Blog Post 4

Blog Post 4

Prompts

• How diverse is your existing PLN?
• In your PLN, are you learning from a variety of voices or are you the loudest in the room?
• Do you participate in a silo of information sharing (similar themes or wide-range of interests)?
• How can you use a diverse PLN to broaden your views of inclusion?
• What is the learning outcome of your PLN and how are you ensuring your exposure to diversity and inclusion?
• How has your thinking about inclusion and PLN evolved after reviewing the videos and readings?

Photo by John Schnobrich on Unsplash

 

This week, we talked mainly about our PLNs and inclusion. From this week’s course materials, I have not only known more about the meaning of the inclusion in education, but also understood the evolution of inclusion in education clearly.

In my opinion, my existing PLN is very diverse. I have already enrolled in and used many different kinds of social media tools, which range from professional purposes to personal purposes. I think that a diverse PLN by using a variety of social media tools can help me to get in touch with different professionals from different areas directly in order to help me to get more diverse information sources. In my opinion, different social media tools may focus on different purposes of using, so a diverse PLN can help me to not only get more information and ideas from others, but also make me learn more knowledge from the public.

Most of the time in my personal life, I always play the role as an observer in my PLN. I prefer to learn from a variety of voices, collect useful information from others, and learn from other people’s reflections or points. However, in my PLN in EDCI 338, I feel that most of us share our ideas, reflections, and experience equally and actively. Although I am not the loudest in our chatting channel, I am still trying my best to share my ideas actively.

We haven’t have too much active online group discussions on the course content or group work yet, within my PLN in EDCI 338; however, based on what we have discussed, I feel that we all have a wide range of interests and have different university majors, including Economics, Health Information Sciences, and Recreation and Health. In my opinion, as we will share more ideas in our future discussion, we will find more similar experience or interests.

In my opinion, a diverse PLN can help me to broaden my views of inclusion. From the web article, “One Without the Other: Stories of Unity Through Diversity and Inclusion”, Moore and Schnellert (2016) described that “a once powerful word that drove equal access campaigns for students of different abilities, strengths, and challenges, the term inclusion has instead come to be associated with lack of funding, time, and support”. However, in my opinion, with a diverse PLN, the lack of funding, time, and support for inclusion may be improved. For example, I can read other people’s blog posts in public, learn from their ideas or reflections, and share my own opinions with them asynchronously. It’s free, convenient, flexible, and inclusive for me to learn from each other and connect with each other.

The learning outcome of my PLN in EDCI 338 is to discuss ideas and learn different perspectives on different topics with my group members. In order to ensure my exposure to diversity and inclusion, I read all the blog posts from all my group members, comment on their posts, and share my reflections or questions with them through group discussion.

Before learning from this week’s materials, I thought the term inclusion was only used to meet the needs for people with disabilities in order to adapt to live in the same setting as their family and friends. However, after reviewing this week’s videos and reading, I have a much better and clearer understanding of inclusion and our PLNs. In my opinion, different from the term integration, the term inclusion implies more about meaningful and purposeful participation. It means individuals can be meaningfully included in the communities, rather than just physically integrated. Also, from the evolution of inclusion, we can also found that it tends to be better and better in our lives.

 

References

Moore, S., & Schnellert, L. (2017). Introduction & Part 1: What Is Inclusion? Debunking the Myths. In One without the other: Stories of unity through diversity and inclusion (pp. 6-12). Winnipeg, Manitoba: Portage & Main Press

Moore, S. (2016). Transforming Inclusive Education. YouTube. Retrieved from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RYtUlU8MjlY&feature=youtu.be

Moore, S. (2018). The Evolution of Inclusion: The Past and Future of Education. YouTube. Retrieved from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PQgXBhPh5Zo&feature=youtu.be