“Give yourself permission to be who you are, not who you should be”
Shelley Moore
As Clark and Aufderheide mentioned in their book, even though commercial media is more common and dominant in our lives, citizens have created this public media and using more social media instead of commercial(2011). Social Media nowadays are used not only for entertainment purposes as we know but also for public media. Shelley Moore in of her interviews about green dots, shares how the biggest evolution of social media is that it became more interactive and people have different purposes in social media. Adding to it, everything you share or post spreads out across the internet right away within different networks thus becoming vital. And not necessarily it will be taken positively or negatively, so it is important to pick your own community where your ideas and posts fit in and you could create a successful PLN. As Markiel Simpson mentioned in his interview, he does not take criticism and negative comments personally, rather he creates allies in his social media such as Twitter. It made me come to conclusion after his interview about his professional and serious attitude toward his Twitter account and he values quality over quantity. His PLN consists of valuable people that find his posts motivational, knowledgeable, and inspiring to share it across other networks such as Instagram.
Based on variety of backgrounds such as nationality, educational fields and professions my PLN is small but diverse. It would be a surprise to say that my family members are part of PLN as well, as we constantly share and exchange information about work and education in our group chat in Viber and Telegram. Telegram is exceptionally great and safest tool, where you can share your thoughts and ideas about any topic without hurting your reputation or privacy. I am new in creating PLN, where I would focus particularly on education but this course is helping to understand it more.
Variety of voices sounds like voices from different perspectives to me, which is great and can hugely increase your mindset. Â As long as those variety of voices have meaningful messages to share and teach I surely would love to learn from them. It is important to know that these voices are worthy to trust and have extra sources and information to support their posts. PLN does not have to be necessarily big if it already helps you to grow and move on your career path, but constantly meeting new people and building strong connection is a plus.
Breathing the same air is not enough
Shelley Moore
Having diverse PLN is already a great opportunity to share and exchange your ideas in professional community and introduce inclusion more. After watching Shelley’s videos about inclusion and totally agreeing with her points, she talks how our educational system still follows old style of teaching forcing educators and students to fit in that institutionalized type instead of community type which causes us to be in that integrated timeframe instead of inclusion. In professional community it is important to recognize in which timeframe we are and move from institution to community style of teaching. Trying to engage people with different perspectives is one of the options to broaden views of inclusion. Clark and Aufderheide note, “Policy makers should mandate that network developers use universal design principles so that people of all levels of enablement can access communication and media for public life” (2011). Using universal design principals can also help to increase inclusion. Also, great point Shelley Moore made was to “using peer connections, giving roles and responsibilities as parts of inclusion.” This is greatly related to psychological perspective since the more importance you give to the individual the more inclusive he will feel in the community.
In the professional setting of choice, I would prefer to positively say yes, inclusion is actively embraced especially if my PLN is about offering creative ideas, since community where I am in, craves for unique and fresh ideas. Also, my learning outcome of evolving PLN brings me to the new possibilities in the career and mental growth. Using international networks where I meet people from different backgrounds and learning to know their own unique career paths help me to be more humble and continue to expose myself to the diversity and inclusion.
In conclusion, I had really great time listening to the interviews and first thought that came to my mind was when our Professor Jesse Miller during interview asked them questions regarding their networks. He asked when did they decided to share their knowledge with others, to make their followers aware of what passionate they are about. Interviewees’ replies made me think that people first want to satisfy their own personal needs and after gaining some knowledge of becoming expertise in their desired field, then they start sharing their interests and ideas with other people to create strong network. To support this, Markiel Simpson mentioned “it is important that you are an expert of your own life experience” (11:00).
References
Clark, Jessica, and Aufderheide, Patricia. “A New Vision for Public Media: Open, Dynamic, and Participatory.” Media and Social Justice, 2011, pp.55-67. https://link-springer-com.ezproxy.library.uvic.ca/content/pdf/10.1057%2F9780230119796.pdf
Moore, Shelley. “EDCI 338 – 20 Minutes Moore.” YouTube, uploaded by MILLER, 30 May 2021, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KeSV0rUl1bA
Moore, Shelley. One Without the Other: Stories of Unity Through Diversity and Inclusion, Portage & Main Press, 2017, pp.6-12. ProQuest Ebook Central, https://ebookcentral-proquest-com.ezproxy.library.uvic.ca/lib/uvic/reader.action?docID=4832579&ppg=6
Simpson, Markiel. “EDCI – 338 MARKIEL SIMPSON.” YouTube, uploaded by MILLER, 1 June 2021, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rsoDHGaXNNs
Comments by farrah