o Explore the video provided and reflect on the themes of a PLN in a professional capacity.
Brad Baker said that he found professional community is not only one’s supportive system, it also makes us grow and become active members that contribute our authentic voice. For example, in the video, Baker shared how he move from sharing individual’s survival stories of Residential school to sharing a collective response towards Residential school because his professional community empower him to do so. Hence in that sense, social media platforms were used as a way that we continue to raise our voices and support each other, rather than just focusing on our individual issues (Brad Baker, Community Communication interview-2021).
o Which social media platforms are beneficial in education?
I would probably recommend Twitter and Facebook. Last week’s guest, Markiel Simpson also use Twitter as his platform to engage in anti-racism conversations and eliminate racism in B.C schools. I think one good thing about Twitter is that it could repost other people’s posts so that you can see how the conversation started and where that lead to. If Twitter can be used in education, I think it would be great. Open teaching is about ” the facilitation of learning experiences that are open, transparent, collaborative, and social. Open teachers are advocates of a free and open knowledge society and support their students in the critical consumption, production, connection, and synthesis of knowledge through the shared development of learning network” (Veletsianos, 2010, p. 129). If Twitter is used in education, then everyone can join the conversation, and build new knowledge based on others’ posts. It is like forming a new conversation, that anyone is allowed to join in. Contemporary learning theory such as constructivism would encourage the use of social media in education because it believes that knowledge generation cannot be without collaboration. Which I think is true. In traditional classrooms, we might have little space to freely discuss our opinions, but if we use social media, our voice, other people’s voice, or voices in the past, will all have a record, and we can respond to these voices at any time, anywhere.
o Consider the equality that exists when all have the same platform to engage community dialogues.
I think social media platforms are bringing more equality. When talking about equality, one cannot leave out the conversation of access. Social media platforms are highly accessible, and with this characteristic, everyone can engage in community dialogues.
Source used:
WATCH: Community Communications – Course YouTube Channel https://youtu.be/rsoDHGaXNNs
– READ: Media & Social Justice
http://ezproxy.library.uvic.ca/login?url=http://www.palgraveconnect.com/doifinder/10.1057/9780230119796
CHAPTER 4 A New Vision for Public Media Open, Dynamic, and Participatory Jessica Clark and Patricia Aufderheide
Comments
Hey!
I really enjoyed reading your blog for this week. I think you make some great points about how Twitter can be a great platform for communication and collaboration for educational purposes. Twitter is versatile in this way, because it allows for several ‘categories’ of society to interact and form connections. Furthermore, social media is increasing accessibility to information and resources which is important for the topic of inclusion.
HI Ziwang
I very much agree with what you said that Twitter and Facebook are social media platforms that are good for education. We can see that people with a certain reputation are speaking out for some disadvantaged groups. This is a great help for young people to build their own values.
Hello Zi,
I agree with your answer to the last question. Indeed that social media platforms allow equal accessibility to every person (with the precondition of access to the internet). Social media platforms give us the chance to share our opinions online, which is pretty diverse and inclusive.
Cheers,
Anna