Month: August 2024

Using Your PLN for Growth: Describe how you actively use your PLN for professional growth and learning. What social media platforms have you found to be the most engaging, informative, and able to share resources, seek advice, and collaborate with peers?

We live in an era where the digital world is rapidly evolving and becoming a bigger part of our everyday lives. I believe utilizing a personal learning network is essential for ongoing learning, professional development, and personal growth. A personal learning network is a system of interpersonal connections and resources that individuals use for learning, professional, and personal growth (Hotchin, 2024).

I am a psychology major, and I use my PLN as a tool to connect with experts, peers, and resources that help to shape my professional and educational journey. I actively participate in the social media platform LinkedIn to seek advice, receive insights from professionals and students, and engage with research findings. LinkedIn has features that allow users to publish articles and create group discussions. These features enable users to gain knowledge while also connecting with others in the same fields. I often engage in LinkedIn groups like the “Clinical Psychology Network” that provide a wealth of information, discussions, and advice. I will use the information I gain from this PLN and apply it to my schoolwork and personal research. LinkedIn also provides a safe space for seeking advice and collaboration. I often use LinkedIn to talk to post psychology graduate students to ask for advice about job opportunities, research, volunteer work, and tips to get into graduate school. 

 As a visual learner, I utilize platforms like YouTube to engage with information relevant to psychology and teacher education. I find Youtube to be engaging because it provides in-depth descriptions of complex theories in simple ways with visuals and audio to enhance learners’ understanding of specific topics. I often utilize YouTube as a tool for studying. Channels like “Crash Course Psychology” provide a wealth of information on different topics, from research and experiments to diagnosing disorders. Overall, I find LinkedIn and YouTube to be the most engaging and informative platforms within my PLN. 

Engaging with Your Community: Think about how you engage with your PLN community. How do you participate in discussions, offer support and feedback to peers, and share valuable content?

I often use my PLN community as a way to ask questions, seek advice, and share my own opinions. Within LinkedIn, I regularly comment on psychology posts, sharing my insights, and ask questions in groups and to other professionals. I often ask about ways to build my resume and how to gain skills that will increase my chances of becoming employed in the psychology field. I also use Reddit to participate in discussions and share feedback. I am part of subreddit communities like r/psychology; within this community, users share research, professional milestones, experiments, and advice. I will often read research papers written by other students and professionals and provide constructive feedback and encouragement, fostering a collaborative and supportive PLN environment. 

Building a supportive PLN: What steps have you taken or plan to take to build a supportive PLN? How do you identify and connect with individuals with similar professional interests and goals?

When I am building my PLN I start by identifying and connecting with individuals who share similar interests and professional goals. For example, I will use specific key words like #psychology or #counselorpsychology on the Twitter platform to find hashtags related to my area of interest. This enables me to find relevant connections, posts, and psychology research information. As discussed before, I use Reddit and LinkedIn to connect with others in the psychology field, ask questions, collaborate, and gain knowledge.  Reddit and LinkedIn allow me to connect with individuals in psychology, create relationships, and ask for professional advice while growing my PLN. In the future, to create a more well-rounded, supportive PLN, I plan to become a member of the American Psychological Association. This platform will enable me to attend events and conferences online and in person, expand my understanding of psychological theories, and build relationships with professionals who have similar goals as me. 

Expanding Your PLN: What are your long-term goals for your PLN? What strategies will you take to expand your network to include international contacts or experts in specific fields?

My long-term goals for expanding my PLN include international contacts and experts in the psychology field. To expand my PLN internationally, I plan to engage with global psychology communities. For example, I plan to start following the British Psychological Association on Twitter and LinkedIn to stay informed on international psychological developments in research and psychology education. I plan to use platforms like LinkedIn and Coursera to connect with others in the psychology field. These platforms offer courses taught by psychologists from all over the world. I plan to enroll in some of these courses to gain psychology skills, study topics in depth, and collaborate with other users from all over the world. When doing some research on these courses, I found one on Coursea called “Mindfulness Practices” by Dr. Jon Khabat-Zinn. This course takes learners through mindfulness and stress reduction skills and includes interactive elements such as Q&A sessions and community forum discussions. When I take this course, I will be able to interact directly with the course instructor and other learners, therefore including experts and international contacts in my PLN.

Refrences

 https://connectedlearningnetwork.opened.ca/category/july-3rd-july-9th/

Diverse PLN Benefits: How does having a diverse PLN improve your learning and personal/professional growth? Share any experiences or examples you have.

Having a diverse PLN is valuable for personal and professional growth. A diverse PLN enables users to be exposed to multiple different perspectives, ideas, cultural customs, and experiences that expand users understanding and approaches to whatever they are interested in studying or teaching. Interacting with teachers from different cultural backgrounds on a PLN platform like r/teachers, can allow teachers to learn about new teaching methods, engage with different classroom strategies, and incorporate educational philosophies and course outlines into their own teaching. For example, a teacher from the U.S. could collaborate within the PLN with a teacher from Finland, and they could exchange teaching practices. In Finland, teachers focus more on student autonomy, mental health, and student led projects (Govinside, 2020).  Additionally, in Finland, teachers are determined to tackle inequality in classrooms to reduce bullying and mental health issues among students (Govinsider, 2020). After learning about teaching in Finland, the U.S. teacher can apply those diverse strategies to her own classroom to increase student engagement and promote student well-being. In my own experience with studying psychology, I have found that learning from diverse professors and resources has broadened my understanding of mental health in different contexts. It has helped me to understand how different cultures and genders cope with mental health disorders and the different ways of promoting inclusion for these people. Having a diverse PLN promotes empathy and understanding for others who may face more exclusion than we do as privileged Canadian students. 

Creating an Inclusive PLN: What steps can you take to ensure your PLN includes various voices and perspectives? Think about actions you can take to promote inclusivity.

When creating a PLN, it is important to create an environment that promotes inclusivity and embraces the various voices and perspectives of diverse individuals. One way you can promote inclusivity within a PLN is to make an effort to follow those within your own field from different cultural and professional backgrounds. For example, if you are a teacher, you can use Twitter to follow educators from different backgrounds to learn about different teaching styles and perspectives that can then be applied in your own classroom. Another way to promote inclusivity is to share diverse content, articles, blogs, and resources created by educators from different backgrounds. For example, sharing a journal with the r/teachers subreddit from another country that focuses on diverse educational perspectives related to inclusion and equality. This will allow other teachers on the platform to read and learn about these diverse perspectives, which they can incorporate into their own classrooms and share with other educators. 

Social Media Dynamics: Different social media platforms have unique features and cultures. How do these differences affect how you interact with others in your PLN? Reflect on your behaviour and interactions across platforms.

Different social media platforms have strengths and weaknesses that affect how users interact with others in their PLNs. Social media platforms like LinkedIn are networks designed for professional networking, development, and collaboration. My interactions on Linkden are formal compared to other platforms like Instagram and TikTok.  I am often connecting with individuals that are in the psychology field, it allows me to participate in discussions, explore career opportunities, and read articles and research shared by professionals. On the other hand, I use the platform Reddit as a more casual user than a professional. Reddit allows users to stay anonymous, which can encourage open and honest discussions between users. It also allows users to share resources, ask for advice, and participate in discussions. I engage in subreddits such as r/teachers and r/psycholgoy; these communities provide diverse perspectives from users all over the world. These perspectives can help enhance users understanding of different educational and psychological topics. When I engage on Reddit, I prefer to be anonymous to allow for more in depth conversations with other members. I also often ask for advice and read articles within the forums. 

Challenges of Inclusivity in Digital Spaces: What difficulties have you faced, or do you think you might face, in making your PLN inclusive? Consider ways to overcome these challenges and build a supportive and inclusive PLN.

A common difficulty faced when making PLN’s inclusive is users different time zones. It can be hard to coordinate meeting times and promote collaboration between users when they are not awake at the same time. A way to overcome this challenge is to promote asynchronous learning and communication tools like forums and discussion pages to ensure all users can participate and engage with content in the PLN regardless of where they are located. Many PLN’s like Reddit include users who speak a different language than English. Learning how to use translation tools and basic phrases in different languages can promote inclusivity and communication within the PLN. Additionally, learners with disabilities may need subtitles for videos and alt text for photos. Including diverse visuals and audios can also help to cater to different learning preferences and styles.

References:

How Finland designed its schools around well-being (govinsider.asia)