Community communications go beyond blogs and social media shares, how does a PLN help and hinder the development of thoughts and ideas in education discourse?
- PLN’s help foster connections and allow for academic information to be spread among community members. They also help promote diversity by including voices and stories from many perspectives.
- PLN’s may hinder the development of thoughts in education discourse through labelling or stigmatizing the minority opinion that goes against a general consensus. Individuals who have opposing viewpoints towards certain debates may feel like there is no place for them to express their views out of fear of being silenced or canceled. There is currently an epidemic of intolerance of opposing views. This has manifested from public shaming and ostracism towards those who have different opinions from the status quo. Online censorship is sometimes moderated, and this can systematically disrupt democratic dialogue (Ashokkumar et al., 2020). During Jesse and Brad’s conversation, Jesse mentioned how cancel culture is taken too far sometimes, because it fails to allow people to reflect on their actions and move forward in an online community with a broadened perspective. I agree with Jesse in this regard, and how cancel culture can sometimes be too harsh and dismissive.
How do educators create discourse?
Educators create discourse through gathering participants and students together and prompting dialogue between one another. This dialogue is facilitated through open ended discussion questions and prompts. Educators will usually assign interactions between others such as comments on discussion posts and group projects.What is the role of social media in education? What are some problems with it?
What is the role of social media in education? What are some problems with it?
Social media has taken on a huge role in education, especially after the pandemic of 2020. Social media facilitates discourse, offers user-friendly platforms for photo and idea sharing, and brings students together. Education has improved with social media in the way that it offers unlimited opportunities to learning environments and deliverables.
On the other hand, social media usage has been correlated with the epidemic of anxiety and depression symptoms experienced by adolescence and young adults today (Primack et al., 2017). Specifically, the way it interacts with the dopamine-reward system, especially throughout affluent communities (Primack et al., 2017). It has been hypothesized that frequent users may substitute social media for face-to-face interactions (Primack et al., 2017). Furthermore exposure to curated and unrealistic portrayals on social media give the impression that others are living a happier, more fulfilled life, which may make individuals feel socially isolated (Primack et al., 2017).
Reflection: when working with the vulnerable sector, how does social media fit into professionalism and regulations?
The vulnerable sector is defined as persons who are in a position of dependence on others or are otherwise at a greater risk than the general population (Canadian Legal Resource Centre). Vulnerabilities arise due to age, disabilities, or any other circumstances in which they are at greater risk than the general population. Given this definition, the context behind the vulnerability is important when discussing how social media fits into professionalism and regulations. For example, media communications with elder members of the community should prioritize discussing media etiquette and ensuring accessible technology. This could look like larger screens with larger font sizes. On the other hand, media communications with disabled individuals should be tailored to meeting the needs of the specific disability. Regulations should be adapted for the specific individual, and professionalism should be a main priority during the communication process.
References
Ashokkumar, A., Talaifar, S., Fraser, W. T., Landabur, R., Buhrmester, M., Gómez, Á., Paredes, B., & Swann, W. B., Jr (2020). Censoring political opposition online: Who does it and why. Journal of experimental social psychology, 91, 104031. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jesp.2020.104031
Baker, B., J, Miller (2021). Education in a Connected Culture – Course YouTube Channel https://youtu.be/C5z8iHxW2n4
Canadian Legal. (2019, November 6). Retrieved November 7, 2021, from https://www.canadianlegal.org/vulnerable-sector-search/.
Primack, B. A., Shensa, A., Escobar-Viera, C. G., Barrett, E. L., Sidani, J. E., Colditz, J. B., & James, A. E. (2017). Use of multiple social media platforms and symptoms of depression and anxiety: A nationally-representative study among U.S. young adults. Computers in Human Behavior, 69, 1–9. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2016.11.013
Veletsianos, G. (2010). Emerging technologies in distance education. Athabasca University Press.
alisonneale
November 8, 2021 — 9:34 am
Hey Soleil!
I agree with you that social media influences people’s behaviours, actions and learning behaviour. I have a short attention span and I think social media catered to that because I find most platforms to be fast paced and click bait headlines instead of novel written facts. I also like that you said that social media has the power to bring people together and from different groups. This is important to note because when we listen to and connect with different opinions and views (personally and professionally), this is how we learn, create opportunities, and keep an open mind.
Lastly, I appreciate you mentioning how cancel culture can sometimes be dismissive and taken too far. With the existence of vast PLNs, this almost makes cancel culture worse because if one group member feels a specific way about someone, they can share their thoughts to their PLN and have a number of other users who could potentially share the same views. The more popular the opinion gets, the more people tend to follow the majority and that person is canceled by the masses.
Lawrence He
November 10, 2021 — 2:53 pm
I agree with the aspect you talking about on what PLNs hinder the development of thoughts in education discourse. Modern society is a society that seeks justice. It emphasizes that the basic structure of society should be based on the values of freedom, equality and rights that justice implies. Only a society that embodies the values of freedom, equality and rights is a society of justice. Artificial intelligence algorithms have an extremely strong classification and screening ability and unimaginable predictive power. This is highly likely to label certain individuals or groups, with a bad impression. At the same time, the inferences and decisions made under the cumulative influence of disadvantages will also lead to negative stereotyping of a minority or protected groups, i.e., stigmatization.
edci338ziwang
November 19, 2021 — 11:52 pm
Hi Soleil!
I come back to your other posts because I am attracted by your writing and reflections. So here’s my answer for your questions : “What is the role of social media in education? What are some problems with it?”
I think social media could be used as a place where we use our study topics to attract more opinions and perspectives from the society. For example, having a tag in Twitter, such as #edci338, and we post our learning reflection to specific topics, and then other people could also use the tag and join us. I think this is a great way for students to see the larger conversation, so our learning is not limited to our classroom.
One problem I can think of with social media in education is that we cannot monitor the quality of responses. In my previous example above, if other people join our conversation, we cannot ensure that their responses are related to our course content, because they don’t have access to our course.
qiningliu
November 23, 2021 — 12:40 pm
my comment: I noticed that you have mentioned one disadvantage of pln, that is how pln can discourage people to express non-mainstream opinions by stigmatizing them. Stigmatizing the minority opinion is actually going against the principle of inclusion. Inclusion is the bright side of social media, which provides an equal opportunity to people who may have been neglected in real life. if their opinion could be emphasized and paid attention to online, social media can actually serve as an opportunity to experience equality.