Month: October 2023

A diverse and inclusive PLN enables us to learn about different cultures, come into contact with a wide range of perspectives, enrich our understanding of the world, and enhance our quality and creativity through social media sharing. At the same time, we can establish trust relationships with network members, creating a positive and efficient learning environment. In this way, in social media sharing, we will also continuously enhance our influence, and our opinions and content can attract more attention and be more meaningful.

How does social media engage communications?

Social media promotes online interactions between people to engage communications. Generally speaking, there are some ways to engage communications:

1. Encourage the posting of attractive content: likes, reposts, and comments can all encourage people to share more informative and entertaining content.
2. Encourage positive comments: Anyone can access and comment on content they are interested in. Publishers can reply to others’ comments or report comments that have adverse effects on society.
3. Recommend content related to personal interests: When people visit social media platforms, they generally passively receive some recommended content that is targeted at you, which can more attract you to engage communications.
4. Encourage participation and creation of topic communities or tags: Anyone can participate and create topic communities that they are interested in anytime and anywhere. In these communities, people will come into contact with many people with common interests, or when posting content, bring topic tags, which can also attract people with similar interests to communicate.
5. Allow to initiate competitions: Anyone can initiate a voting competition or other competitions with more challenging and encouraging mechanisms, which can increase everyone’s participation and communication interest.

How does social media challenge communications?

Social media challenges communications in many ways, for example:

1. People are constantly bombarded by a large amount of information on social media, and they will feel very tired of such things.
2. There is a large amount of negative and erroneous information in social media, which affects people’s daily lives.
3. Social media is also crowded with many types of advertising information, which will reduce people’s interest in using social media.
4. Social media does not possess secrecy, and protecting personal privacy, intellectual property rights, and respecting diversity are important and serious challenges.

Is social media inclusive?

Social media is potentially inclusive. The inclusiveness of social media means that anyone can create and access diverse content. This is also advocated and encouraged by social media services. However, this platform may alienate users with disabilities or special needs, as these groups may face various difficulties in practice and are unable to participate in social media. In addition, if people themselves do not truly respect diversity, it is natural for social media communication to generate stereotypes about certain groups or events, ostracizing and belittling others.

Does my PLN amplify the views of others?

I think my PLN is inclusive. I tend to amplify others’ perspectives to a certain extent. I generally do not consider the cultural background of network members, respect different opinions and experiences, share and discuss other people’s content, encourage everyone’s (positive) creativity, and praise others’ valuable content.

The policies of employer social media communication expectations？

According to my research, there are generally the following contents in employee social media communication expectations:

1. Declare the role and responsibility of using professional social media.
2. Clarify the employer’s values and goals.
3. Remind social media users of what content needs to be kept confidential and clarify the consequences of violating confidentiality.
4. Prohibit any illegal, discriminatory, defamatory or other content.
5. Require respect for the privacy and intellectual property rights of others.
6. Disclaimer for personal behavior.

How to better use social media to build PLN?

We first need to know our interests and goals, and find communities on social media platforms. When creating identities and profiles, use user names related to interests to enrich your resume. Pay attention to experts, topic tags, and topic communities in your field of interest. Actively participate in topic discussions and interactions through likes, comments, and sharing. Use social media tools such as Pinterest to organize harvested information and resources.

I believe we can start by understanding what we are truly interested in and what content we would be more proactive in participating in. On social media platforms, we can find related topics and active users by searching for keywords, follow these users, and thus find related groups or organizations. Meanwhile, as we regularly participate in topic activities, such as commenting and replying to some posts, liking, sharing, posting dynamics, etc., we will continuously find new companions, experts and peers in the field. In this way, we are starting a PLN prior. Then, we need to build a healthy and growing PLN, and we will discuss it from the following two aspects.

Building a reputation and trust in a connected culture can be difficult, so how can we build a network of individuals who are dynamic, reliable, and participatory?

Firstly, we need to start from ourselves and ensure that we can honestly share our views and goals. For example, if the content we post is inconsistent, it is easy for others to think that we are fake or an official account maintained by multiple people. Naturally, our PLN will not be reliable. Secondly, we need to look at high-quality content and try to post high-quality and high-level content. It is not easy to maintain a good reputation. Only by paying attention to the reliability and quality of our content every time we post something can we attract peers with the same capabilities and effectively expand our PLN. Thirdly, it would be best if we could support and encourage peers in the network. When we first start learning a skill, we are all seeking guidance and help. Therefore, we should give positive feedback to the network so that fresh blood can be integrated into our network. Finally, respect the results within the network. When we participate in network activities, we need positive feedback to gain passion for continuous creation, and others also need it. We should respect other people’s labor results and encourage each other to grow during the interaction process.

How can we leverage healthy relationships from our PLN for growth?

Firstly, when cooperating with like-minded people in the network, it can greatly improve ourselves. For example, we can invite some experts or peers to participate in projects or campaigns under a certain topic together. While sharing resources and technologies, we will also gain knowledge from others. I think this is the fastest way to improve ourselves. Secondly, we also need to consciously evaluate the PLN continuously. For example, you can use some analysis tools to record results and feedbacks from the PLN to evaluate its value. After a certain period of time, summarizing results and feedbacks can gain more creative confidence, and truly like the topic so that you can continue to grow from it.

In this blog, I want to discuss how social media helps me establish messaging and themes that are inclusive and diverse. This will cover the following questions.

• How diverse is your PLN (Personal Learning Network)?
• Are you learning from a variety of diverse voices and are you expanding your understanding of the views of others?
• What is the learning outcome of your PLN and how are you ensuring your exposure to diversity and inclusion?
• How likely individuals are going to continue with their created content and their network?
• Are the skills that they developed applicable in professional practices?

Week Five – Your Personal Learning Networks and Inclusion

As shown by my Visitor & Resident Map in the previous post, my PLN covers a variety of platforms, where I can receive massive amounts of information. On these platforms, there are people with different beliefs, from many countries or various industries, communicate with each other. I think this is what is called Inclusion. Everyone, regardless of their different considerations and beliefs, can participate in discussions on the same event, participate in the same project, or play the same game on the same platforms, etc. In these environments, we should try our best to respect the views of others.

I have learned from a variety of diverse voices and expanded my knowledge from the others. Once, while playing a game that involved some indigenous cultures, I realized through discussions in the indigenous community that this rather comical game was a desecration of indigenous culture. With reading more reports and getting more knowledge about indigenous culture from the learning network, I understood more about indigenous cultures and the importance of protecting the art creatings.

From PLN, I have learned a lot of knowledge, and many problems I encounter in life can be solved through PLN. I can solve small issues encountered in project quickly through searching on the internet. By collaborating with others, some skills have also been rapidly improved. I have also received some job opportunities through interesting communications and activities in different communities. Overall, PLN can help me expand my knowledge, improve my learning efficiency, and gain spiritual support and new job opportunities. I try to increase my exposure to diversity and inclusion through the following ways.

• Respect the uniqueness of every person, group, and idea.
• Learn multiple languages and cultures, and use various learning resources.
• Participate in organizations or associations dedicated to promoting diversity and inclusiveness.

Generally speaking, if a person feels valuable and fulfilled about their own PLN, and is able to establish good relationships with others, they are more likely to continue creating content and maintaining the network. So, we can judge a person’s likelihood of maintaining PLN based on how much positive or negative feedback or gains they have received from PLN.

There are lots of skills can be learned from PLN, such as communication ability, collaboration ability, innovation ability, critical thinking, cultural literacy, etc. These skills are very important and useful in professional practice, as they can help a person adapt to the constantly changing work environment, improve work efficiency, and collaborate with different people. Therefore, through PLN, an individual can not only improve their knowledge level, but also improve essential skills in their career development.

What digital platforms are students currently using to develop their professional network?

With the development of Web, students can use a variety of digital platforms to develop their professional network. These include professional networking sites like LinkedIn, professional sharing and collaboration platforms like Kaggle and Github, as well as social media platforms such as WeChat, Twitter, Instagram, ans so on.

What could the student consider in expanding their professional learning network?

I think we should start with finding our professional goals. We can seek out industry or academic leaders and communities in the field of our interests, and seek for some advices for directions. Then we can improve our professional skills and participate in professional networks through online platforms such as YouTube, LinkedIn, Twitter, Github, and so on. Additionally, we should actively collaborate with peers or experts to complish some project or solve some issues. Because building connections with professionals is the most efficient way to improve ourselves and gain opportunities.

How does data privacy and security limit and/or promote a PLN?

Data privacy and security is one of the most important factors to promote a healthy PLN. We should be cautious about sharing our personal information online. When we start to use some online platforms, we must remember to carefully read and set privacy options. This would promot trustworth, safe and secure interactions. A unsafe environment would weaken our enthusiasm for online activities. However, data privacy and security restricts the operational range of online sharing. For example, we cannot share work experience in confidential projects. Hence, it also limit the growth of PLN.

In your network, how can you create a digital identity/ reputation?

Here is my Visitor & Resident Map. Let’s focus on the Resident mode in the Map. I would represent my professional skills and techniques, and connect with industry professionals by LinkedIn, School Blog, Kaggle and Github. I would participate in online projects shared in Kaggle and Github to improve my professional skills, ans sharing with others. I would also follow industry leaders and get the news in Twitter, Instagram and FaceBook. And connect with them within those platforms and also WeChat and email.

Finally, a employer might assess my social media presence to know more about my character, professionalism, and suitability for the job. If my social media presence shows a positive and optimistic professional digital identity, my chance of being considered would be large. It is important for us to be careful of our online activities. Be sure to prohibit unprofessional behavior and posting inappropriate content.