Blog Post 11
Blog Prompts
- 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.
Photo by ROBIN WORRALL on Unsplash
Before taking this course (EDCI 338), my thinking of social media is the tool that we can use to build and stay connected with other people in the world. By using social media, we can gather, communicate, and share our personal experience, knowledge, and information with others anywhere at any time. Social media helps us remove the physical barrier that once existed. However, after reading the course materials and watching the interviews in this course, I have realized that our PLNs can bring benefits to both our personal and professional lives obviously and directly as well. One of the most obvious benefits is to expand our own knowledge, foster the relationship with other professionals, and empower ourselves in the future by growing and developing our PLNs. However, from this week’s course material, Qualman also states that “the key is making sure our connections feel empowered to not only share information, but to move forward and take initiative to help accomplish shared objectives” (Qualman, 2012). In my opinion, by creating and developing our PLNs, building a connection with other professionals and learning from them in order to achieve our objectives and expand our own knowledge will be quite important and meaningful.
Moreover, from this course, I have realized how important a diverse and inclusive PLN is and how it is beneficial for our professional development. In my opinion, with a diverse PLN, the lack of time, funding, and support for inclusion will be improved. For example, it’s convenient, flexible, and inclusive for me to learn from other people’s ideas, interact with other people, and connect with them asynchronously. Also, a diverse PLN can provide more professional opportunities to us, which help us showcase our professional expertise and develop our professional identity. I have to say that this course makes me change my perspective of social media in profession settings and personal use. I will continue with my created content and my network in my future study and use what I have learned from this course as well.
Reference
Qualman, E. (2012). Digital leader: 5 simple keys to success and influence (1st ed.). New York: McGraw-Hill. Retrieved from:Â https://learning-oreilly-com.ezproxy.library.uvic.ca/library/view/digital-leader-5/9780071792424/ch16.html
Hello Ray! This is a very insightful post. I cannot believe that we have already reached the end of course and it still fascinates me how my view of social media changed over time. It is good to know that just like you, I always thought that social media is just meant for people to communicate and stay connected. EDCI 338 also made me realize that social media can play an integral role in developing our digital personal identity as well as our professional identity. One of the most important things I learned in this course to know who audiences are and make it sure that your posts are relevant to your perceived audience.
Hi there,
Great final post. I really liked your point about PLN’s being more flexible – I completely agree! Over the term I’ve often compared networking with people in person, and networking online, and I think online offers a much more flexible approach! Not to say that networking can’t be done in person, but utilizing resources online has proven to be quick and easy!