016) gave a very important advice: Focus on the students that are hard to get to. If educators focus on students who find it hard to keep up, there is a huge chance that they will be able to reach all the students.

 

References

Five Moore Minutes. (2018, October 1). The evolution of inclusion: the past and future of education [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PQgXBhPh5Zo&feature=youtu.be

Five Moore Minutes. (2018, November 5). Don’t Should on Me: It’s not easy being NOT green [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MeRNhz0nGts&feature=youtu.be

Moore, S., & Schnellert, L. (2017). One without the other: Stories of unity through diversity and inclusion. Portage & Main Press. https://ebookcentral-proquest-com.ezproxy.library.uvic.ca/lib/uvic/reader.action?docID=4832579&ppg=6

Shelley Moore. (2016, April 4). Transforming Inclusive Education [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RYtUlU8MjlY&feature=youtu.be

 

Personal Digital Identity vs Professional Digital Identity

October 4, 2020 / / 1 Comment

 

 

Above is the V and R mapping that I have come up with. Looking at the map, one could easily see that most of my engagements online are institutional. This is because one of the reasons that I go online is because of my classes. There are sites in the map that I would not discover if not for my classes. For example, I have no idea what WordPress is and I also do not know how it works. Since WordPress is required in one of my subjects so I was mandated to create an account and learn how it works. In the long run, I learned how to use WordPress and I kind of liked blogging so I ended up using it for personal reasons. My V and R mapping got me thinking that if I am not a student, I would not spend so much time online. However, since it is already the digital age, I am pretty sure that when I started working one day, most of my activities online will be work related. Therefore, my V and R map will still be filled with institutional online activities.

With regard to work, some of the digital platforms that students use in order to develop their professional network are LinkedIn and Facebook. According to Johnson (2019), LinkedIn is a “social network that focuses on professional networking and career development.” Users can post their resumes and search for jobs using LinkedIn. Not only that, LinkedIn also allows their users to post updates and interact with other people. In addition to LinkedIn, Facebook also has a feature that allows students develop their personal network and this feature is called Facebook Jobs. Facebook Jobs allow users to search for jobs. Also, just like LinkedIn, Facebook also allows users to interact with professionals.

As a student, I plan to create my online portfolio through creating a WordPress website. In this website, I will create a professional identity that employers would like. I will also publish articles on economics that people can easily relate to. I want people to visit my site whenever they wanted a financial advice or they wanted to know some life hacks on budgeting their money. In order to interact with my audience, I will ask them to leave questions and I will answer them in my next blog. I will also promote my website in my social media so that my personal network can learn about my website. Through this website, I believe that I will be able to create a good digital reputation. This is because my site visitors learn from the articles I write and they may even consider me an expert in the field. Also, if ever a local employer would stumble upon my blog, he/she will be able to assess how much I know about my profession. Also, the blog will be a solid evidence that I am serious with the career path that I have taken to the point that I am determined to share my knowledge to others.

 

 

Reference

Johnson, D. (2019, September 6). ‘What is LinkedIn?’: A beginner’s guide to the popular professional networking and career development site. Retrieved from https://www.businessinsider.com/what-is-linkedin

OCLC. (n.d.). Visitors and residents mapping app. Retrieved from https://experimental.worldcat.org/vandrmapping/signIn

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