Zoey’s blog

Can your PLN be used to help professional development post-course?

PLN is a good platform to help individuals improve their abilities and also help them develop their profession after class. In this online world with developed social media, there are too many resources for us to use and learn. Everyone can establish PLN and share technology, profession, interests, etc. Through these PLNs, I can get to know people in many different professional fields, so I can communicate with those people and learn from each other through PLN according to my interests or majors.

Can your PLN be relied on to open professional opportunities and on which platform does your emerging expertise get good exposure? Can you leverage your PLN in future endeavours?

I think I can open up professional opportunities through PLN, and yes I can leverage my PLN in future endeavours.  For example, I want to be an illustrator. I can create a fan page on Facebook or show my work on major drawing platforms to increase my visibility and exposure. As long as there is a flat rate of uploading works, I can let my works be seen. After getting a certain number of supporters, I can further look for business cases, accept some illustration cases or sponsors, sponsor the publication of works albums, and so on. Over time, there will be a fixed source of income, and there will be more free development in the works. Of course, there are often setbacks or disapproval of my work during this process, but as long as I continue to work hard, there will definitely be people who like my work.

How do you ensure that you expand your PLN via social media platforms into spaces that may be outside of your comfort zone?

Challenge yourself as much as possible, and communicate with others as much as possible. Set a goal first, and then realize it one by one, slowly stepping out of my comfort zone, I think in this way, you can efficiently and quickly expand my PLN and achieve your goals. Don’t just focus on your own PLN, look at other PLNs, and think about how to develop your own PLN more effectively. When you fully expand your own vision, step out of your comfort zone and you will no longer be confused or afraid.

In PLN, race, country, and background are not that important. What is important is what you want to convey to the public and what your profession is to the public. Whether you are white or black, correct values ​​and correct professional knowledge are the most important things. As Harrison Mooney mentioned in the video, he was offended because of his skin color and race. Why do most people always identify others outwardly instead of understanding them from their profession? As a large database, the Internet contains knowledge and information in various fields, which can provide rich resources for people’s life and study, thereby enriching people’s lives and broadening their horizons. In addition, the construction of the network platform creates a virtual space for people. In such an environment, people can communicate on an equal footing, eliminating barriers to traditional communication, and improving their freedom of communication.

The network system generally has the characteristics of borderless and large capacity in the process of operation, so it can meet the needs of any group of people to access the Internet and provide them with relevant data and information legally. In fact, it is precisely because of the diversity and freedom of online culture that it breaks the limitations of traditional culture and provides netizens with a space for free dialogue. The construction of the network platform realizes the exchange and dissemination of cultures of various ethnic groups, regions and countries, and provides convenience for individual online contacts, and helps to promote the exchange and integration of various cultures.

I think that  PLN can include professional and personal. As long as there is no conflict between both, there will be no boundaries. And they can share their own life and experience while delivering professional messages to the public. But if you want to create a professional image, you should separate the professional from the individual in PLN. The most important thing is to know what PLN you want, what kind of information you want the audience to understand, what kind of image you want to create, and so on.

What is media literacy?

The general public still takes a more relaxed and correct attitude towards watching TV and using the media, and is very unfamiliar with the so-called “media literacy.” In fact, just as people receive a large amount of written and language training in listening, speaking, reading and writing in traditional education, they also need to learn to use the media. The media we come into contact with every day is a Pandora’s box that contains rich meaning and diverse information. Without learning and education, people can easily be confused by the colorful and distorted media information without knowing it. The purpose of media education is to learn how to “watch”, “listen” and “think” the messages conveyed by the media by understanding and analyzing the operation and operation of various media such as television, radio or the Internet, and how to What impact does the community in which we live in.

Nowadays, the media can be said to be ubiquitous, and all kinds of information edited and screened by them are also conveyed to us invisibly. Although they have important responsibilities such as reflecting society, transparent politics, and weather reporting, they are ultimately caused by subjective. People can’t completely avoid the direction guidance of biased consciousness to deal with and publish them. If they don’t have the ability to perceive and speculate on media information, they will easily become ignorant.

In the case, media literacy has become very important! After we understand the true content of the media message, the first thing we must do is not to fully accept it, but to think about the reorganized and reproduced information, reflect on the meaning of the reader, choose the good and discard the evil, and analyze the nature of the media and position, whether there are any bad biases and reporting habits, so that we can filter and choose good media to extract information. By influencing the market usage rate of media, we can also indirectly monitor and promote the elimination or improvement of low-quality media, positively affirm the good media, and achieve the purpose of promoting media reform.

In short, as D. Kellner said, in such an information age and postmodern world where information is developed or even flooded, people of all ages (including adults) must have the literacy of media and computer technology in order to find their own meaning in this world filled with various media images (Kellner, 1999).

Kellner, Douglas. “Media literacies and critical pedagogy in a multicultural society.” Retrieved January 31 (1997): 2006.

With the increasing popularity of social media, more and more notable individuals have begun to use social media to interact with the public in order to narrow the distance with the public and increase their visibility. Because the Internet is very important to the lives of modern people, I believe that if you use the Internet to do something, as long as the topic is attractive enough, there is a possibility of being popular. Because the Internet has basically become one of the main parts of modern people’s entertainment life, almost every young person will go online and then open social medias such as Facebook and Twitter, and those notable individuals are taking advantage of the popularity of social networks to create topics on the Internet. Attract the attention of others. In the past, people’s cognition of notable individuals could only be obtained from newspapers, television and other media, and artists who appeared in newspapers and screens were often professionally packaged and only had a beautiful face. Nowadays, social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube are forming partnerships with more and more notable individuals. On these sites, you can get to know them at any time, become “friends” with them in cyberspace, and even chat. At the same time, it also played a promotional role for notable individuals and social medias, and even provided advertising opportunities.

But celebrities are public figures, and social media is an open platform, so celebrities must pay attention to their words and deeds when using social media to maintain a good image. News spreads quickly on social media. As long as a notable individual makes any inappropriate words, it is likely to cause a war of words among netizens. Fans who support them may also be disappointed. As a result, notable individuals lose the trust of their fans, which will bring them irreparable damage.

The ability of social media to deliver messages quickly and easily has attracted many netizens to use it to give full play to their creativity and publish their own works on various social networks to show their talents. Many people who were originally unknown have been noticed in this way. When those employers are looking for potential employees, they will also find those talents through social media. Although internet celebrities become popular quickly, strength is the most important thing. Only true talent and strength will be remembered. But in any case, internet celebrities driven by the rise of social media have opened up another possibility of fame.

When facing the messages on social media, you must read them carefully, because you are not sure whether the messages are trustworthy. When publishing these messages on your own PLN, you can confirm through three parties, or to verify the authenticity of those messages. After confirming that there is no problem, then release those messages. In this way, you will avoid spreading false news, and let others keep reposting it, and it will become an outrageous situation. Everyone can communicate and share with peace of mind.

One type of website that has become very popular in recent years is the so-called social media. From the general MySpace and Facebook, to the LinkedIn used by professionals, and Twitter, the leader of the most popular microblogging, it can be said that almost everyone has listened to or even has account. The development of Internet technology has gradually blurred the boundary between work and personal life, and such social networking sites are the latest promoters. On these social media, there are not only personal friends, but also work colleagues. Therefore, you can connect with your work partners when you are at home, and you can also cultivate personal relationships when you are in the company.

The community function seems to be promising. However, nothing is absolutely perfect in the world, and it is also true for social medias. In spite of so many benefits, social medias also produce a certain degree of harm to groups or individuals. First of all, there are already a lot of attacks on the social media itself, so it has a certain degree of danger. The other is that many social medias now allow third-party applications to access some user information. Whether these third-party-developed programs will use this channel to engage in malicious behavior, no one can guarantee. In fact, many communication-related tools like WhatsApp, Messenger, etc. Will become a channel for data leakage. How to prevent these malicious behaviors is also a challenge.

In order to avoid such problems, I think that in community participation, employers should propose extended rules, that is to say, clear usage specifications are required. For example, a company can specify which social media can be used by people in which departments, and which social media cannot be used by people in which departments. What are the functions and timing to use, and what information can be post on these social medias. In addition to the specifications, with the aid of suitable automation tools, the specifications can be further effectively implemented.

I think that my PLN should support diversity and inclusiveness, involve people with different opinions and backgrounds, try to understand different ideas and give feedback. And unite people together. At the same time, I must also think about what I mean in this PLN, what is its definition, and how these help in my career. And establish a positive and good image in PLN, so that each participant can feel comfortable.

I think that before creating a podcast, you must set goals, manage the content , and create a personal learning network. For example, promote your own podcast platform on social platforms such as Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, etc., and communicate with your own audience or followers, and build your own audience group. In this process, communicate and interact with the audience to complete the promotion goal. This kind of interaction can promote personal podcasting platform, career development, professional knowledge acquisition and even cooperation and co-creation.

For example, a few podcasts I usually listen to, a podcaster is a YouTuber at the beginning, she uploads some film review videos on YouTube first, builds her own audience group, interacts with them, and then understands what they are interested in. , And then set up her own podcast, and use YouTube platform for promotion. From time to time, she will answer audience questions on videos or podcasts, or read comments and give feedback. The other is also on YouTube at the beginning, uploads some  story-telling videos, and then after accumulating a certain audience she started to use podcast. She would let her audience share stories that happened to themselves and read them aloud through videos or podcasts.

However, with the popularity of these platforms, some people will use these social platforms to spread rumors, malicious comments, or steal the privacy of others. Especially when the broadcaster is a internet celebrity, the impact and damage will be more serious. So when you publish your own remarks on the Internet, you must first think about whether your remarks will cause harm to others? Or will it leak the privacy of others, etc. So the privacy and security issues involved in social networking sites are still a big issue.

The digital age has made the development of personal learning networks easier than ever. After reading this week’s readings, I learned that PLN learners will expand relevant connections to people and talents around the world who are willing to share their interests and passions according to their needs. PLN provides individuals with an unprecedented ability to contact and connect with leaders and experts from all over the world, and to gather communities, resources and information that cannot be obtained purely from the school campus. Personal learning networks can be made up of people you know through face-to-face and virtual network connections.

Join a social network, subscribe to blogs, make comments, and post on Twitter. Doing so will not only learn more by yourself, but also contribute to the learning of others. But for me, I prefer to browse what everyone has posted and occasionally post my own thoughts or comments.

The things I like are usually related to art and music themes, but sometimes I try to get out of this circle and try different things. The advantage of PLN is that it has no borders and is more flexible than studying in the classroom. If you can remove the language barrier, then the whole world is your classroom.

Most students now use Facebook, Twitter, Instagram or YouTube to develop their personal Internet majors. And I use Instagram and Pixiv more often, because I like drawing, so I often share my work. Also fellow many illustrators and browse their works. Find creative inspiration from it, and sometimes exchange drawing skills, drawing software, and comment on each other’s works. And through this opportunity to communicate, you can get to know many drawing fellows. Sometimes if someone thinks your work is good, you may receive a business proposal, and you can draw and make money. I also watch YouTube. Some Illustrators will record and upload their own drawing process. Sometimes there will be some suggestions for drawing skills in the comment area, so that both the uploader and the commenter can learn and communicate with each other. But no matter on any platform, there will be a shortcoming, there may be malicious comments or stolen works, etc. So establishing a digital identity on the Internet has both disadvantages and benefits

Digital identity refers to a public key that condenses real identity information into a digital code that can be queried and identified through the network and related equipment. Digital identity can have a comprehensive portrayal of users by integrating new information. For example, the national ID card has a unique number, and the number itself does not have information and is only used for personal authentication. However, based on the number, we can fill in information with mobile phone numbers, photos, etc., to improve the content of digital identity. And due to the popularization of social software nowadays, e-mails, personal information, photos, IP locations, etc., may be at risk of being stolen. Share messages on Facebook, Twitter, or blogs, share photos, etc., although It’s very convenient, but you can’t control those messages, photos, how many times they are shared, or who they share with. So you may expose the message to strangers or even bad people by accident. Although digital identity is more convenient than paper itself, there are many risks

For most people, social networks are composed of friends, classmates, colleagues, relatives and partners, and individuals are the center of this social network, connecting people together. Compared with face-to-face communication, network communication gives individuals more control over impression management, enabling them to freely carry out content production and interaction, and further expand the channels of interpersonal communication. With the popularization of social networks, there are more and more online learning opportunities through video chat, online teaching materials, e-books, and so on. Because you can study and make friends at home without going out, so many people can participate more actively. But when making friends or sharing resources online, it is difficult for us to know whether he or she who is off-screen is malicious to us, or whether those online resources are at risk of viruses.