Do you continue with your current content and your network?

Since starting the course, I have more or less continued with my normal online activities and content consumption. However, I have been thinking a lot more about how I can engage with my personal learning network and how I can grow it. What I want to focus on the most is maintaining my connections. I use LinkedIn to connect with past classmates and professionals in my chosen field, but after that initial connection, I find that I haven’t been keeping up with what my connections are up to professionally or reaching out to them. Going forward, I want to be more intentional with my communication and make my PLN more meaningful and authentic.

How do you use your skills in professional practice?

I anticipate activating my PLN connections more as I develop professionally, but as of right now, I have been using my networking competencies in my interactions with mentor teachers when visiting their classrooms. As a part of my program, I have had the opportunity to visit several classrooms to observe and to deliver lessons. As a part of that, I have been able to make connections with many lovely classroom teachers. When creating a connection, they have given me valuable feedback and extended the connection by offering me support in the future if I have any questions about lesson planning or if I would like to borrow a resource from them. I really value these conversations as I develop my teaching practice because I feel like I’ve already been welcomed into a community that values sharing and collaboration. In the future, as I start teaching and have my own classroom one day, I will seek to lean on those connections to ensure the success of my students.

I have also been able to lean on my networking skills in the context of my job, working at my local community centre. I work as an assistant teacher for LEGO Robotics after-school classes and summer camps. As I navigate my summer schedule with family trips and online classes, I have had to lean on my community connections to find others who may be interested in helping out as an assistant teacher. I contacted one of my connections, who is also interested in becoming a teacher, and I will hopefully be able to connect with them on our shared interests while also sharing a relevant opportunity.

This interaction reminded me of the chapter “Empower Others” by Erik Qualman (2011). In the chapter, he explains that our connections only become valuable when we activate them. Meaning that we can create and maintain as many connections as we want, but they are only helpful when we reach out and ask for help. I will think of this as I move forward and work on activating my connections, not only creating and maintaining them.

How has my PLN developed so far? How have I been using social media platforms? Has my perspective of social media in professional and personal settings changed?

Similar to when I began this course, I use social media platforms primarily for my own entertainment but also to keep up with friends and peers. That hasn’t changed much over the past few weeks, but I have noticed that I’m paying more attention to who can see my posts and activity, as well as what I interact with on digital platforms. I have also been paying more attention to who is in my PLN and focusing on creating meaningful connections with new people that I meet, as well as my current connections.

My perspective on social media in personal settings has changed slightly. While I still have concerns about privacy and the weakening of boundaries between the offline world and the online world. The course readings and videos have reminded me of why social media can be a great thing. Mainly, what comes to mind is the TEDx Talk featuring Harry Dyer. The video reminded me that, like all generations before me, people have been concerned about emerging technologies (TEDx Talks, 1:11, 2016). However, with every new technology also comes new forms of communication that bring new ways of sharing and problem-solving. In his book Tell everyone why we share & why it matters, Alfred Hermida (2014) explains that when people use social media platforms, they aren’t “hooked” on the platform; they are “hooked on each other,” and we have a “constant need to share” (p.1). I had forgotten why social media is so great to begin with: it allows you to connect and share with your PLN, but also with people around the world.

My perspective on social media in a professional setting has largely stayed the same. I have always thought about how my digital footprint could look to employers, but I have also stayed firm in my values as a future educator working with the vulnerable sector. Although teaching and my students will no doubt be an important part of my life, I don’t think that it is the place of teachers to put their students’ information or pictures on social media.

— Sofia

Hermida, A. (2014). Tell everyone why we share & why it matters (pp. 1–8). Doubleday Canada. https://www.academia.edu/9742579/Tell_Everyone_Why_We_Share_and_Why_It_Matters

Qualman, E. (2011). Empower others. In Digital Leader: 5 Simple Keys to Success & Influence (pp. 229–242). McGraw Hill. https://tinyurl.com/2afvzd7b

TEDx Talks. (2016). Incorporating & accounting for Social Media in Education | Harry Dyer | TEDxNorwichED. On YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZteEZbAtsNI