Category: Blog Posts

When it comes to engaging with PLNs for growth and learning, I tend to use several different platforms depending on what type of content I am searching for. I find TikTok to be the most engaging platform, as it often offers very specific results in a digestible way with a quick and easy search. For example, if I wanted to find a new video game to play, I could look up my preferred gaming genre and have a video auto-play, giving me games with the creators personal opinions, as well as audience opinions in the comments. From there, if I wanted to look into a particular game mentioned, TikTok offers ‘blue links’ on widely searched comments, making the video game titles mentioned easy to research on the app. One could argue that YouTube offers a similar experience, but I find TikTok to require less effort from the user, as well as offering more current information since uploads are easier for creators as well.

For learning that is more guided towards specific questions or community issues, I tend to gravitate towards Reddit, as I enjoy having honest answers from different perspectives. Many times I will search a particular question about a glitch in a video game or an electronic that needs trouble shooting, and Reddit will have a post from someone with the exact same problem with multiple informative answers. I also find that when I get answers from Reddit, it is written in a way that is easy to understand with supporting links to their findings. However, I personally do not post on Reddit as I don’t find the layout to be intuitive.

I engage with more content on TikTok and Instagram. I find the repost ability to be very helpful to spread information, as well as the direct message feature, allowing posts to be shared easily. I also enjoy engaging with others in the artistic field, boosting their works or showing support in the comments. I find community is very important in the art world, and social media is an effortless way to connect. Particularly with these two platforms, the content pushed to you is what you enjoy seeing, so engaging with more media in my field will connect me with more likeminded people.

In the future, I’d like to engage with others in my field more and work towards creating a professional website to have linked in my PLNs. By creating a strong personal platform that shows my interests, integrating a professional platform will be less of a leap.

This week, we took a look at why having a diverse PLN is important. For me, being a person of colour, it is very beneficial to have others in my learning community with similar or shared perspectives when it comes to our experiences. Something small that has helped me a lot is seeing content creators online with curly or textured hair recommending products that work well for them. Prior to that, I was extremely uneducated on how to properly take care of my hair, as it isn’t something taught in schools, and most products in chain stores are not made for my hair type specifically. Learning what brands work and most importantly why they work, told by someone with my shared experience was very helpful. It gave me a sense of community looking through comments of women with similar sentiments as I.

Since having a diverse user platform is so beneficial, we should be taking necessary steps to curate such a community. I believe making the platform accessible to everyone worldwide is a great place to start, as well as ensuring that there is no hate speech or negativity on the platform. A good way to enforce this is to have moderators, which many platforms like Discord and Reddit already incorporate. I also appreciate sub-groups within social media because it allows members of a smaller community to connect on specific topics that might not interest or apply to the general public.

Although not all social media platforms incorporate these ideas, they can still promote a diverse community. Apps like Instagram or TikTok use a sort of ‘discovery’ tab that allows creators to reach a wide array of viewers, showcasing more of their content if the audience interacts well with it. This kind of exposure works well to find specific niche communities, as the more you interact with those posts, the more of that content you will see. While Instagram provides a lot of visual content, I find it does not offer as much ground for connection as TikTok, Twitter/X, or Facebook/Meta might. Facebook offers some interactive features like games and reposts, while Instagram offers more direct communication through direct messages and story reactions. While this is preferable for those who already have groups they connect with online, it could be difficult for people who are newly looking for community.

Making inclusive spaces, in my opinion, is the biggest issue online, so while allowing easy communication might be the best way to connect groups, it also opens the door to individuals online with malicious intent. As I mentioned before, moderators would be the best way to overcome this, but it would be a never-ending task unfortunately. Having filtered text alongside that might be more beneficial, as it would help weed out negative comments before they are even posted. Although there are challenges to overcome, I feel hopeful in the direction social media is going in terms of building online communities.

For this week’s blog post, I took a look at a couple different social media platforms to look into what kind of personalized learning groups they offered. I have been getting into cooking recently, so that is what I looked into when searching these platforms. I first took to Instagram, which I found had some really amazing video recipes. Typically, in the description of the post or bio of the account, there would be a link to the recipe or the creator’s personal website with more tips, tricks, and recipes. I also really appreciated that with the simple search of ‘#cooking’, I was able to find several informative images about a wide array of foods. There was a post about how long it takes to hard boil an egg with visual representation, as well as posts about different foods and what nutrients they are highest in.

Despite enjoying the experience on Instagram, if I were to make my own PLN, personalized learning network, I would much rather conduct it on TikTok. The reason being it is much easier to engage with your audience. When looking through Instagram, I found most of the comments were bots or folks who didn’t understand media literacy very well. I prefer TikTok because those who use the platform are closer in age to me, therefore they conduct themselves in a similar manner and understand how to use the app properly. It is also much easier to reach a wider audience on TikTok because of the way the app is set up. Instead of watching a feed of your ‘followed’ accounts, users opt to watch a curated ‘For You Page’ which showcases various different creators ranging from huge to small accounts, so you get a wide array of perspectives and ideas.

In order to start my own PLN, I would need to stick to a schedule in terms of my posts. I am certain it is similar with other social media platforms, but with TikTok there are certain times of day where posts do better and times where posts do worse. I also found that when using my personal account in the past, posting in two hour increments about three or four times a day almost guarantees reaching an audience of up to five hundred people on at least one of those posts.

Aside from algorithm, it is also very important to know how to engage with your audience on TikTok. With this platform, there are a lot of communities and subcommunities that share similar For You Pages, therefore are familiar with specific creators. If you want to tackle a certain audience, there are many ways to connect. You are able to ‘stitch’ other popular creators videos, use trending sounds, or even just to comment or reply to comments on other popular videos.

On TikTok it is a little harder to protect your privacy as there is not option for private accounts, only private posts, but that does not mean everyone has to have access to your information. I personally choose not to post anything that would be unfavorable to my future and only have my age and name as identifying facts on my page. If I wanted to, I could also filter out words that are able to be said in my comment section. I haven’t had the need to do so, but if I ran into bots or online bullying, I would definitely use that feature to keep my page a safe space.

Online bullying, however, is much less of a concern for me nowadays than AI is. My biggest fear online is for someone to take my images and edit them in harmful ways, as it is very hard to get things taken down from the internet, and with the advancement of AI, it is difficult to distinguish what is real and what is fake. Unfortunately, there isn’t much more I can do about that unless they limit who has access to AI or editing software, and without the option to be a private account, that is just a risk I have to be willing to take.

The term “Digital Footprint” is not something I am unfamiliar with. Growing up in the age of fast-developing technology, adults introduced the idea of a digital identity early into my elementary school education. We had assemblies dedicated to our online presence, explaining that how you present yourself online is out there for everyone to see, and that it can either be beneficial or detrimental depending on the content.

I specifically remember seeing posters in our computer lab with slogans like ‘Would You Send That To Grandma?’, in hopes of deterring kids from conducting themselves inappropriately online. Although I have posted some things that may be embarrassing, it isn’t anything I’m not able to laugh at myself. I believe learning about your digital footprint early on is really important to ensure you don’t tarnish your online presence before learning about the risks.

Since graduating high school, I’ve started taking more precautions on the internet, especially considering the advancement of AI. In the past, I’ve had bots create fake social media accounts using my pictures, which made me feel extremely uncomfortable. Because of this, I’ve since switched the majority of my social media accounts to private, so that my information is not as accessible to the general public.

In doing so, I feel a much bigger sense of security knowing exactly who my audience is. Now, if I ever wanted to make a professional account, it would differ greatly from my personal one. On my private account I’m able to post about my day or food, but a professional account might showcase my art or writing and would be a means to network with other individuals in my field.

Personally, I prefer to keep my private and work life completely separate, but I understand how the two might complement each other. When thinking about jobs, employers might want to try and get to know you before interviews, etc… and having a clean digital identity while still showcasing your personality proves that you are a pleasant person to be around and helps to paint a fuller picture of what kind of person you are outside your professional interests.

Melding your professional and personal online identities could also help connect you with people you already knew. For example, after graduating, adding your LinkedIn in your biography might earn you a new contact in your field that could have been an old peer now working in your industry.

Getting your name out there is very important, especially in my chosen career path, so it may not be a bad idea to start introducing a professional atmosphere to my online presence. Creating a social media account or two across some different platforms to showcase my professional interests and skills is on my list to do before graduation.

Hello! My name is Rose Farkhondeh, and I am a fourth year student planning to graduate after the fall semester. I am doing a Major in Writing, focusing on screenwriting, and a minor in Art Education. I am originally from Metro Vancouver, but have been living on Vancouver Island for the past four years.

Social media and personalized learning isn’t something I think about often, but when reflecting on it, I am constantly receiving information while scrolling through apps. Most of the facts I have memorized have come from something I saw on the internet, and I often don’t realize how much social media influences my thoughts and opinions.

In a professional atmosphere, knowing how to use digital tools is very helpful. Often, I still remember to use symbols in my Google searches to narrow down the findings. Although this is something I learned back in high school during media literacy classes, it is something that makes research a lot simpler. Another thing I remember learning was how to tell the difference between credible and non-credible sources, something I think a lot of people might benefit from today.

Digital literacy is so important, not only to ensure you’re using the tools correctly for a smooth experience, but also to conduct yourself properly online. Knowing what to post, believe, and stay away from will prevent you from attracting viruses or falling victim to fake news. I feel nowadays there is a lack of media comprehension that could easily be fixed with more education.

Personally, I feel I am well versed enough to navigate online smoothly, but I still am not the most tech-savvy. I have used sites like WordPress before for school, but have never been completely comfortable in my website-creating capabilities. For myself, the biggest issue is not knowing where everything is and what each button does. I prefer the layout of social media because it looks very clean and straightforward, however when you get into building your website from the ground up, it becomes tricky with that amount of freedom.

Over the course of this term, I plan to create a PLN that is easy to navigate whether you are a visitor or for myself as the admin. I hope to learn all the tools needed to create a straightforward website while still showing my personal style.