Which social media platforms are beneficial in education
Personally i believe that mattermost, discord and Microsoft teams are the most beneficial when it comes to education. These platforms have been used by numerous students to ak for help, create study groups and have though discussions on educational topics. Me and my team used discord throughout out time at university to create groups for projects and study groups. My group used Discord to collaborate on the final assignment. It has created a huge impact on me as a person and also in my education. The Uvic Engineering and Computer science discord is the best way to get help for any engineering/cs related topic. Microsoft teams is a platform used by Uvic faculty and students to keep in touch with each other more easily, it is officially supported by Uvic ‘s computer help desk. Teams is very easy to use and you can easily get in touch with the instructors, no long instructors have to go through piles of email to see what you sent them. Mattermost is somewhat similar to teams, but is open source and you can host your own mattermost server to create a community where you can share ideas with each other. The EDCI 338 course has successfully used mattermost for creating a PLN and facilitating communication between a large group of students.
When working with the vulnerable sector, how does social media fit into professionalism and regulations?
Always protect confidentiality of vulnerable persons, care should be taken when dealing with their sensive information. You also need to obtain their necessary consent and/or the consent of the legal guardian before trying to share any information related to them. Also maintain healthy boundaries and avoid creating personal relationship with the individual and avois engaging in inappropriate behaviour with vulnerable individual
Social media has become a very important part of many people’s daily lives, with platforms like Facebook, Snapchat, and Discord gaining popularity. Social media has enabled the marginalized to speak out, amplified the voicing and concerns of critical societal forces, and allowed many social movements to conduct massive outreach across the globe. It has bought people together from all walks of life and allowed ideas from diverse backgrounds to permeate through the internet. Many people have a form of PLN on social media where they have a curated list of followers and content sources, where they gather information about various topics, and share their ideas and knowledge with others in the PLN. In a professional context LinkedIn is the most used social media platform[1]. As of 2023 Linkedin has over 500 million in over 200 different countries, which makes it easier to have a diverse PLN. LinkedIn also has good ToS (Terms of Service) enforcement that discourages, hate, harassment, or threats based on race, ethnicity, and religion that allows it to be an inclusive social medial platform with people of many diverse experiences.
How does social media engage communications?
Social media has allowed people nearby and across the globe to connect with each other more easily than ever possible. It allows a person to engage in sharing of thoughts and ideas with a large number of people, ie. twitter post, youtube video, instagram live etc… It has allowed PLN’s to contain individuals with differing ideas, and viewpoints on many issues and problems. It also opens more opportunities for employees, and allows employers to choose form a wide talent pool as employers and employees can better get to know each other and also engage in back and forth communication.
How does social media challenge communications?
A big problem with communication on social media is that there is just too much information on it at any given topic and time. This makes it hard for users to filter though and identify reliable, accurate, and relevant information. Another problem is that many social media platforms use algorithms to feed you only the content and people that fit your worldview. This limits exposure to diverse ideas and viewpoints to your PLN, wich creates an echo chamber that reinforces existing beliefs and ideologies. Because of the potential anonymity granted to users of social media, it can potentially allow people to engage in certain aggressive, offensive or disrespectful behavior that they might not engage in when in a face to face conversation. This can create hostile and toxic environment that hinders productive and thoughtful conversations.
Is it inclusive?
Today ‘s social media is usually very inclusive if you use mainstream platforms like Twitter, Facebook, Reddit etc… These platforms have good content moderation policy, that takes action against users who are hateful, toxic or hostile towards others. You can also curate your information sources and accounts on your feed to the needs and requirements of your PLN. As mentioned already, social media has bought people together from all walks of life and allowed people to engage with diverse viewpoints. However certain platforms like 4chan, 8chan, and rumble can definitely be less inclusive due their poor content moderation and action against individuals with malicious intents.
Does your PLN amplify the views of others?
In my experience, my PLNs on Discord has amplified the voice of others. I make sure that everyone is heard online and everyone regardless of their identity is able to voice out their honest opinion on all the servers that i control. My PLNs on other social media like Twitter have many people from different backgrounds contributing ideas to my feed.
The policies of employer social media communication expectations.
From my experience employers expect their employees to operate their enterprise social media accounts in a very precautious manner. Casual way of expression is discouraged and employees are expected to promote the company brand and message whenever possible. Even when it comes employees personal accounts, employers may still expect a very controlled level of discourse ( you cannot critize the employer or his company). Employers in general expect you to have a very neutral personal image, on controversial topics in politics, media, sports etc…
Media literacy is the ability to analyze and verify topics and information presented by mass media. Good media literacy is very important to discern fact from fiction and separate fact from fiction. Most notable individuals use the media to promote themselves and their viewpoints, sometimes they may use it to promote certain narratives or agenda that might benefit them personally. Some perceived restrictions when using PLN tools provided by employer could be that you are restricted in criticism to the employer and organization as a whole, there are only certain things you can say and do. Also you cannot be casual and you have to remain professional People who are experienced in media literacy and in story telling minimize misinformation by doing rigorous research. These individuals may have their credibility ruined as a result of spreading widespread misinformation or disinformation. The benefits of having a PLN that values media literacy is that it safeguard the students and members of the PLN from misinformation and teaches them how to conducting online research properly. Often times in social media and public social networks at large you can face harsh criticism for certain things one might write. The best way to address criticism is if the criticism is not constructive it is to ignore or remove it, or if it is constructive, it is important to have constructive and respectful dialogoue with the person delivering the criticism.
A digital identity is the online identity of an individual or organization. It is a dynamic map of an individual based on all the information available online about him. A person with a personal approach to digital identity engages much more casually on social media. They use social media for sharing experiences, expressing individuality and forming connections with friends and family, whereas with a professional approach to digital identity a person is showcasing expertise, professional connections and reputation. An individual behave more professionally and uses more professional language. He is careful with spelling and grammar. They tend to approach social media more selectively and strategically. They use it as a tool for personnel branding. They are usually more respectful than people who use personal approach to social media. In networked publics digital identities can converge though shared interests, communities and concerns. It allows for smoother and seamless interaction and allows for easier collaboration, it allows for diverse viewpoints as it brings together people from diverse perspectives and viewpoints. When idividuals get together online they voice their concerns collectively, thus converging of digital identities amplifies voices
Can your PLN be used to help professional development post-course?
Sort of i do not think this PLN can help me much in my profession endeavour as my major is not in education but computer science, bu that being said i might one day be an educator in the field of computer science and coding but for now i do not have such plans. However the PLN has helped be more social with people and understand diverse opinions on topics. I have also learnt how to write blogposts so that many help me in the future with my writing skills. However the ideas that i have contributed on this PLN may help many other students after me in their development, as they can read what i wrote.
Can your PLN be relied on to open professional opportunities?
Somewhat. I have met many people and have been able to connect with many people, i can definitely use these peers to get professional knowledge in education and my field of interest. But other than that it has definitely improved my communication skills. If i decide to go into the field of education, this PLN can definitely aide and assist me in such opportunities.
Hello, guys, this is my Visitor and residence map, I am a computer science student and use tools like stack overflow and GitHub semi-professionally. I use stack overflow for school and work-related projects, and use Github to showcase all my coding projects friends, and potential employers, however I also use GitHub to store private software projects. As you can see I have only two websites (discord and Linkedin, in the residence side of the map, this is because I am not a very social media savvy person and want to remain private and anonymous on the internet. I am also not a very socially outgoing person and am an extreme introvert. I use LinkdIn because I have to since most employers look for professionals LinkdIn and my co-op advisor asked me to make one. I am well known in quite a few Discord server and well known in some of them. I mainly use Discord for social media, and keeping in touch with friends. Snapchat, and Slack i use for personal direct messaging, but I use Slack in a professional capacity while I use Snapchat for personal communication. I also play chess and talk to many players on chess.com from all over the world while playing chess, but I am not a streamer or a celebrity chess player on chess.com so I am not a resident there, I use it for personal enjoyment, just like I use Youtube and Netflix.
Before proceeding with this first blog post, we expect you to consider your privacy preferences carefully and that you have considered the following options:
Do you want to be online vs. offline?
Do you want to use your name (or part thereof) vs. a pseudonym (e.g., West Coast Teacher)?
Do you want to have your blog public vs. private? (Note, you can set individual blog posts private or password protected or have an entire blog set to private)
Have you considered whether you are posting within or outside of Canada? This blog on opened.ca is hosted within Canada. That said, any public blog posts can have its content aggregated/curated onto social networks outside of Canada.
First tasks you might explore with your new blog:
Go into its admin panel found by adding /wp-admin at the end of your blog’s URL
Add new category or tags to organize your blog posts – found under “Posts” (but do not remove the pre-existing “edci338” category).
See if your blog posts are appearing on the course website (you must have the the edci338 category assigned to a post first and have provided your instructor with your blog URL)
Add pages, if you like.
Include hyperlinks in your posts (select text and click on the link icon in the post toolbar)
Embed images or set featured images and embed video in blog posts and pages (can be your own media or that found on the internet, but consider free or creative commons licensed works). To embed a YouTube video, simply paste the URL on its own line.
Under Dashboard/Appearance,
Select your preferred website theme and customize to your preferences (New title, new header image, etc.)
Customize menus & navigation
Use widgets to customize blog content and features
Delete this starter post (or switch it to draft status if you want to keep it for reference)
Do consider creating categories for each course that you take should you wish to document your learning (or from professional learning activities outside of formal courses). Keep note, however, that you may wish to rename the label of the course category in menus (e.g., as we did where it shows “Social Media & PL” as the label for the “edci338” category menu. This will enable readers not familiar with university course numbers to understand what to expect in the contents.
Lastly, as always, be aware of the FIPPA as it relates to privacy and share only those names/images that you have consent to use or are otherwise public figures. When in doubt, ask us.
Please also review the resources from our course website for getting started with blogging:
in the Learning Design menu on your website. This is because we have applied the “edci338” category to this post and the menu item “Social Media & Personalized Learning” has been created from the category “edci338.” For every post you make for this course, please assign the “edci338” category to it. You are welcome to use this blog for your personal hobbies or for other courses, in which case, you could create additional menu items and categories for them.
if you give permission, your posts categorized “edci338” will be aggregated onto the Blog Feed on the EDCI 338 Course Website.
Feel free to delete this post once you understand this. If you have any questions, please reach out to your instructor.
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