Week 4 Blog

Image from InspiredPencil (2023)

Before starting this course and this blog, I viewed social media as kind of an escape from reality and an excuse to scroll. I only considered it was beneficial for personal online platforms and for influencers to convince you that you need everything that they have. I had no idea what a PLN was and why there were important. Overall, I never saw social media as a tool that could benefit my learning and my networking. Since reflecting on the course material and classmate discussions, I now recognize social media and online platforms as powerful tools to facilitate collaborative learning, the expansion of networks, and professional empowerment. This is especially done through a digital leader, as Qualman points out, where their value comes from their ability to influence and empower others to do the same. A digital leader needs a strong personal network, which is done through collaboration, identity, and having a proactive digital footprint, meaning that instead of taking negative online comments personally, we should be building up our positive interactions online to combat the hateful ones. This can be done by following the online golden rule, which is the idea that digital spaces are still human spaces, and therefore share the same values of basic human empathy (Qualman, E., 2011). Building up this identity and PLN online is not something that comes naturally to everyone, and takes time and a skillset to create, expand, and improve. A strong personal learning network is improved through mutual benefitting relationships, sharing resources and knowledge, and offering and receiving advice. This not only includes connecting with those in similar fields, but with different, diverse people with complementary skills sets you can gain new perspectives from. I have taken up some digital habits to help expand my own PLN, including finding targeted, specific groups for online collaboration. For example, I have joined a couple groups on Facebook for the UVic psychology department, and other non-school related hobbies, so we can share advice and learn from each other. By also improving my digital identity, I am better able to communicate and share knowledge within these groups, in a concise way. My mindset on the way I interact with online platforms has also started to change and move away from the idea that social media is only used to scroll and consume content. By using online platforms, like Facebook and Instagram, as a learning tool, I am expanding career opportunities and the amount I actually learn from being online. In today’s world, technology is integrated into everything we do and we have to rely on it to live, if we are spending all this time using it we might as well be benefitting our learning. This is also important for our online awareness; by having strong media literacy skills and viewing technology as a learning tool, we can point out misinformation easier and what information is actually valuable to our learning. All the information online is easily accessible and mostly free, meaning it is important to develop these skills to avoid the downsides of shareable information. All though I have learned social media is an ever-growing technology that we need to keep up with to expand our identities in this new world as well as our learning, I have also learned how important it is to not tie too much of the online world into your personal life. With all the negativity and criticism there is online, it is hard for everyone not to take it to heart or obsessive over what they hear. It’s very important to take breaks from social media, as tidal waves of information and news can be very overwhelming and should not be effecting your personal life. There are very beneficial platforms to expand your networks, improve your media skills, and build your professional identity, but the amazing thing about having a digital world is that all we have to do is turn off the screen to leave that reality. I think it’s helpful, especially after a long homework session or a doom-scroll, to engage in an activity that will really switch your mindset over and turn your brain off of the online world, so you can fully engage in the present moment and not linger on online negativity. It also is helpful to view criticism as something to reframe into feedback, even if it’s negative. Sophie Lui pointed out that differentiating between how platforms serve different functions is a great way to express different sides of your identity online. For example, I only every used Instagram and it was exclusive towards my personal life. However, after everything I have learned in this course, I am going to start a LinkedIn page for my professional identity. I know building up a platform on any social media is going to take a long time with trial and error, but utilizing the course content will definitely put me above the others who are also starting with nothing. I know it’s a small change, but I never wanted to consider more social media and online platforms before this class and I saw them as pointless and as another account to manage. But I am more inspired than ever to actually start networking with a professional social media, as I was definitely stuck in the past with my old mindset. The kind of online identity I want to maintain is one of creating new learning spaces and helping people connect with others. By starting to build a professional PLN and utilizing my digital skills, I am excited to expand and move forward through my career, while learning something new!

The online communities I am actively engaged in are limited, considering I just started expanding my PLN away from just Instagram after joining this class. However, as I stated before, I now have joined online communities on Facebook and am starting to build a profile on LinkedIn. I wanted to join a UVic psychology group so I can stay updated on research or career opportunities, while also making connections with others in my field and therefore expanding my network by just joining the group. It’s also a place where I can receive school and career advice while also sharing any opportunities I come across! Creating a LinkedIn profile also is a start to creating a broader PLN. With the addition of new platforms that are strictly used professionally, I can support and expand my future career and learning opportunities, while actually starting to create my professional digital world, which is something I refused to do. Engaging with these platforms with digital literacy skills help me exchange information as well as peer feedback (like our blogs!). These skills also are protective factors against misinformation and distinguishing valuable information from useless knowledge. This ties into Estaiteyeh and Mindzak’s (2025) study on AI literacy and teachers, where educators revealed their fear for future generations and their use of AI, expressing worry about students cheating, plagiarizing, and losing their critical thinking skills. As technology is advancing, and therefore the risks of it, we need to be improving our digital literacy to keep up with advancements such as AI in classrooms. As technology is becoming integrated into our education systems, and therefore digital skills become necessary, educators need to be teaching the importance of safety and ethics within a PLN, and emphasizing how a digital world is a reflection of reality. Although there are downsides and risks to a PLN, such as overwhelming amounts of information and unverified AI, my network is providing continuous, accessible, and diverse perspectives to collaborate with. With the right education, structure, and rules, AI is something that could be positively integrated into our PLNs and learning, but since it’s still brand new, I would say proceed with caution and continue to critically evaluate the use and risks of artificial intelligence. To be a digital learner and build a strong identity online, we need to be able to manage all these digital skills and utilize our strengths towards our networks. But we also need to be able to consider the downsides and risks that shape our approach to being an online learner. If we are able to combine AI and digital networks to enhance digital literacy and the information we value, without replacing human connection and critical thinking, we can create a valuable PLN that we can continue to build on through collaboration.

References

Estaiteyeh, M., & Mindzak, M. (2025). Building AI literacy in pre-service teacher education in Canada: A case study of two cohorts. Journal of Teaching and Learning, 19(4). https://doi.org/10.22329/jtl.v19i4.10041

InspiredPencil. (2023). Leadership skills clipart [Leadership Skills] [Clipart]. InspiredPencil. https://ar.inspiredpencil.com/pictures-2023/leadership-skills-clipart

Qualman, E. (2011). Digital Leader: 5 Simple Keys to Success and Influence. McGraw Hill Professional.