PLN & Education

How a PLN Help the Development of Thoughts and Ideas in Education Discourse

A Personal Learning Networks (PLN) helps educators to collect their thoughts, diversify, tailor and utilize appropriate tools in the web networking. Understanding one’s PLN helps create a smooth thought process and idea development before communicating and expressing them in the diverse media platforms made available for communication in the web. The advantage of PLN for educators is that they get to control the part of discourse they are comfortable engaging in. Either via media/technological tools, or the process/path, for either educating or being educated at any given time on the web. Moreover, the “web evolved into a tool for self-directed personal development and has become a vast resource that enables one to learn and grow outside the parameters of what is considered formal learning (Veletsianos, 2016, p. 117). Given that the individual educator’s PLN are constantly evolving, with users having the capability to utilize the appropriate network for in their PLN. For example, navigating in a private or public space is a advantageous for professionals. Another advantage is tailoring the PLN towards achieving individual learning needs and goals. This fast-pacing PLN evolution helps the educators to grow in the ways information are being absorbed and then passed on unto others on a professional level. Using personal learning tools in diverse environments enables a broader discourse, new learnings and experiences.

“Learning content is not as important now as knowing what to connect to or who to connect with, to find it”.

VELETSIANOS, 2016, P. 117

Overall, Personal Learning Networks are resourceful for educators in areas of developing and creating contents, blogs, personal or business ideas or wiki contents. In informal research (surveys and data pool), analysis and sharing of resources with peers or colleagues. I believe PLN can enhance collaborative learning amongst educators in the their field.

How a PLN Hinder Can the Development of Thoughts and Ideas in Education Discourse

On the other hand, the resourcefulness of a PLN may also course professional conflicts of interest leading to filtered information being passed on since it is an open space. In the case that they are opposing views on platform, it may cause disagreement, or conflict if not addressed with caution. An educator who has social construct may not be open to an emergent view. An example is the debate and opposing views on the on-going American Critical Race Theory.

How Do Educators Create Discourse

Educators create discourse by being their authentic self and also by applying a worldview concept to the tools that they may utilize in creating the conversation, open dialogue, in a safe and inclusive environment or space.

The Role of Social Media in Education

Social media has a very important role in the present educational system. For example, when the pandemic was at its peak, educators utilized social media (Meta and twitter) emails, Zoom, individual school board websites) to pass information to parents. Educators were fast at familiarising themselves with the safety surrounding social media in education. Principals were using twitter as a fast and effective way to send a fast message to school host communities. In Ontario, the school remind app was effectively used by parent group while zoom, Google meet, Google classroom and Brightspace were utilized as a tool in education. The city of Toronto introduced a safe app called the Webex to cater to daycare service providers in order for children with special need assistance to be able to meet with special Education teachers, Early Childhood educators and child and youth care worker in order to have non-physical access to the childcare center to support the youths and younger children in Ontario communities while also protecting their safety and privacy. Thus, the role of social media in education can not be overemphasized. Shared information on relevant and new research publications to a wider audience. According to Brad Baker (Youtube, 2022), in social media, educators use social media to share knowledge in culture, sport, business, education and to hear the true massages of educator.

Some Problems With Social Media Communications in Education Settings

• Over-sharing of information to a large group of people at a fast paced time frame may be catastrophic in the case of release of sensitive information or topic on education.
• The need to constantly share and update information may cause problems for the educator.
• Over Dependent on social media responses may be a distraction for educators and may result to conflict in personal values and social constructs in gender, sexuality, race, model of teaching, and so on.
• May result in competition on who is most heard, who has more followings and engagement rate and so forth.
• Social media communication in education creates gap in the relational aspect of teaching as compared to the conventional educational structure.
• Social media may be a barrier for educators in areas or countries where there is an internet restriction, or restriction on freedom of speech.

Overall, I believe that social media has come to stay and the educational system can make the most of it. Over time, social may be able to reduce the barriers in accessibility to education. As stated by Veletsianos (2016) with respect to the connectivism’s approach on “metaskills”, technology will continue to evolve and it is important to understand how to manage the network connections that these technological tools offer users as a “learning strategy”.

References

YouTube. (2021). Brad Baker Edci 338. YouTube. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C5z8iHxW2n4.

Veletsianos, G. (2016). Emergence and Innovation in Digital Learning: Foundations and Applications. AU Press.