• How does a PLN help and hinder the development of thoughts and ideas in education discourse?
  • How do educators create discourse?
  • What is the role of social media in education?
  • What are some problems with social media communications in educational settings?
  • Which social media platforms are beneficial in education?
  • When working with the vulnerable sector, how does social media fit into professionalism and regulations?

Hello, friends!

Today, I will discuss the questions above by referencing Alec Couros and Katia Hildebrandt’s texts about the title above which they explained in detail.

Personal Learning Network (PLN) which is related to Personal Learning Environment (PLE) is the key to how PLN help and hinders the development of thoughts and ideas in education. To begin with, we need to discuss what kind of processes are going on when we are in an environment in which PLN is offered. Social Learning theory is one of the theories that bring an explanation to see if PLN either helps or hinders our social development. According to American social psychologist Bandura, we are all social learners and whatever happens in our surroundings we are prone to mimic and take these as a way of coping mechanisms. For this reason, if one’s PLE is healthy we can say PLN helps the development of thoughts and ideas. On the other hand, to create this environment socio-cultural context need to be taken care of. According to Russian social psychologist Vygotsky, we need a zone of proximal development where students are challenged with a task where their skills can cope with them and also offer space for learning. In this matter when we are constructing our PLN we need to examine the social psychological perspective of it.

Increasing Collectivism

Creating discourse needs to be carefully examined. Educators should invest their time in creating discourse and need to get used to changes in technology. When educators are exploring technology they don’t need to get stick to traditionalā€¦ The open teaching model is another aspect that needs to be addressed when creating discourse. Providing free ad open sources for students, encouraging students to explore the most comfortable, and creative PLE, facilitating critical thinking and cohesion between other students are some of the ways to create positive discourse.

Social media in education

Obviously, social media is part of our life. For this reason, our PLN and PLE have connected with social media likewise for educational purposes such as creating a discourse. Other than using student blogs in their spaces such as WordPress.com like the one I use, Twitter could be used as a way of MicroBlogging by the Networked Teacher. Instagram is another social media for sharing Digital photos in addition to online communication services that enhance online interaction between students. What is more, social media enables students to develop their authentic PLN connections while making their effort permanent by keeping their work on the cloud. To sum up, the benefits of social media over traditional media outweigh.

One issue that needs to be addressed is the feeling of isolation among students when social media is used in discourse. According to the text in chapter 9, participants’ students experienced the feeling of frustration due to perceived barriers such as the time needed to adapt to different methods of PLE that were offered by the inspectors after creating discourse.

It is worth keeping up with good work and staying open to new experiences under the guidance of instructors who try new things other than traditional methods.

Cheers!