Prior to this course, I had no idea what a PLN was or its importance. I viewed social media as a negative aspect to my professional career, fearing that something I have posted could come back to haunt me in the future. Because of this, I have always been very mindful with what I post and keep all of my accounts private. I tend to be hesitant to post because of this mindset. Going through this course has opened my eyes to all of the benefits of social media in a professional sense. Social media allows for everyone to have a voice, giving authentic perspectives on a variety of situations. Having the ability to connect with millions of diverse individuals provides such a rich learning opportunity. Connecting with others opens up a world of possibilities, getting involved in initiatives that never would have been possible without social media. This course has helped me recognize not only the benefits to following trusted sources, but to post your own ideas and become a trusted source yourself.
Moving forward, I plan to expand and diversify my PLN. I believe as an educator it is important to keep personal and professional separate, so I plan on making education-specific social media accounts on Instagram, Tik Tok, and Twitter. As well, I plan to look further into Linkedin and see if I believe this to be a beneficial platform for my career. I plan to follow a variety of educators locally, as well as globally. I am quite fascinated by the Scandinavia education system and am hoping to discover some educators from there to see what they are doing in their classrooms. I also am passionate about mental health education and hope to follow people who will help me learn the best methods to implement this into the classroom. Further into my career I plan on using my social media to create my own initiatives (most likely mental health related) and reach out to my diverse community for support. I now recognize the benefits that can be achieved through having an active trustworthy PLN.
I really enjoyed all of the interviews provided during this course that gave different perspectives on PLN. I really appreciated the topic of media literacy as I think fake news is a huge problem that needs to be identified. Lately, I have been noticing the spread of misinformation on Instagram and it is frustrating to see people post without doing their own research. Learning about media literacy was a huge reminder that not everything found on the internet is true and to only subscribe to sources you know to be trustworthy.
I am very happy I decided to take this course and learn about the importance of the PLN. I no longer view social media as something to fear professionally, but rather, see it as an incredible opportunity to become a better educator. I am excited to see what the future holds in store!
