Week Eight – Public PLN – Balancing PLN & Public Discourse

Hello everyone!

I hope you find reflecting on PLN and inclusion useful for linking course readings to your personal experiences and perspective. This week, we will learn more about public personal learning networks and how we can balance our PLN.

The advent of the internet and the evolution of communication technologies have significantly changed how people access and share data. The Internet makes information more accessible and empowers individuals to conveniently obtain, create, and search online content. In the same vein, social media by virtue of its communicative nature plays a significant role in distributing information.

These days, social media become the first point for gaining knowledge and its function has completely evolved from just being a means for personal networking. In such an information-rich environment, the ability to evaluate online evidence and arguments is an essential characteristic of an informed and engaged citizen.

This week, we will learn more about digital media literacy. For this purpose, a chapter from the book “Navigating Social Journalism” by Martin Hirst is selected. In Chapter 4 which is entitled “The Political Economy of Fake News”, the author highlighted the individual’s responsibility to evaluate the massive amounts of media they encounter on a daily basis. Online media, streaming, podcasts, and social media are among the main source of information for individuals. Hirst also emphasized the importance of empowering students to be able to evaluate critically any media they encountered and produce their own message.

Please also take some time to read three short chapters on Digital, Media, and Information Literacy from the Learning to Learn Online book. These chapters provide useful insights and practical strategies to help you critically engage with digital tools and online information, skills that are essential for success in this course and beyond.

Consider the following questions as you complete the reading and discuss the topic in the Mattermost group.

• How do notable individuals use social media?
• What are the benefits of being in the public eye and having a PLN?
• Building a community with online tools provided by the employer can be limiting, what are the perceived restrictions and benefits?
• Delivering information in a connected society requires verifiable resources, how do build a PLN to rely on?
• How do those who are veteran storytellers minimize the risk of sharing misinformation?

Readings for the Week Eight

For this session, you will listen to interviews conducted by Jesse Miller. For those who may not befamiliar with him, he is a social media educator and the founder of Mediated Reality.

In the Public Eye – Social Media and News Hour Journalism

Important Reminder!

You’ve already started working on your second assignment, so please make sure to finalize your group members by tomorrow, Thursday, Oct 23. It’s important that everyone takes responsibility for reaching out to their group members and actively participating in the group work. After tomorrow, the groups will be locked, and you won’t be able to make any changes.

Please note that your peers won’t be able to wait for those who don’t respond to group messages, and individual submissions won’t be accepted.

Please feel free to contact me if you have any questions. Mattermost is the quickest way!