EDCI 338

This course has made a profound impact on my view of social media. In particular, working on the group project allowed me to explore social media platforms that I typically did not use. For our project, we wanted to use four well-known social media platforms and identify which users and audience may benefit from using them. The four social media platforms we chose were Twitter, Facebook, Tik Tok, and Instagram. We analyzed content trends and popular users on these platforms and identified which users may benefit from using these platforms. For Twitter, we decided that it may be the best fit for educators. Our rationale behind this was because of the unique networking and interacting capabilities of Twitter which would allow educators to interact with fellow educators to discuss career-related development and opportunities. Moreover, by using hashtags on Twitter educators would be able to access information and resources to enhance students’ learning, that is used by fellow educators across the globe. For Facebook, we thought it might be best to be used for personal use such as interacting with friends as family, as a lot of people, particularly elderly people, are active users on Facebook. For tik tok, when we analyzed trends we noticed that when small business owners posted videos they had a tendency to go viral, likely due to the tik tik algorithm. For instance, an upcoming clothing designer posted a video of her collection, and as the video went viral, she began to be inundated with orders from around the world. Therefore we thought tik tok would be beneficial for small business owners. Finally, for Instagram, we thought it might be best for health and wellness influencers, as there seems to be a large presence of these influencers on Instagram which can allow for collaboration thereby creating a larger reach for the influencers. Although I do not have research to support this, I personal observation I made while my personal uses of Instagram made me think that perhaps the obsession with having an “aesthetic” Instagram feed may allow influencers to reach a wider audience, as individuals may be attracted to the influencer’s feed “aesthetic”.

This course has taught me a lot about social media platforms and has certainly drastically changed my previous views of social media platforms. The two aspects I look forward to working on post-course, are building my digital identity and enhancing my PLN. I have always been a very private person, therefore I have always been wary about my digital identity. My preconceived notions made me believe that a digital identity may hinder employment opportunities. However, after taking this course and learning about how digital identity can create your reputation online which can result in many benefits (Stoller, 2021). This could potentially garner the attention of colleagues and employers thereby creating opportunities that could enhance my career. I can enhance my digital identity and reputation by creating engaging and valuable content, as well as follow organizations, companies, and leaders in my career field, thus enhancing my professional development. With regards to enhancing my PLN, I plan on doing this by following people on social media platforms whose careers, professions, and personal backgrounds, interests, and views differ from mine. I believe that by employing this approach I would be able to enhance my professional development as I will be able to learn from a diverse group thereby broadening my professional knowledge, and my personal understanding of the world.

I certainly think we can take our PLN from a local community to a global community. I think this can be done by following and interacting with those whose views differ from yours and whose lives and career paths are different than yours. As stated by Giudice (2013) in this week’s reading, “digital inclusion is e-inclusion, which encompasses all the activities associated with the attainment of an inclusive information society involving all the possible segments of the global population” (Giudice, 2013, p.80). This can allow us to have a diverse and inclusive PLN that we can learn from thereby broadening our PLN. However, I believe that media literacy is critical when our PLN consists of those whose views may drastically differ from ours. As we learned in this course from Julie Smith, media literacy is our critical questioning of information we see on social media (Smith, 2021). Media literacy will allow us to fact-check information and reduce the chances of being misinformed and learn and absorb factual information.

Personally, my belief is that having a local to global approach can be beneficial for networking. A phrase that best describes my view on local to global is when a well-known Scottish conservationist, Patrick Geddes, stated that we should “think globally, act locally” (Groom, 2012). Groom (2012) also profoundly stated that “Thinking globally and acting locally, in its simplest form, is a commitment to personal change. It is a liberating journey of small, deliberate changes to dismantle inconsistencies that exist between what we know and what we do.” (Groom, 2012). This to me encompasses my view on networking with a worldview but focusing on a local impact, as I think when networking we should aim to have a global reach by being inclusive and hope to make a global impact by starting to make a local impact first, by networking and collaborating with individuals and making local changes first, which may eventually lead to global changes.

References:

Groom, Robert C, “Think global and act local.” (2012). Maine Medical Center. 910.
https://knowledgeconnection.mainehealth.org/mmc/910

Giudice, M. D. (2013). From Information Society to Network Society: The Challenge. Social Media and Emerging Economies, 71–88. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-02490-5_5

Smith, Julie. “EDCI 338 – MEDIA LITERACY with JULIE SMITH”. Youtube.Com, 6 June 2021, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=57r3-aEnci0.

Stoller, Eric – What is Digital Identity? (2016, November 25). YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u0RryRbJza0

Photo by Nathan Dumlao on Unsplash

Photo by NordWood Themes on Unsplash

– Community communications go beyond blogs and social media shares, how does a PLN help and hinder the development of thoughts and ideas in discourse?

PLN can enhance the development of thoughts and ideas in discourse by providing a platform where individuals can share their opinions on various topics, and express concerns or garner support. As supported in the interview with Baker, we are able to openly share our experiences. PLN can further enhance the development of thoughts and learning as it can provide us with an opportunity to learn from individuals from different communities and diverse backgrounds. In contrast, a PLN can hinder the development of thoughts and ideas in discourse if the environment of that platform is biased and caters to a particular audience. For instance, QAnon is a platform that is targeted towards a particular political group, therefore the information published can be biased and can misinform the users. 

– How does the use of PLN raise awareness opportunities?

PLN can greatly benefit in increasing awareness opportunities. This could be to various reasons including garnering lots of attention from individuals and organizations. This can occur my using interactive features, such as hashtags which can widen the reach of post, thereby potentially increasing opportunities. 

– What is the role of social media in education – whether it be classroom or community discourse?

As social media is so prevalent, I believe that it is critical that we teach students how to appropriately use social media platforms. This can allow them to enhance their learning and be safe and respectful online. Students should be taught to respectfully share their options and concerns on social media platforms. They should also be taught about cyberbullying, and the harsh consequences that can occur.  

References:

Baker, Brad. “Brad Baker EDCI 338”. Youtube.Com, 10 June 2021, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C5z8iHxW2n4. Accessed 21 June 2021.

How to curate your social media with a critical public audience?

Curating one’s social media by keeping the critical public audience in mind is critical. For instance, for a psychologist’s social media, they may benefit by posting content relating to mental-health awareness and overall well-being, as that what their audience may be interested in. 

What are the risks and benefits of engaging with a public audience in a media space – what are the risks for a public figure or person in a position of trust (educator, lawyer, government official)?

As observed in the course thus far, engaging with a public audience in on a social media platform can be beneficial with regards to educating the public audience and creating awareness. Therefore, a public figure may benefit from engaging with a public audience in a media space as they can widen the reach of their content and expand their following. However, a risk that the public figure may encounter, may entail their personal information being leaked. Therefore, employing effective techniques such as being mindful and cautious of the information that the public figure posts may reduce the occurs of this risk. 

How to best address negative replies and critiques reflective of your personal values and employer social media policy?

The best way to address negative replies and critiques, may involve creating an environment where you can have an open and respectful discussion with those that may disagree with you and have critiques. This method may foster a space where everyone on that platform can respectfully share their thoughts, even though others may critique them or disagree with them. 

Why do open dialogues about media literacy and factual information can create conflict?

Fake news, particularly over the past couple of years has created various conflicts. The distinction between fake news and factual news/information has to be easily distinguishable so that the public can assess if the information is false or accurate. 

 How does social media use in public discourse potentially challenge advocacy communications?

Social media use can profoundly increase the efficacy of advocacy efforts due it wide global reach. However, in the past social media is often a platform where individuals chose to portray themselves in a manner that may attract a certain audience, however, their portrayal of themselves may be an authentic representation of themselves or their beliefs. Slacktivism is when an individual “support a cause by performing simple measures” but “are not truly engaged or devoted to making a change” (Muslic, 2017). This can pose critical challenges in advocacy efforts and communications as the advocacy efforts may reach a large audience, however, that audience may simply portray as though they are supporting the advocacy initiative, to cater to their personal audience, when in reality they may not put forth any significant action or effort to actually support the advocacy initiative.  Furthermore, in the reading this week of Media & Social Justice, an interesting quote that seems appropriate for my discussion states, “While such media projects can effectively engage and mobilize their users around issues, they do not serve the same broad civic function as public media projects, which provide information, framing media, and platforms for debate, discussion, and negotiation of contested issues in a democracy” (Clark & Aufderheide, 2011, p.61). 

 How diverse is your existing PLN?

Currently, my PLN is very diverse, as I follow accounts consisting of individuals from various career paths, educational backgrounds, races, genders, and those whose interests are very different than mine. 

 In your PLN, are you learning from a variety of voices?

Shelley Moore’s readings and interview this week were really insightful. An aspect of the reading that caught my eye was her representation of inclusion, exclusion, segregation, and integration through the various circular diagrams. This aspect resonated with me particularly when she discusses these diagrams were a traditional model of education…the goal of the model was to produce more of the same (Moore, 2017, p.9). This is something that needs to change as we should embrace each other differences and individually and be inclusive in our lives as a whole, including our PLN.  A simple way to ensure that my learning outcome of actively learning from a diverse audience is met is by following people on social media platforms either by recommendation of friends, colleagues, or even news and broadcast articles. This simple method allows me to be exposed to a wide range of diverse information on a daily basis, thereby consistently broadening my views. 

Having a diverse PLN allows me to actively learn from various people who provide a wide breadth of knowledge and insight regarding a topic that I may not be privy to. As such, this enables me to further increase my learning, broaden my views, and have a more open outlook which will further aid in inclusion in a professional community. Currently in my professional inclusion appears to be actively embraced, as my colleagues are from a wide range of diverse backgrounds. Furthermore, our organizations put forth efforts to increase inclusion and to have an open discussion regarding various topics to ensure that everyone in our professional community can know that they are in a safe environment and can speak up and know they will be heard and understood. It makes me feel incredibly grateful to have this professional community, as inclusion was not embraced in my previous work experiences. 

How does social media engage in advocacy communications?

As we aware, the rapid information dissemination method employed by social media, allows the information to spread across the globe, thus reaching a diverse audience, who can instantly access the information. When used appropriately, social media can have a significant impact on advocacy communications. For example, if a health care organization is aiming to raise awareness for a particular advocacy effort for a health condition, they can include hashtags in their posts which can allow increase engagement of their advocacy efforts, as a diverse audience will interact every time someone chooses to click that hashtag. Furthermore, including links to resources or corresponding websites for the advocacy initiative may increase engagement of their advocacy communications, as individuals can easily access the required website/resource, which may further influence them to actively engage and promote the particular advocacy initiative. 

References:

Clark, J., & Aufderheide, P. (2011). A New Vision for Public Media. Media and Social Justice, 55–67. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230119796_5

Muslic, H. (2020, December 16). What is Slacktivism and is it Even Helping? Nonprofit Hub. https://nonprofithub.org/social-media/what-is-slacktivism-does-it-help/

Moore, Shelley. One Without the Other: Stories of Unity Through Diversity and Inclusion, Portage & Main Press, 2017, pp.6-12. ProQuest Ebook Central, https://ebookcentral-proquest-com.ezproxy.library.uvic.ca/lib/uvic/reader.action?docID=4832579&ppg=6

Moore, Shelley. “EDCI 338 – 20 Minutes Moore.” YouTube, uploaded by MILLER, 30 May 2021, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KeSV0rUl1bA

Photo by Tim Mossholder on Unsplash

What digital platforms are students currently using to develop their professional network?

Personally,  my friends and I use professional social media platforms such as LinkedIn. LinkedIn is a platform used predominantly for networking with professionals from across the globe. LinkedIn allows us to create a page consisting of information regarding our education, work experiences, qualifications, recognitions, and volunteer experiences. By using LinkedIn my friends and I have been able to seek and receive employment opportunities, as well as build connections with professionals in our respective fields, thereby developing our professional network. 

What can you (as a student) consider to expand your professional learning network?

There are many strategies I could employ to expand my professional learning network. One method could be to connect with alumni from a school you attended and colleagues from past work experiences. Additionally, following people that you look up to professionally may also be beneficial in expanding one’s professional learning network. When connecting with these individuals it may be beneficial for students to share some information regarding their education, work experience, goals, as well as a common interest that is shared by you and the person you are connecting with. 

 In your network, how can you create a digital identity/reputation?

In my professional network, I can create my digital identity and reputation by following pages of groups, organizations, companies that I am interested in. I can also make my profile unique by sharing information that is unique to me and also present my information in a way that is unique and visually appealing (Balkhi, 2021). Posting and sharing engaging content may also be beneficial in creating a digital identity as it will allow more users to find your profile and connect with you (Balkhi, 2021). 

Consider what a local employer would do if you applied for a job with them – can they search the content, is it of benefit to the career path, does it hinder the opportunity of employment?

A local employer could search for content regarding the employer. When searching for information regarding the candidate the employer may come across professional and personal information regarding the candidate. If the personal information that the employer sees is something that they disagree with, it may impact your chances of being hired. Therefore, I believe that it is of paramount importance that personal accounts and kept private as they reduce chances of hindering your chances of employment. However, allowing a professional account to remain public may increase your chances of being hired, as the employer could learn more about your qualifications and past experiences. 

References:

Balkhi, S. (2021, April 22). How to Network on LinkedIn Like a Pro. Business.Com. https://www.business.com/articles/linkedin-networking-tips/

http://experimental.worldcat.org/vandrmapping/signIn

Personal Learning Networks are defined as our foundation to support our life-long learning through individuals, platforms, various technological features (Rajagopal et al., 2012).

Digital identity is defined as an individual’s presence online, as well as how they share, interact and engage with other individuals online (Stoller, 2016). Furthermore, digital identity also takes into account how an individual uses social media for various purposes including for individual benefits, collaborating with peers, as well as for teaching (Stoller, 2016). 

Social Media Networks

Over the past few decades, the increasing accessibility of social media networking has increased the frequency of interconnections between individuals across the globe. Moreover, our usage of social media networks has significantly changed the way we access, use, and exchange information. Social media networks have proudly impacted the way individuals connect with one another, through similar interests via sharing pages, images, messages, and hashtags, amongst the many other features available in social media networks. 

As teachers and educators, social media platforms may enhance learning for students as they can lead to unique opportunities that may expand learning such as converse and share ideas regarding a specific topic on social media. Social media can play a beneficial fold in acquiring resources for leading and collaborating with colleagues. However, privacy on social media plays a critical role in our digital identity. Professional and personal uses of social media can critically impact our digital identity. Professionally, it may be beneficial to have a public account that allows the educator to engage with students and colleagues on social media. This may enhance learning for the student and provide the educator with an opportunity to connect with colleagues and discuss learning strategies and resources. In contrast, for personal social media use, it may be beneficial to have a private account as that can protect the content you share that you may intend to only viewed by family and friends. However, it is important to take into consideration that information shared on private accounts can be stored and accessed, such as if an individual is hacked. Therefore, if educators intend on using social media for personal uses it may be beneficial to be mindful of the content you share, or you can also use a pseudonym to make it harder to be tracked online and become hacked, which in and of itself can sometimes lead to detrimental consequences. 

Using technological devices and media platforms can certainly help educators and learners by enhancing learning and increasing access to resources, however appropriate use of these platforms is necessary for expanding and protecting our digital identity. 

References:

Stoller, Eric – What is Digital Identity? (2016, November 25). YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u0RryRbJza0

Rajagopal, K. (2012). Understanding personal learning networks: Their structure, content and the networking skills needed to optimally use them | First Monday. https://firstmonday.org/ojs/index.php/fm/article/view/3559/3131 University Of Illinois Libraries, doi:10.5210/fm.v17i1.3559

Hi Everyone, I’m Nemeko! I am in my final year of my undergrad pursuing a Bachelor of Science in Psychology. I am currently living in Vancouver, and have been living here since the beginning of Covid-19. I took this course since technology is extremely prevalent and vital in our society. Over the past few decades, there have been many technological developments that have made our lives easier in many ways. Therefore, I was extremely keen about taking this course, particularly because social media plays a ubiquitous role in our lives every day. I’ve included images of a few of my frequently used social media platforms, below! I am looking forward to this course and excited to meet my classmates, virtually, of course!