Kaiheng Zhang’ log

This semester is really fast for me, I learn how to generate and maintain a health PLN from edci338, which means a lot. In the past few years, I only consider social media as convenient online chatting software and where you see memes. However, after a few months of deep learning about PLN, I start to realize PLN is more than that. properly use and maintain PLN is able to quickly establish a connection with people who has the same interest or in the same fields, quickly increase your reputation online and provides you with more opportunities. Just like I use social media to get a Co-op job for the next term online, it’s hard to imagine what if we still meet at the human resource market physically in this pandemic. PLN could be a high-quality stepping stone towards career success.

However, social media is a double-edged sword, it might hurt you if you can’t use it in the right way. Users on social media platforms join with various backgrounds, genders, skin colours, cultures, or ages. These diversities might cause conflict between users. As healthy PLN users, we need always make sure we don’t write or comment on sensitive content like skin colours, religious issues or gender discrimination. If you face some negative comments, don’t get made or fretful, let’s make sure we focus on most of the positive feedback and ratings and continue to play to our strengths.[1]

EDCI338 not only benefits my professional PLN but also my personal perspective. I understood how the engage in others’ communication and share my personal idea. I have a great time playing around with those platforms I discovered during the course. This course is informative and worth taking.

Resource:

[1] Simple Keys to Success & Influence Ch. 16 Qualman, Erik – Empower Others https://learning-oreilly-com.ezproxy.library.uvic.ca/library/view/digital-leader-5/9780071792424/ch16.html

PLN is an excellent tool to share and develop your interest and career-related knowledge. Build a PLN is more likely planting trees for a  forest. The process can’t achieve all at once. It takes our special care and maintenance. This course offers us the way to grow trees, in the future I know the right part the build a healthy PLN and progress together with users on the network. I am going to keep update my blogs and website, introducing it to my friends or peers. Let them join my PLN and start to build their own. Continue to expand the range of my PLN and connect with users with diversity.

Professional perspective PLN could opportunities related to career, prestige, public influences. In my experience, PLN actually helps me find my first Co-op job.Before I submit my resume and CV to a human resource market, I took an online course that teaches you how to build a proper Linkin profile, I benefit a lot from it. I apply through various platforms such as UVic Learning in motion, Linkin, indeed, etc. The suggestion algorithm on those platforms really offers me good exposure to the software development position. After I submit around 40 resumes, I received 2 interviews. The outcome is great. Can’t imagine back in the 90th people went to the human resource market to submit their business card and resume physically. Social media platforms really reduce the distance between us. I really appreciate the convenience they bring to society.

The more exposure you have on social media, the more opportunities you will get. PLN preserve all the thoughts you have, those posts and comments save you ideas from the past. If you are struggling with one tough question, you can review your PLN looking for a similar solving strategy, learning from the past is also a great way to progress. There isn’t any way for individuals to know everything about the world. Sometimes we must step outside of our comfort zone and embracing others’ critical. Always know what is my weakness and have the ability to distinguish what is right and wrong, because others’ comments not always help you improve. Don’t be afraid of mistakes, as long as you understand the concept, you can learn from it.

Resource:

Edci 338. (2020). EDCI 338 A01 – GLAUSER, Amber.

Del Giudice, M. (2013). From information society to network society: The challenge.    Cham: Springer International Publishing. doi:10.1007/978-3-319-02490-5

Do you include professional and personal boundaries?

Social media has the benefit of everyone has a chance to share his/her feeling, it increases the speed at we receive and share information. However, this characteristic might also cause divergence because of viewers’ background, culture, countries, age, even gender. We are all unique individuals, the uniqueness made us have different points of view and attitude towards the same problem. Just like Harrison Mooney in the interview, he has to keep in mind every time that he is a black person, no matter how good he is, people will deny his talent because of skin colour, the racism also happens online. A positive PLN must get rid of similar problems, it should be free for all participators to feel free to discuss and express opinions, especially when addressing differences between us. Just like the protest happens earlier about “Black matters”. Everyone should have equal rights to express their ideas and they all should be respected. PLN isn’t a place to vent your anger and discrimination.

In order to curate a health PLN, all the users in the network have the responsibility to be true about what they want to express. They need to have the ability to distinguish what is right and what could be a Bias before commenting and sharing. Also, we should diversify our networks, bring more people to the table. If the PLN has people all over the world and has a vast diversity in user groups, it wouldn’t be an issue to discover Bias opinions.

Since we are all unique individuals, who we are and what role we play in the PLN is important. If you have a specific identity, other users have a better to locate you and build contact with you. For example, if you are a math teacher, your personal learning environment should include information like how you solve difficult problems or blogs related to math. If other users in the PLN need help with math, they can easily find you and build connections, narrowing yourself down to a specific area. Other users who are good at math might also want to build connections with you and share high-quality opinions.

While we work with various social media platforms, we need to consider the boundaries of entertainment use or professional use. For example, you should provide specific details about yourself and your careers on the Linkin platform, because those details let the viewer of your profile know your working abilities and career experiences, some of them could be your future employer. However, you wouldn’t want to provide lots of details about yourself on Reddit, because the platform doesn’t provide too much professional usage. Users need to understand each platform’s features. Loading information to those platforms which can bring you positive influence.

Reference

Mooney, H. (2020) Reporting in a Connected Culture, EDCI 338 – Course YouTube Channel https://youtu.be/elKNQpz0RrI

Social Media: Communication, Sharing and Visibility Meikle, G – Chapter 4https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/9781315884172/chapters/10.4324/9781315884172-10

What is media literacy?

Media literacy is the ability to access, evaluate and use information, it allows us access, critically evaluate and create or manipulate media.[1] it is closely related to your daily communication. With a new communication mechanism, social media has an impact on the information dissemination pattern and has an increasing effect on real society. Dual to the characteristic of social media, it put forward new requirements for the media literacy of the public, media industry and government agencies and officials.

Why is it important?

Social media progress with technologies, today is the 21st century, no matter where we go or what we do, we can’t run away from social media. I haven’t made a real phone call for a long time, social media could help us to gain a large amount of useful and un-useful information. It becomes extremely important for us to distinguish what is right and wrong. Rumours can be separated very fast, it’s our duty to keep a positive communication environment. People should not believe what they think is right, they have the right to know the truth and distinguish what is misleading.

From the interview with Smith Julie, she remainders me that most of the media only show what you want to see, they actually didn’t tell the truth to the public. The cause of this phenomenon is us, the audiences. Our self-esteem causes us to only care about the truth that is good for us. We choose to protect ourselves when cruel truth comes, everyone has his own comfort zone. however, in order to achieve varied views but factual consensus in our PLN. We must step out of the comfort zone, facing those truths that may hurt your feeling, then provide rational analysis and logical comments.

A positive and informative PLN can receive more attention from the public, which is very helpful for our careers. The better your PLN is, the more attraction you have. From audiences of your PLN, some strangers might be your future employer. If you PLN have attracted lots of users, their engagement is a good way to help you progress, they might provide feedback or suggestions, their perspective might inspire you. In order to build a PLN that can be consistently relied on, the key is making sure what you say can be trusted with evidence. Nobody wants to hear and spread rumours, unreliable information not only toxic your PLN but also the others thought. Building a PLN can’t be done in one day, so make sure to always upgrade and engage in others’ discussions. If you want to deliver content haven been verified, making notes to the contents and asking feedback from the public. Always check what you want to share whether are sensitive content, are biased, or are negative. Standing at others perspective look at the whole story one more time, this can help you distinguish misinformation.

Resource:

1.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3T4jOdKd12I&feature=youtu.be

2. Hirst, M. (2019). Navigating Social Journalism. New York: Routledge, https://doi-org.ezproxy.library.uvic.ca/10.4324/9781315401263

Since most of the social communication platform is free, no matter who you are, simply having one smartphone can access. Like Twitter, all the users join with different personal backgrounds, cultural, gender, faith, countries. there are lots of sensitivities areas like sexism, Religious discrimination, Racial discrimination, etc. In recent years, there have been many examples that improper comments have led to verbal and even physical threats. These threats can greatly affect a person’s mental health and event life. Always make sure we provide information with fact on PLN. Positive and efficient communication can’t tolerate rumour. We should separate both personal and professional communication, however, it’s not that easy to find a balance because humans are emotional.  In order to adapt progress with social media communication, we must make sure what we say is real and never comment using hate speeches, there is always a consequence for what you say and what you do, the Internet is not an illegal place. It’s all user’s responsibility to generate a positive PLN and communication environment.

Reference:

1. Media and Social Justice. (n.d.). Retrieved November 02, 2020, from http://voyager.library.uvic.ca/vwebv/holdingsInfo?bibId=2606041
2. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=73KOxy_fMSM&feature=youtu.be

Additionally, explore some of the privacy/security concerns to consider when developing an audience on any social media platform? What are the concerns for individuals who become influential in a social space?

Before creating a podcast, I need to consider what are my goals and learning targets. These ideas will be the backbone of my podcast. Then, I will register a new account on the mainstream networking platform. A qualified platform must have the functionally to communicate and share information with others because learning by myself is not efficient and comprehensive enough. In the next step, I am going to forum study groups and add users who have similar goals or targets with me. I can learn and be inspired by the group members’ perspectives, also they can provide helpful suggestions while I facing problems. I will continually share my ideas, personal thoughts, feeling with group members, and engage in others’ communication and feedback, so we can learn and progress together through our PLN.

While I am doing research for my computer science project last semester, I notice there are lots of successful podcasts. Pet Walters[1] is one of them that attracts my attention. One of his blogs about “machine learning technology” has more than 50+ people comments. Most of the users thought his explanation and notes are very helpful to understand an abstract idea. In order to emulate success stories in this space, there are a few points we need to consider. Firstly, always provide high-quality information, thinking about why it’s important and how to demonstrate this concept. Secondly, organizing language with the right word choice, make sure all the audience understands what are you talking about. thirdly, engaging in communication, always accept different voice around you. Perspectives various from person to person, others’ ideas might not be right, but you can always obtain some inspirations from them.

There are always exist different voices when people share their opinions on the internet, sometimes the comment might run in the opposite direction from yours. Language is an invisible sword, it can be extremely hurt and lead to serious consequences. What you know may not be all, just as what you have heard may not be true. We need to be responsible for what we say online and learn how to distinguish rumours. Building a health PLN with learners around us is necessary, it’s key for us to continue learning from each other.‘

Reference:

[1] https://practicalcheminformatics.blogspot.com/2018/10/my-scienceprogramming-journey.html

What is a PLN? PLN means “Personal Learning Network” which was used to describe a network of people and resources that support ongoing learning. Before the reading of this week, I actually did not realize teaching can be diverse. I was born and educated in China. I still remember the time around 66 students sit in a crowded classroom writing test over and over again. All students in the Country study the same content and there is nothing important than study. Just like Moore said, “lingering evidence of the factory model of education where we needed to produce and replicate people to meet the demand of the workforce during the industrial revolution.”[1] The teacher’s key task is to cultivate the labour force of social needs. Students have diverse talents before they go to school, however, they were forced to accept only study math, Chemistry, grammar, etc, is the only way out to be a good worker and pay for their rents. There is no diversity to studies and all students graduate with the same shape, a large number of children’s talents have been wiped out in fundamental education. As Moore says, now is the 21st century, the education process must progress with the times.

In my PLN, Most of the time I learned from a variety of voices, I don’t have much idea about learning diversity. After studying at UVic, I start to realize I should have my own way of learning. I start learning content outside the classroom and it actually goes pretty well. Also, I received some suggestions from friends and learning partners.

I participate in a silo of information sharing. Sharing personal opinions is another way of learning. Comparing with a simple idea, more information can be shared by more people. Since we are all independent individuals, we might be inspired by others’ points of view, cooperation is an essential strategy in learning.

The learning outcome of my PLN is about having confidence in my thought and express them to more people. Each one has a different perspective, they can provide various suggestions and help from a brand new angle. The learner should accept diversities, take its essence and drop its dross. This is how we full fill our PLN and learning diversity.

After all the reading and videos, I start to realize PLN isn’t simply talking about how to learning and master one knowledge, it’s a way to progress and sharing. Every one of us has different talents in various areas, education should not bury these talents and transform them to what society needs. Personalize each student’s way of learning is the key to achieve individual success. Sharing with peer and respect their comment could make us progress.

Reference:

Moore, Shelley. One Without the Other : Stories of Unity Through Diversity and Inclusion, Portage & Main Press, 2017. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/uvic/detail.action?docID=4832579.

Currently, there is a lot kind of social media platforms on the market. Since their using purpose is different, it’s extremely important for students to pick the right one to build their professional network. Before I joined the UVic Computer Science Co-op program, the instructor introduces Linkin to us. Because Linkin is the world’s largest professional social networking site with excessed 300million users worldwide,  it’s a great place to develop a professional network for Job finding, head-hunting, or showing your abilities. Having a professional profile will increase your exposure to the public in order to help people who need your abilities to find you faster. Blog is also a good place to express personal ideas and thoughts, however, Blog is mainly for users who want to know you more, like A head-hunter company thought your resume and cover letter is great, so he/she opens your blog to see more details about you, the way you write, express an idea, these are part of your personal identity.

Everything changes with technology, it’s extremely necessary for new graduates like me to own and maintain a professional learning network. For new users who want to expand their professional learning network, they should start considering their roles[1], think about what kind of learning style I have. Some learner learning by reviewing situations, such as comment opinions to articles or share personal thoughts on a piece of news. Some learners get knowledge by apply learning to real situations, such as creating a project and recording the process. Others might prefer to learn by doing some researches. It’s important to figure out what kind of learn style you are and try to switch it sometimes, this can make what you learn more comprehensive. The next step is to join online groups and share opinions with peers. Cooperating with others will expand your learning network fastly. Learning from others, identifying what they are good at and providing feedback to what you think is insufficient.

Before generating a personal identity, the first time we need to know that everything we build can be fake or real. The personal identity contains a lot of attributes, like the photo you post, the comment you have, relation status,  the language you use, etc. It can be totally different on various platforms. For example, I would never post any silly jokes on Linkin, I write as much professional as possible to demonstrate myself, I always think twice before I contact a group or person. However, I feel more relax to post anything I want on Instagram, where most of my friends know who me better. Imagine your potential employer whether want to know any trivial matter about you. Since different usages of the platform, your performance can be distinct. The key to building an excellent  PLN always understands your audience and provides details they want to see, show how professional you are in the desired area.

Reference:

[1] Courses & PD. 2020. Step 1: What Is A PLN?. [online] Available at:<https://teacherchallenge.edublogs.org/pln-define/> [Accessed 15 October 2020].

Since the development of technologies, we are more and more inseparable from the internet and social platform. We can easily purchase anything we want with a few simple clicks and it will directly deliver to you home. Like Eric Stoller says in the video, “your body of work your portfolio your blog your tweets everything that you do on the web kind of represents your digital identity”[1] Digital identity represents one’s behaviours, habits, personal interests. Even we can figure out one’s way of doing things by looking at the comment he/she give to others. Different from physical identity, digital identity involves a wider range of areas, which describing a person more thorough and unique.

Since social media can share one’s feelings, religion and personal values. Personal and professional use of social media can be different.  As professional use of the platform, social media offers a chance to connect with clients on a  personal level and maintain a brand across all marketing channels. The more we post on social platforms, the more public exposure we get. However, it not always bring positive effects. people might be judged from other users with different backgrounds.