Blog Post #4 – PLN in Education

Explore the videos provided and reflect on the themes of a PLN in professional capacity.

PLNs are a very valuable resource and source of lifelong learning that can provide and empower connections to help propel people forward in both their careers and personal lives. As written last week in my blog post, when using PLNs as a professional resource, people have to act professionally, following the (often unwritten, though sometimes explicit) social rules that “professionalism” within their profession dictates. This often means that people have to pay more attention to the language they use, the people they choose to associate with, the way they present themselves and their work, and more. In my (admittedly limited) experience, professional connections can also be colored by a certain kind of transactionalism, where people expect that others share and provide value to their network just as much as they receive value from it, though this isn’t always the case.

Which social media platforms are beneficial in education?

As I have said before, I think that there is value in almost every social media for some kind of connection building to expand a PLN. Similarly, I think that almost every platform has the capacity to be beneficial in education, at least within informal education. The infographic slides of instagram, well-planned, nuanced and interactive twitter threads, or (my personal favourite) the 2 hour video essay on youtube. 

I have written a lot about youtube as an educational tool in previous education classes, but it remains one of my favourite ways to learn. I have been able to explore lectures in subjects that I don’t have the time to take here at UVIC with MIT’s OCW, deepened my understanding of topics that I already have covered in university with supplementary short lectures from independent creatures like 3blue1brown, and explored things like the intersection of pop culture, sociology and politics in maaaany video essays from creators such as Skip Intro, PhilosophyTube, and Michael Saba, to name a few of my recent favourites. The ability for anybody to create a polished video lecture/essay/work of any topic and upload it freely to youtube makes it an invaluable tool in my education, and I have learned an immense amount of mathematics, philosophy, political science, sociology, computer science, and more that I wouldn’t have otherwise discovered.

When working with the vulnerable sector, how does social media fit into professionalism and regulations?

Aside from the obvious (i.e. do not post pictures of or information regarding another person without their explicit consent, do not engage in any behaviour that leads to the harming of another person, i.e. harassment) there are additional factors to consider when working with the vulnerable sector. Seemingly innocuous photos may have the geolocation they were taken embedded within them, which could cause issues for the people within the vulnerable sector or the organization that an individual is working with, or a staff member’s unprofessional instagram posts may impact the organization’s reputation and ability to get funding, for example. When working within the vulnerable sector, it is important for people, educators and otherwise, to be very professional in their presentation and hypervigilant in their privacy and security in order to minimize potential harm.