November 23rd – November 29th

Reflect on your experience in the course, your development of PLN, your use of social media platforms and networked publics, share any changes in your perspective of social media in professional settings and personal use.

I have found EDCI 338 to be a very fascinating course. I think the biggest takeaway from this course is that a personalized learning network is important and influential in both a personal and professional way. The guest speakers that Jesse has brought in have been very interesting and are part of his personalized learning network. Realizing that his personalized learning network is being used for his profession has helped me to see that my personalized learning network could be beneficial in my career.I think that I had developed a PLN prior to this course, although I now have a better understanding of what that means and I was given the opportunity to create a new personalized learning network by interacting with my group, group 3.

It was very interesting completing the final assignment with group 3B, because I was able to hear other people’s perspectives on this course and the main takeaways that they had, which helped broaden my perspective. I think is a perfect example of what a personalized learning network is for. The use of my social media platforms and networked publics has not changed drastically as a result of this class. Although I feel that much of what I’m doing on these sites is now better understood. As a result of reading peers blog posts, I’m able to take precautions with security of networked publics and I have familiarized myself with privacy settings to ensure that my information and what I’m sharing is being viewed by the appropriate people.

I haven’t found that perspective on social media as a whole has changed as a result of this course, although now I have a better understanding of how to interact with people on social media, both in my personal life and in my professional life. Additionally, I have learned certain social standards that should be upheld in a PLN, and now I am able to better upholds those standards. I found that the interview with Sophie Lui was very interesting, when she was discussing how she uses Twitter to connect with her followers. It provided evidence that using your personalized learning network, or professional learning network in this case, is beneficial and can help you curate diverse connections and foster a sense of inclusiveness, for those who may not find that elsewhere in their life.

I think that the interview with Amber changed my perspective of a professional learning network because her sense of openness and accepting of others when she interacts with new people has led to her having quite a fulfilling career in various roles. It was interesting to see how that was brought upon by her professional learning network and connections that she had made within the workplace.I think that this ties in well with Chapter 16 of Digital Leader: Five Simple Keys to Success and Influence by Erik Qualman (2012). During this he discusses the importance of connection, especially amongst others. At one point, he states “Remember our connections only become currency when we actually reach out to others for assistance.” (Qualman, 2012). He further exemplifies this by saying that connections will be more willing to help you when we’ve already helped them in the past. He talks about how networking is challenging when you’re desperate to network and advises that networking should be done before there is a need to network. I think the main takeaway from this chapter is that by creating a personalized learning network early on in life, it can assist you down the road, both personally and professionally. I think this is prevalent in my life. When seeking advice from others I use connections that I have networked with in the past and these connections help me shape future decisions.

One notable change in my perspective of social media, in a personal way, is the discussion regarding media literacy. I found this topic to be one of the most fascinating throughout this course and it was not something I was familiar with prior to taking this course. When Julie Smith describes media literacy she explains that it is understanding where the information you’re consuming is coming from: who is posting it, who is profiting from it, what are their intentions, what are the motives of those people, and where is that information coming from originally. When using social media in my personal life now I have begun to recognize that lots of people are not media literate and they may be sharing information that is false or misleading. While that is not their intention, I think that they’re not recognizing that when sharing information, one should understand where that information is coming from and why that information or media has been created. I have found this also translates to my professional life as well. Currently I am working as a research assistant with a professor, and any of the information that we share has to be research based and clearly substantiated by references.

When reading peers blog posts I have found that prior to this course I was unaware of some of the security and privacy issues that using networked publics comes with. I am now able to be more careful about what information I’m sharing and with who. A good example of this was brought up during the final assignment. I recorded a podcast with my group. One group member described that she has set her social media platform to private, although at one point she googled her social media handle and found that her hairdresser had an image that was public, and it was displayed on Google Images, with her tagged in it. And as a result of this, someone viewing that could find the location where she gets her hair done. It is especially concerning if you’re not sharing that form that type of information with everybody, when she chooses to have her platform set to private and then people can still see some of her information publicly, it’s a little bit concerning. This was eye opening for me.

In Chapter 16 of Digital Leader: Five Simple Keys to Success and Influence by Erik Qualman (2012) he discusses connecting with people online and how it can lead to lasting relationships and empowerment for people. The section on how Facebook groups and Facebook phone books can help you connect with others is very interesting. I found that throughout that chapter, there was a lot of discussion on leadership and how influential it can be, especially in the digital world. Prior to reading this chapter I had not considered how leadership could be incorporated into your digital identity. I will consider this moving forward.

I think that following EDCI338, I will continue to use my personalized learning networks on LinkedIn, and Instagram to connect professionally and personally with others. I enjoyed connecting with group members throughout the duration of this course, and collaborating with them on the final assignment, and I look forward to hopefully connecting with them down the road at some point.

 

References

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

Qualman, E. (2012). Chapter 16 Empower Others. In Digital leader: 5 simple keys to success and influence. McGraw-Hill.