- Examine the application of social media to support learning
In my week2 wow and wonder, What is a Personal Learning Network (PLN)? This article mentions that social media helps people to connect, collect, communicate and share knowledge and experiences at any time. It is an easy and accessible way for people to get information.
The main project of my learning pod helped me to understand social media and how it can support learning.
The main social platform we are working on is Facebook. people can communicate on the platform and Facebook simplifies this communication process to the point where people can express their ideas quickly. For example, my friend lily posted on Facebook a quick way to remember 50 sounds of Japanese. I was learning Japanese and found her sharing very useful, so I saved the new knowledge and let her know her content was useful by favoriting and liking it with comments.
Some platforms are not as good as Facebook for exchanging information through posting, but it is also a great learning tool. Leo M mentioned in his learning celebration that each member can take on the role of both educator and learner depending on their level of expertise in the topic. While the more proficient tend to take on more of an “educator” role and actively answer more questions in the community, everyone is welcome to participate in the discussion and contribute their knowledge. This is a great example of a social platform that helps people learn. For example, I have a number of courses that have discord groups. People often exchange learning questions through this platform which is very helpful.
2. Explain personalized learning and its relation to learning theory
In week three, we read Connectivism: A Learning Theory for the Digital Age. I gained knowledge in this area. People don’t just learn from formal places like school anymore. People can combine work and learn together. My classmate michellemylrea mentioned the concept of “chaos” which is interesting because it helps people to further understand connectionism, especially through the “everything to everything” connection. She also mentioned that in the past, most knowledge was taught in schools. Now there are so many platforms in society that can be used to communicate and learn. I see something new on Reddit almost every time. The learning process needs to be discussed further though, and it’s best to be specific.
3. Recognize that the Internet is not a neutral or equal space for everyone
This is something I felt I already knew, although the course helped me expand on it. The Internet is supposed to be a completely equal resource platform where people should be able to communicate freely. But from the content of our learning pod, we looked at Facebook surveillance and privacy information. (See 2.3) The Internet has not grown to be perfectly secure. Facebook is a good example. Once you are at a restaurant using a phone that has been logged into Facebook, then the platform gets everything about you for the day. I also freaked out while researching this issue. Because I’ve never cared about this stuff. But as a web user, I also deeply know that for users to demand the protection of privacy and the road to information equality will not be smooth.
4. Apply social media to develop a personal learning network in support of your personal and/or professional development
For discussions in our learning pod, we (Tim Hildebrand , Alireza Tahmasebi, Cassie Ma, and Wenzhuo Zhang) mainly use discord for daily communication and also Google Docs for real-time collaboration.
I think this is an apt example of the use of social media to develop PLNs and facilitate the communication and knowledge acquisition that we discussed in the course. Throughout the semester we were able to share ideas and discuss them smoothly. And this exchange is important because if you only think about the problem on your own, it is not absolutely comprehensive. It’s only when we discuss together that we are able to identify the gaps. My classmate Shaafi mentioned that he had created a Facebook account for an HR company and asked to join several HR groups. They had a group of HR Professionals. This really proves that social media is a great way to promote personal and professional development by creating new networks.
5. Identify privacy issues and practice online behaviors that are legal, safe, consensual, and ethical
In our major project, we discussed Facebook’s privacy breaches. We found that while Facebook does allow users to set information as public or private and provides them with tools to further customize the visibility of this data, the platform assumes extensive data collection and sharing positions that are carefully crafted to avoid adverse legal consequences. So, this is very detrimental to users. Leo’s learning pod discusses the fact that discord can read private information without users Read private information as well as delete and track users without their permission. This is a surprising piece of information! This represents the user giving up the possibility of their privacy being circulated online.
6. Recognize data ownership and licensing (Creative Commons, Copyright, Fair Dealing, and Public Domain) as a core practice when creating, sharing, or using resources online
In our learning pod study, we studied Facebook also has included that users must post legal content. I think it’s great that safety information is a necessary prerequisite for people to be able to use online platforms with confidence. And intellectual property is important! When people want to quote other people’s ideas, it is important to let the author know that this is also a sign of respect for people and an important prerequisite for developing a harmonious network.
7. Practice digital, networked, and open literacies in support of learning about social media and personalized learning
In this course, we established communication and exchange between students within the course by using both WordPress and GitHub platforms. As well, each learning pod chose a web platform to research and analyze. Conducting these digital studies also gave us a greater understanding of the online environment and the literacy that participation on the web can enable people to connect with others who share their interests. This also helped us in our future online lives.