ENGAGING YOUR PLN

November 16th – November 22nd

Our guest speaker this week is a technology healthcare professional who trained in nursing and now liaises with hospital groups across North America. Consider the themes of the interview (in conjunction with the development of social media platforms cited in the reading) to examine the benefits and drawbacks of a PLN that can evolve with your career path – explore with references:

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

I think that my PLN could be used to help professional development post-course (EDCI338) in some aspects. Based on the PLN that I have curated for this course, I feel that the connections made could assist with professional development down the road. The interests and priorities of my PLN for this course is extremely diverse, which leads me to believe that this would not be the first avenue I would explore for professional development down the road. This question enabled me to consider what resources I would use if I was seeking professional development opportunities post course (or even post university). I believe the first thing I would do is use the PLN I have curated specifically for professional development, which is LinkedIn. Fortunately, I am familiar with the site and have even worked a Co-op job that I found, applied for, and was offered, through LinkedIn. Following this experience, I have used LinkedIn to connect with professors, coworkers, and friends that share similar interests to me. The content that I see and share on LinkedIn is in alignment with my professional aspirations, therefore I would use this platform for professional development first. The use of LinkedIn is a part of the culture in which I inhabit, as described by Manlio Del Giudice (2013). This type of networking has shaped our new culture and has become an essential component of how we communicate. 

Can your PLN be relied on to open professional opportunities and on which platform does your emerging expertise get good exposure?

I think the PLN I have developed using LinkedIn would be a good resource to rely on to open professional opportunities. The PLN I have is health information oriented, and enables me to interact with people of similar interests. I found the conversation between Amber Glauser and Prof Miller to be very interesting as it focused on her profession as a nurse working with information systems, and this is the area of healthcare that I am studying. I am passionate about usability of user interfaces or systems, and improving them to reduce stress and improve performance when using technology. I feel that many of my connections on LinkedIn are interested in this as well, and if they are not, they seem to be interested in learning about it. I have been working with a professor on a research project regarding usability of lab test results, and she is a connection on LinkedIn. Should I be granted permission to publicize the work and research that I have been doing, I believe that having this on LinkedIn would open professional opportunities for me to expand my work within this field and open conversation with others. As described by Amber, she felt that having an open mind with regards to new people has helped her, and trying to investigate what they can teach her has been beneficial in advancing her career. Cultivating this perspective within my PLN is something I strive to do, which is why I feel that LinkedIn will provide professional opportunities. The topic of technology and health information recieves good exposure across a variety of platforms. Science and technology are progressing rapidly and the advances are impacting economic activity (Giudice, 2013). Because of this, conversations regarding technology are of interest to many, and therefore exposure is prevalent across a variety of platforms. I find that for my own professional development, LinkedIn proves to be the most effective platform.

Can you leverage your PLN in future endeavours?

I can leverage my PLN in future endeavours by following the advice of Kirschner & Neelan (2018) on how to effectively build and leverage my PLN. They describe four steps to leverage your PLN and articulate why it is important. The steps are 

1. Determine your needs
2. Find the right people for your needs
3. Networking
4. Leverage technologies 

These steps are a simplified explanation of what we have been doing in this course by investigating, creating, and reflecting on our PLN development. I feel that throughout school I have formulated what my interests and passions are, which can be described as my “needs.” Through the use of LinkedIn I have been able to both find people that meet my needs, and network with them appropriately. Networking has been discussed at length in previous blog posts, and my networking skills have developed as a result of this reflection. Leveraging technologies is a vital component of a PLN as they are indispensable, they tap into communities of interests to find sources of information, answers to questions, collaboration opportunities and more (Kirshner & Neelan, 2018). The development of information and communication technology has dramatically altered the way that society and the economy work (Giudice, 2013). Leveraging technologies is arguably the most important step in leveraging my PLN in future endeavours as it provides the means of communication and sharing of information in today’s society. This can be done by using more sites than just LinkedIn as my PLN, and connecting with others using personal social media to expand my PLN on other platforms.

With consideration to the reading and video interview, how do you ensure that you expand your PLN via social media platforms into spaces that may be outside of your comfort zone?

I ensure that I expand my PLN via social media platforms into spaces that are outside my comfort zone by partaking in conversation and commentary that is on topics that I am not familiar with. Through social media, I can ask questions and receive feedback from people with perspectives that differ from my own, and in turn these are often outside of my comfort zone. As described in a previous blog post concerning the media, people often only view what they want to see and do not consider the opposing perspective to carry as much weight. The discussion with Sophie Lui earlier in the semester describes this phenomenon. It is important to consider both sides of an argument and approach issues with a logical, open minded perspective. Learning about how the news operates and shares information has been important for me when expanding my PLN outside of my comfort zone. Especially when discussing using social media for this, media literacy is a vital component of consuming information. The discussion of media literacy with Julie Smith provides context for how information should be perceived when investigating differing perspectives. The sharing of information using social media differs from consuming information from peer reviewed articles that Amber Glauser describes. Amber states that she loves that we can use social media to further education through healthy dialogs from your personal perspective. She then goes on to describe where she gets some of the information that she converses about – most of which is peer reviewed scholarly articles. I like this perspective as it enforces media literacy and enables her to have a PLN that values this I imagine. Curating a PLN that values media literacy can help when getting outside of your comfort zone using social media  platforms to expand your PLN. This is something I am striving towards within my PLN and look forward to reflecting on the impact this has. 

References

Del Giudice M. (2014) From Information Society to Network Society: The Challenge. In: Social Media and Emerging Economies. SpringerBriefs in Business. Springer, Cham. https://doi-org.ezproxy.library.uvic.ca/10.1007/978-3-319-02490-5_5

EDCI 338 (2020, Oct 21). A01 Lui, Sophie [Video file]. Retrieved from  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3T4jOdKd12I&feature=youtu.be

EDCI 338 (2020, Nov 1). A01 Smith, Julie [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z_T9RghwJlI&feature=youtu.be

EDCI 338 (2020, Nov 15). A01 Glauser, Amber [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RiWaXNfnHAg&feature=youtu.be

Neelen, M., & Kirschner, P. A. (2018, September 03). How to effectively build and leverage a personal learning network (PLN). Retrieved November 20, 2020, from https://3starlearningexperiences.wordpress.com/2018/09/04/how-to-effectively-build-and-leverage-a-personal-learning-network-pln/