Month: November 2022 (page 1 of 1)

Throughout this course, I have learnt many things about my digital identity and how to curate, grow, and engage my PLN. The course readings have provided me with a wealth of information and resources that will support my personal and professional development in the future. I am now more comfortable with using my PLN to support my professional development and continue to grow my PLN now that I am more aware of inclusivity, professional versus personal identity, and the possible (employment-costing) risks associated with PLNs. The key to continuing to build my professional network will be to continue to widen and curate my PLN with individuals, social media, and professional sources that are particular to my interests, skills, and surrounding PLN.

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

Yes, I do believe so. Looking at the media attached above, incorporating things such as “sharing your curated sources,” “encouraging colleagues to join,” and “using hashtags and communities” to engage your PLN are examples of things I could use my PLN to help my professional development post-course. There is great potential in using my PLN for my professional development; however, something I have also learnt in this course is the difficulty and attention to detail it requires. It is not as easy as just entering in and engaging with communities you relate to or find interest in. It requires great media literacy and an understanding of what might threaten or limit your professional development within these online spaces. For example, curating and engaging with fake or problematic news might discredit your professional development. As the image suggests, it is important to prioritize things like not engaging with trolls and negativity if you want to use your PLN to foster strong, educative, and inclusive professional development.

Can your PLN be relied on to open professional opportunities?

PLN’s are a great tool in presenting up professional opportunities. For example, something I think about is LinkedIn. The entire purpose of LinkedIn is that it is a platform in which you can display your skillset, experiences, and PLN, and you can thus find which professional opportunities best suit you. In this way, PLN’s can be used as a professional portfolio in which employers can easily access and thus decide to open up professional opportunities. Another example I think of is when YouTube creators are looking to fill positions such as ‘video editors’, they look at the editors previous work on other channels. Once I graduate, I know that I will depend on the expression of my PLN to open up professional opportunities for me, whether it be through platforms like LinkedIn or not.

Like the diagram I listed above shows, media literacy can be understood as the ability to establish, engage, evaluate, and produce media across varieties of publications. It can be closely identified as the ability to strengthen these mentioned literacy skills, as well as the position of yourself within media across platforms and PLN’s. Media literacy is important as the use and understanding of digital media has become the standard for communication across society, and therefore requires individuals to learn how to use it, interact with others, and thus continue communication.

Open dialogues about media literacy and how factual information can create conflict. Why does this happen?

The internet’s widespread existence as a space for open dialogue comes with many benefits: for example, communication of individuals across different experiences, identities, PLN’s. Obtaining media literacy opens opportunistic doors in which you are able to further your interaction on a topic with other people, keep up with the world, and share your experiences/opinions. However, what comes with an internet presence is the risk of falling victim to fake or fraudulent information. Individuals might assume that just because something they have read has a lot of traction from other users, that it must be true because others are believing it too. Additionally, some might find an opinion that supports theirs, and thus upholds their own confirmation bias. To avoid this, users must maintain increased awareness and ultimately critically assess sources they come across. This can be done through having strong media literacy, in which the user can effectively research and evaluate the media presented to them.

What is the benefit of having a PLN that values media literacy?

The benefit of having a media literate PLN is that it enables and encourages its users’ understanding of the information presented to them and how this applies to their everyday lives. Ultimately, a better understanding promotes better critical participation. With a strong media literacy, users are not only able to to navigate themselves through spaces of media, and thus expand their PLN with others.

Due to its highly accessible and prevalent nature, we can see the normalization of social media as a way to communicate, educate, and circulate discourse. Social media as a discourse facilitator is a powerful tool in expanding your PLN, as individuals can efficiently post and access the judgements, abilities, and skills of others online – therefore supporting openness and diversity amongst users.

Which social media platforms are beneficial in education?

I believe that a social media platform beneficial to education is Twitter. Twitter is simple in the way that it can be a single tweet or a composed thread, in which people are encouraged to interact and engage with that users post through retweet, quote tweet, and like tweet options. Twitter stores a wealth of information posted daily, in which people are able to share their own opinion. It is a multifaceted platform, in which you can find tweets about any topic that happened at any point in time, from any degree of experience. You have immediate and free access to learning, and you can in return showcase your own knowledge – either through your personal account or anonymously.

Additionally, as the image above mentions, there are already a plethora or educators using Twitter. Individuals across a variety of experiences showcase their experiences and knowledges.

When working with the vulnerable sector, how does social media fit into professionalism and regulations?

Social media is an effective tool at giving voices to those who are not granted them in real life. As a popular route of activism, social media is an effectively power tool in amplifying wrongdoings. However, people can also take advantage of these vulnerabilities, and spread false information and divert from the real problem. Therefore when media or information is to be interpreted, it should be authenticated – through researching the author and their online professional identity. Social media platforms can do this by further regulating or ‘fact-checking’ popular information. For example, during the pandemic, social media platforms had automatically attached links to government facts to any posts including the term ‘COVID’ or ‘COVID-19’. This ensure that if you read something online about the virus, you could easily fact check it through an accessible and trustworthy link.

What are the risks for a public figure or person in a position of trust (educator, lawyer, and government official)?

For any individual who is a public figure or regarded to as a person in a position of trust, they automatically possess a higher standard of influence compared to a regular person. They can be regarded as people who have worked up the bureaucratic ladder of power, and thus earned the position to influence those below them. Social media is one tool that public and authority figures can use to, as Sophie Lui mentioned, maintain relevance, widely make their content accessible to the world, and ultimately public discourse. However, if this is done in an inappropriate, offensive, or simply just in a way that is not well-accepted by their audience, there is a high risk that that public figure will be held accountable, and possibly damage their reputation or image.

What are the benefits of engaging with a public audience in a media space?

Simply, the main benefit is the ability to influence others, quickly and efficiently. The more power you have (via this being from your popularity, reputation, or relevancy), the more influence you have across a public audience in a media space. Something I mentioned to my learning pod was the influence of media spaces on us as a public audience of content consumers has become so invisible, that we often do not notice it. For example, we might not notice something is an advertisement or a biased paid partnership post because social media now allows you to discretely mention that it is, rather than having it visibly on the post.

What are the risks of engaging with a public audience in a media space?

As much as the benefits provide, the risks can deplete. Like I mentioned, if a public figure or a person in a position of trust shares something to their audience that is inappropriate, offensive, or even innocently misunderstood, they can risk losing their position of power within media spaces but within their profession as well. Because these media store data, an employer has concrete evidence of their wrongdoing, and consequently fire them. The idea that “nothing is ever deleted” also is a risk to that individual, as their chances of further employment are at risk, due to that individuals reputation and image very visibly becoming damaged for many to see.

What is the best address negative replies and reviews which reflect your personal values?

Although I have never been in a position to receive backlash through social media, I believe that it truly depends on the context of your post. I personally see so much hate circulating through platforms such as TikTok and Twitter, through anonymous accounts. Being a public figure, it is unfortunately inevitable to receive negative responses, so it is important to consider that not all of them are worth responding to. It comes with the role: as a public figure, you have to be prepared to receive the negative comments. Something that platforms like Instagram or Twitter provide is the ability to choose who comments on your posts, ultimately limiting the ability for negative comments to surface. If you post something that had no malicious intent, yet your audience misunderstood and negatively responded, I believe that you could take down that post, and send out another post apologizing and re-phrasing it. However, the internet is not very forgiving, and thus why it is so important to carefully think through what you display and post.