Month: October 2021

Living in the 21st century brings one certainty alongside it, the popularization of social media and the internet. Even though, new social media have been expanding information to people that before were not that interesting topic such as politics, and the economy, the rise of social media has been affecting to a large extend traditional journalism. 
As stated in the book Navigating Social Journalism: A Handbook for Media Literacy and Citizen Journalism by Martin Hirst in chapter 6, social journalists face uncertainty pursuing their dream. With new content farms being created, the exploitation of these writers has increased tremendously. Alongside that, I think that the trend of independent editorials is to increasingly rise. This brings the importance that a PLN can have on these people. Having a niche online can be extremely comforting especially when their workspace is directly related to it. Having a personal learning network connects people and teaches them to learn new ways of entering a market reaching their target audience.

After sharing my existing Personal Learning Network(PLN) in last week’s post, I decided to base my PLN on understanding the why. Why does that person think that way, or why does a person feel that way. This topic bases itself on understanding where a person’s line of thought is that way, it means to be considerate to others. By doing so, people would feel free to share their opinions and knowledge without being judged. Concerning my target audience, I believe that all those that are open-minded enough to want to expand their knowledge would like to engage with my PLN. It would be open to all ages but mostly focused on early adults and teenagers. I believe that the best way to approach sharing my social media campaign would be in creating meetings and passing the information along. Regarding the social media platform, Discord would be ideal, since it is a platform that most teens are familiar with.

When I was in third grade I remember feeling segregated from the rest of the class. This was due to the table arrangements, where he would separate the kids based on their performance in class. All the “smart students” would sit together and all the kids who knew less would sit on different groups of tables ranging on how much they knew.  That marked me a lot, the realization that maybe I wasn’t as smart as other kids, that although we all felt included as a classroom we were being segregated based on the knowledge of what the school system wanted us to learn. 

Thinking back to this event, most of my Professional Learning Network was based on that. I started to talk less in group projects and the classroom, and pay more attention to what others had to say, getting most of my information from peers and the teacher. Don’t get me wrong, I like getting information from others, I believe that listening to others perspectives helps us understand the bigger picture. In recent years however, I decided to mark more presence in the sense that I made sure my opinion was heard. Due to that, I started reading more, and watching educational videos on whatever topic I was working on, so that people could see that I would add value by working with them. I would say that due to that my PLN is very diverse, a great part of that due to the fact that I lived in 3 different cities and two different continents(North America & South America).My greatest pride in my learning networks is to be understanding of where and why a person thinks that way, being able to see both sides of the argument without being biased, most of the time. Another aspect about my learning profile is that various things gain my interest, I try to keep my topics diverse and on a wide range. For instance, I could be talking to my grandpa about the battles of World War 2, and move on to a conversation about the latest Netflix Series Squid Game. 

Overall, I would say that inclusion is one of the main principles of my PLN. I always try to understand why a person thinks that way and most of the time I am able to identify the why. So even though I do not agree with what a person is saying I am considerate and inclusive on why they think like that. This week’s reading gave me a new way of looking at the definition of the word inclusion, it made me reflect a lot and think about personal experiences I have had with inclusion and exclusion.

Bibliography:

Introduction (Page 6-10) & Part 1 (Page 11-12). https://ebookcentral-proquest-com.ezproxy.library.uvic.ca/lib/uvic/reader.action?docID=4832579&ppg=6

Just like most people nowadays, I use the internet academically and personally on a daily basis. Although nothing negative has occurred to me while browsing and with my social media accounts, however, I always keep in mind the risks of keeping my digital identity safe. My first rule is that I draw a very firm line between my personal use of the internet and my academic use. For educational purposes, I always use my institution account and avoid mixing it with my personal accounts. For example, I have two different youtube accounts which serve different purposes. Another thing that I am always aware of is how my digital profile may affect my professional life in the future. I am always careful when publishing to my social media accounts, and whenever possible I have a closed profile. Although I have to admit I need to be more careful about certain aspects such as browsing using on public wifi or allowing websites to track me and take hold of my data.