I will be going through each learning outcome and presenting information that demonstrates how I met the expectations of each learning outcome. Throughout this semester, we discussed and learned about many important topics. I will not be able to include everything we learned in this course but I will include the ideas that relate to each learning outcome.
Examine the application of social media to support learning
Social media has many beneficial aspects to it, and it can be used to support learning inside the classroom, but also individual learning. In our class’s final course book, we created a list of social media examples and we examined them all. This list, these definitions, and ideas demonstrate ways social media can be used in the classroom. For example, my group focused on YouTube. YouTube can be used in many ways to support learning. On YouTube, there is thousands of informational videos, on almost every topic! You can also connect with other people on social media platforms (such as YouTube), so if you have any further questions you can ask them, and they can be answered. As always, you need to be careful about misinformation and trusting everything you see online. In Tianna’s 6th Wow and Wonder post, she discusses this topic, and shares how we need to be careful in what we decide to believe.
Explain personalized learning and its relation to learning theory
To keep it simple personalized learning can be understood as an educational approach, that is individualized to each person, focusing on their strengths, interests, relationships, and skills. Now relating this to the internet and social media, everyone interacts with different people, articles, and brands through social media. There may be some overlap from person to person, but it would be extremely rare if someone followed the EXACT same people as someone else, say on Instagram. Our PLN’s is where we gather, collect, communicate, create and share knowledge with another group of people. Two articles that helped further more understanding of this topic are, What are Personal Learning Networks and What is a Personal Learning Network (PLN)?. The video in the second article, was very valuable to me. In my classmate Sam’s blog, she shares that, she “loves the fact that PLNs can consist of informal and individual learning connections with anyone, from any field, as this can expand one’s unique network tremendously and allows for more information to be gathered and learned.” And I absolutely agree with her.
Recognize that the Internet is not a neutral or equal space for everyone
There are many ways that prove that the internet is not a neutral or equal space for everyone. One example that resulted from our course blog posts is the idea of residents and visitors. I talk about this idea a lot in my third Wow and Wonder post. To sum it up, everyone uses the internet for different things, some people just want to use it as a research tool, while others want to document their whole lives on it for everyone to see. This demonstrates that not everyone uses it equally. Furthermore, this idea can also be shown when we think about celebrities. If someone like, Kim Kardashian, makes an Instagram account she will have millions of followers instantly (if she wants to or not). But for someone like me, I will have some followers but nowhere near as many as her, because not as many people are interested in my everyday life, mostly just my friends and family!
Apply social media to develop a personal learning network in support of your personal and/or professional development
Throughout this entire course I have demonstrated how I have applied social media to develop my own personal learning network in support of my development. My first example is through my WordPress blog site. This is where I connected with peers, shared my own ideas, and made blog posts – which all contributes to my PLN. Adding to this, I also made a brand-new GitHub account. I utilized a lot of new tools when learning how to use GitHub. I think GitHub was one of the main contributors to my PLN; I think this for a few different reasons. The first reason is because GitHub was extremely confusing for me at first, so I had to reach out and connect with classmates and my prof in order to make it make sense. In addition to this, all of my classmates came together and we created a course book. By contributing to this course book, publishing it, and referring back to it, I am still applying social media to develop my PLN.
Identify privacy issues and practice online behaviours that are legal, safe, consensual, and ethical
I have identified privacy issues multiple times throughout this course. One example is in my sixth Wow and Wonder post. In this post, I share how sometimes I will like something on one form of social media, and then on another social media platform advertisements for what I liked will start showing up. I think this is a privacy issue, because although I know I probably agreed to something that allows this to happen. I feel like the agreements offered to read are never simple and always complex, which leads people (like me) to agreeing them without knowing what they mean. This is an issue because they are obviously tracking my internet habits, which is a little scary. Furthermore, I think this link, is a good resource for parents, teachers, or anyone to get additional information. Lastly, throughout this course I have demonstrated legal, safe, consensual and ethical behaviours online. An example of this is my blog site.
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 my own day to day life I have been aware of data ownership and licensing, but this course has contributed more to my learning. First, I would like to share a personal experience of with ownership and licensing issues. I went to Tofino one summer, and for fun I decided to take some video clips of the trip. After the trip, I put the clips all together and added some music and made it a short video to document the trip for my friends and me. In order to share the video with my friends, I posted it on YouTube. The video was online for a few days, and then all the sudden it got taken down for copy write issues with the music. Honestly, I was confused as to why this happened, but after learning more about these topics in this course, it all makes sense to me; I did not have ownership of use the song I had chosen. Someone on YouTube must have flagged my video, and it was reviewed and then removed. It’s interesting to have this personal experience, because I kind of got to see the inside of how this all works on the internet. In addition to my experience on YouTube, in my classmate Mia’s showcase post, she shares some important information about copyright concerns on TikTok. This information is discussed in her second last paragraph, and it worth a read!
Practice digital, networked, and open literacies in support of learning about social media and personalized learning
Throughout high school I had never heard of digital, networked, or open literacies. These were topics that I learned about in university, mostly through EDCI Tech courses! Below this paragraph, I have included a screenshot of a paragraph our prof wrote that I found really interesting about these topics, and thought was a good example.
Furthermore, in my own blog post, I dive a little deeper into this topic. To add to what I said, I think open teaching and learning is awesome. It allows people from all over the world to learn about valuable topics, for free and at their own pace. This is definitely something I am going to do once I am done my schooling as I will have more time on my hands. Lastly, my blog site is open for anyone to read and learn from; this is a direct example of how I have used these ideas in support of learning about social media and personalized learning.
To conclude, throughout this course I have learned about so many important topics that will benefit my professional and personal life. I enjoyed this course, and I am looking forward to furthering my knowledge of these topics on my own.
Kayla's Blog 