Month: November 2021

Whenever I think about my professional career, something that frequently comes around is how to effectively leverage the PLN for professional growth. According to Del Giudice, Della Peruta, and Carayannis (2013), professionals can rely on PLN for professional development after graduating because the PLN has become key in the development, growth, and connection of innovators, educators, business people, and policy makers. Although someone can start a podcast without an audience, the PLN provides a great opportunity to acquire an audience. This is because nearly all people in a region, city, or even country are in some way connected through different media platforms. In my PLN, it is possible to grow the popularity of my podcast, starting from my school, city, district, and possibly nationally in the future. Presently, I have come to know some people who have professional experience, knowledge, and exposure in various fields. The PLN provides a way of contacting those people either through message, call, email, or via their friends. It is possible to invite these professionals to contribute to my podcast by sharing their knowledge, experience, and exposure. Twitter and LinkedIn provides the best mediums to connect with professionals, but Facebook, Voxer, and Instagram can also be useful. According to Amir and Miller 2021), the most important requirement is to keep in touch with people in my PLN by sharing and sharing their posts as well as ensuring that they know who I am, what I do, and where they can find me. In my opinion, my PLN can be relied on to open and expand professional opportunities.

References

Del Giudice, M., Della Peruta, M. R., & Carayannis, E. G. (2013). Social media and emerging economies: Technological, cultural and economic implications. Springer Science & Business Media. https://link-springer-com.ezproxy.library.uvic.ca/book/10.1007%2F978-3-319-02490-5.

Amir, M., & Miller, J. (2021). EDCI PODCAST – 2021-10-24 Mo Amir. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LgoDet6pwaI&ab_channel=MILLER.

Hi Kewen,
I like how you put everything about media literacy. As I read your content, my understanding of it gets more better. As I was learning about media literacy, I noticed that it is a kind of critical thinking that help people to understand, envaluate, and conceptualize media content. As such, there are various factors that determine how people conceptualize media content. These include culture, political affiliation, religion, and level of education. The differences in media literacy can often result to conflict. For example, those who have more media literacy tend to weaponize their knowledge to attack those with limited literacy. What is the solution to this conflict? As you stated, the answer is having a factual concensus. Thank you for this.

Open dialogues about media literacy and factual information can create conflict, why does this happen?

Media literacy is the art of critical thinking and active inquiry into messages that are created, received or shared. It is about developing competencies to help students and professionals to create, analyze, and evaluate media. Proponents of media literacy think that it empowers individuals by providing them with tools desired for creative thinking and democratic society. It helps students to distinguish true and fake news and identify biases along with news storylines. Media literacy is about creating curiosity among students to help them combat propaganda, understand the context of media stories, know who could influence the news and the political party that a particular news source is affiliated with (Smith, & Miller, 2021).  On the other hand, media literacy has received criticism because it often gets weaponized. Many progressive people panic about the conservative media, while in our polarized society, people tend to judge those with lower media literacy. Even in an enlightened society, it is difficult to have homogeneity in how people treat media literacy. Therefore there will always be conflict in open dialogs where factual information and media literacy is involved.

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

Figure 1: The media literacy model

Media literacy is an important framework for the 21^st-century PLN. As shown in Figure 1, media literacy provides the skills required to survive and prosper in the modern connected, but complex world. 21^st-century learning not only requires the basic skills of reading, writing, and solving arithmetic, but also requires global awareness, understanding of health issues, and economic literacy. Digital literacy requires members of PLN to be tech-tuned, info-savvy, and media-fluent (Trilling, & Fadel, 2009). This helps them to develop adaptability, self-direction, cross-cultural interactions, accountability, and leadership. Media literacy requires students to learn the past, the present, and the future to solve complex problems.

References

Smith, J., & Miller, J. (2021). Media Literacy – Facts Matter – Course YouTube Channel https://youtu.be/57r3-aEnci0.

Trilling, B., & Fadel, C. (2009). 21st-century skills: Learning for life in our times. John Wiley & Sons. https://login.ezproxy.library.uvic.ca/login?qurl=https://learning.oreilly.com%2flibrary%2fview%2f21st-century-skills%2f9780470475386%2f%3far%3forpq%26email%3d03R4d4eNyBMHvB8Nf3Cy4g%253d%253d%26tstamp%3d1636989275%26id%3d78AF39EB99375BDDB367040CF1F61FCB61597103.

Themes of a PLN in a professional capacity

A PLN can be best described using connectivism theory. Veletsianos (2010) claim reasons that professionals derive competencies by forming connections. The built network consists of connected nodes that consist of machines learning resources, and people. Combined, the nodes facilitate the transmission of knowledge across the network of nodes. Learning happens when people discover a way of learning from one another. People create PLNs as they access, filter, process, and share information across a learning network.

Which social media platforms are beneficial for education?

The social media platforms that are most beneficial in education are growing. In fundamental terms, blogging, social networking, and wikis are the basis for PLNs for education. Photo sharing platforms such as Pinterest increase knowledge sharing through pictures, short videos, and short explanations. YouTube is also a great platform where students can watch tutorials online and better understand concepts. Microblogging platforms like Twitter and LinkedIn helps students to connect better and interact to exchange knowledge and learn from each other.  

The equality that exists when all have the same platform to engage community dialogues

Social media professionals have various ways of adhering to professionalism and regulations when working with the vulnerable sector. Social media allows the voices of the first nations (indigenous communities) to be heard because it is a platform for everyone (Baker & Miller, 2021). The social media influencers such as journalists allow their stories to be heard by the more advanced world through cultural events, business, sporting events, education, and documentaries. In the PLN, a professional educator should always stand for the truth and protect the vulnerable to build social equality in education. The use of offensive language, signals, and other things such as spreading fake news is considered a violation of regulations and ethics. Professionals are required to treat every individual on social media equally while protecting them from content that could cause harm, insecurity, rage, and fear. This ensures that the PLN serves to educate in a social environment that accommodates diverse people from different cultures, ethnicities, views, religions, nations, disability statuses, and races.

References

Baker, B. & Miller, J.  (2021, June 10). Education in a Connected Culture – Course YouTube Channel https://youtu.be/C5z8iHxW2n4

Veletsianos, G. (Ed.). (2010). Emerging technologies in distance education. Athabasca University Press. https://www.aupress.ca/app/uploads/120177_99Z_Veletsianos_2010-Emerging_Technologies_in_Distance_Education.pdf

Notable individuals use social media to promote their brand while at the same sharing knowledge in their professional or occupational areas. While doing this, they attract a large audience with individuals who have different views. The risks involved in the public discourse include fake news, critical audience, cultural differences, and possible piracy. This week’s video features Markiel Simpson who discusses community communications. The themes of the video include how notable people use social media, the benefits of having a PLN in the public eye, and how to minimize risks in sharing information.

To begin with, public trust is essential for building a successful PLN. Producing, sharing, and curating news through social media is an alternative whenever the difficult process of news verification can be performed by social journalists situated outside the newsroom. Simpson (2021) emphasizes that individuals should take responsibility for the massive information they share through social media. Any information, whether gathered from podcasts, online streaming, or social media should be passed through verification. There are numerous tools that learners can use to verify the information before sharing it in their PLNs.  For example, CoSchedule, Google Analytics, BuzzSumo, and Brand24. These tools critically evaluate incoming information and help students to rephrase it to create valuable information.

Attribution: https://www.hewlett.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/Social-Media-Political-Polarization-and-Political-Disinformation-Literature-Review.pdf

Thoughtless sharing of information can cause misperception, political polarization, and poor democratic quality, as shown in Figure 1. In the public discourse, I would use online verification tools to create curated content. I would also do my research using trusted sources to verify information, whether a research claim, global news, research findings, and any other source of knowledge. I would also cite the sources of information as a way of appreciating the contributions of individuals or organizations that produced that information.

Once I share the information, I would effectively manage negative replies by giving constructive feedback to reassure my audience. I would also avoid replying negatively or defensively since it is my responsibility to manage the information that I share. In an organizational context, I would observe the organizational guidelines since I am mandated to build good public relations.

References

Hirst, M. (2018). Navigating social journalism: A handbook for media literacy and citizen journalism. https://www-taylorfrancis-com.ezproxy.library.uvic.ca/books/mono/10.4324/9781315401263/navigating-social-journalism-martin-hirst.

Simpson, M. (2021). Community Communications – Course YouTube Channel. https://youtu.be/rsoDHGaXNNs