Month: October 2022

How does social media engage communications?

Social media engages communications by having topics that interests others show up in posts or blogs. This then explodes when users of PLNs start resharing the post which causes a topic of interest for discussion by everyone that are pulled by the topic. For example, Seoul, Korea was heavily locked down up until this year. So everyone wanted to go out and celebrate for Halloween. However, the amount of people in that attended a small strip of road for celebration caused up to 100 deaths from being trampled which can be read here. This caused an enormous amount of conversation through many social media platforms because of the severity of it.

Is it inclusive?

I believe social media can only be as inclusive as it can be allowed by exclusion by countries, or by the people that decide to use it. There is an app called douyin which is the exact Chinese version of TikTok that recently required users to bind their Chinese identification in order to continue the use of it which excludes mostly everyone outside the country. Another example would be KaoKao Talk which is a messenger app similar to WhatsApp. However, the vast majority of users are Korean. It ultimately comes down to how the social media is being used, who is restricting the users, and how comfortable is it to those who use it to demonstrate how inclusive it is in general.

What are the benefits of a diverse and inclusive PLN in social media sharing that understands where you are coming from with messaging that impacts the community?

A diverse and inclusive PLN in social media sharing helps reduce all misinformation of all religion, ethnicity, disabilities which leads to fear which results in aggression online. This would be the utopia of a 100% diverse and inclusive PLN social media platform. This would include all views and perspective on any given topic which would be beneficial for a non-bias controversial topics that are fully rationalized.

How would you create a PLN prior to engaging in a social media campaign on a topic of your choice?

I would choose a theme that fits with the social media campaign that I’m doing for example if it was for pride awareness I would use flamboyant colors in all the photos I take. I would follow with looking at other profiles or more famous users in the social media site and gain a better understanding of the choice of texts, colours, and other things they use to gain a popular fanbase. I would have to do some more research first to gain a better understanding to know what I am posting about before I create mine.

However, I would put my own style into it to make it unique to only me and to have my signature or style so others will recognize it immediately and know I am the original author.

How do educators create discourse?

I believe educators create discourse by selecting a topic to talk about. This is then followed by questions of the topic to help dwell deeper into the topic. By demonstrating two sides to a topic can help further gain a meaningful conversation. That’s why sometimes I believe controversial topics gain a lot of hype in PLN post because of this very reason.

What is the role of social media in education?

I believe the role of social media in general is to gain views, publicity, awareness, and attention. The role it plays in education could be to further spread knowledge of educational topics and academic knowledge. However, could this mean that this could also spread misinformation? With Facebook having so many users sharing millions of post a day. The authenticity of the posts are somewhat affected. Anyone could post anything about health topics and spread misinformation. They could post about how to change oil to a car and claim to be a mechanic but in general have 0 experience or knowledge in the field. This could ultimately lead to to having a adverse effect of spreading education through social media.

What are some problems with social media communications in education settings?

Social media communications in education settings could be prone to cyber bullying depending on how publicly accessible the media page is. Misinformation could be spread if students give their own presumed knowledge which is incorrect. If the page was public anyone other than those taking the course could come and ridicule and criticize the course. The internet brings people together, but can also tear people apart depending who they come across.

References:

Education in a Connected Culture – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C5z8iHxW2n4

How diverse is your PLN?

The PLN I used in high school was mostly Facebook. In viewing my friends on Facebook I realized I had a very diverse profile. I realized as I grew older I would have a lot of diverse classmates that I would do group projects with, study with, and even eat together. However, my closer circle group which I would message most of the time on WhatsApp or WeChat would mostly be of eastern asian culture. I did think to myself does this mean I am limiting my inclusion to include all diversities? no. I am comfortable doing anything with everyone of any culture, religion, and colour. The only difference is that the limited similarities we share decrease the scope of what we can do together.

Are you learning from a variety of diverse voices and are you expanding your understanding of the views of others?

I am learning and gaining more knowledge and understanding of the views of others. Why? This is because I learned that when people doesn’t understand something enough they fear it. When fear kicks in this leads to aggression. In this case other people’s culture, their beliefs, their religion, their past, their childhood, and even their history. When you expand your knowledge and understand more about diversity and the need for inclusion you do not fear as much. This leads to a more less aggressive mentality. There are multiple angles and perceptions of the world from a huge variety of diverse voices. It is very important to be able to relate in order to understand.

Resources

Miller, J., & Moore, S. (2021). EDCI 338 – 20 Minutes Moore. Youtube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KeSV0rUl1bA&ab_channel=MILLER

Moore, S. (2016). One Without the Other: Stories of Unity Through Diversity and Inclusion, Portage & Main Press, Introduction and Part 1. ProQuest Ebook Central, https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/uvic/detail.action?docID=4832579.