For my celebration of learning post, I will be going through each learning outcome of EDCI 338 and demonstrating how I met them. This will be achieved by presenting evidence and information which supports how I met each outcome.  

Examine the application of social media to support learning

The application of social media to support learning encompasses many platforms and a variety of methods.  Social media and its relation to learning were further studied by each learning pod throughout the semester. In order to fully acknowledge social media as a whole, each learning pod chose a social media topic to research. All findings were then contributed to a course e-book which could be accessed to identify how social media is used to support learning. In my group, we examined how TikTok was used to support learning. The biggest discovery we made was that TikTok can be used as an extension of a classroom. Except rather than there being a limited number of seats in the classroom, there exists an unlimited number and each “seat” can be occupied by anyone, anywhere in the world. TikTok provides a platform for educators to share their voices and further enhance viewers learning. However social media supporting learning does not end with just TikTok. In the course e-book, it was shown that platforms such as Youtube also work to enhance learning by providing millions of educational videos and the platform Linkedin allows educators to make public posts to their accounts or create and upload their own paid courses to support learning. 

Explain personalized learning and its relation to learning theory

Over the course of this semester, my understanding of personalized learning and its relation to learning theory was significantly advanced. I found that the majority of my demonstration of understanding these concepts occurred in Week 3 and Week 9. In my Wow and Wonder Week 3 post, I discussed the Connectivism learning theory. I was fascinated by how intertwined the connections we have with internet technologies are and how they have the ability to make a substantial impact on our learning. Within the internet, there are also so many connections we make with others. My classmate Sam expanded on the idea of Connectivism and its relation to PLNs. Sam discussed that a PLN serves the purpose of learning from/with others and allows you to have connections with anyone, anywhere allowing for new information to be gathered and learned. This embodies the idea that we all have personal learning to which we appeal but within that, there exists the learning theory of Connectivism which takes our personal learning to incorporate many other connections and ideas besides our own individual ones. In addition to this, in week 9, I was exposed by Alec Couros to the “adult learning theory” for the first time.  In my Wow and Wonder Week 9 post, I was able to further dive into the theory and it’s relation to personal learning. The learning theory takes into account that adults learn differently therefore, you must change and modify the way things are taught to adults. You must personalize the content to have relevance to the adult’s personal lives and jobs. Each adult must personalize the learning they receive so that it is in line with topics they are engaged with and have relevance to. 

Recognize that the Internet is not a neutral or equal space for everyone

The internet is not a neutral space nor is it an equal space for everyone to engage with. Firstly, it is not fair to say that the internet is a space where there are no biases or prejudices that influence or determine its functioning. I quickly recognized and demonstrated my understanding of this when I completed my major project on the social media platform TikTok. I discussed the idea of “shadow banning” which occurs on the platform. It is an automatic process done by TikToks algorithm which causes creators to stop receiving likes, views and traffic from the for you page. There are many testimonials from TikTok creators who shared their voices on the supposed “neutral” platform but after doing so were quickly shadowbanned. For example, TikTok creator Abbie Richards @tofizzle was quickly shadowbanned after publishing a video that captured a racial injustice protest where a protester is talking to an emotional police officer. After the 6 million views she received on the post, she followed up with content related to the protest and supporting black creators on TikTok. After receiving millions of views on her videos, her content then dropped to receiving 400-6000 views and she was shadowbanned. This demonstrates that the internet is not a neutral space. There are biases and prejudices that shape its functioning and if you are to speak about an issue that is not in line with the space, the platform will entirely stop functioning for you. It is neither an equal space, Abbie is a white female who previously had no trouble on the platform when she was posting content about comedy and not race. However, the second she posted content about race and black protests she was silenced. This shows the discrimination of the internet and that it is not an equal space for people of colour. Once the injustices that people of colour face are highlighted, it is quickly silenced by the internet demonstrating the internet is not an equal space for people to engage with. For further information on Abbie’s experience please read TikTok Shadowbanned? Major TikToker Claims Shut Out of Algorithm and Features.

Apply social media to develop a personal learning network in support of your personal and/or professional development

In order to fully visualize how I present myself on social media both personally and professionally, I created a visitor and resident map in my Wow and Wonder Week 4 post. From this map, I was able to see which platforms I used professionally and personally and the extent of the trace I leave on each platform. Prior to EDCI 338, the list of social media platforms I used for professional reasons was very small.  However, it now has grown to include platforms such as Word press and Github. Through the use of these sites, I have developed my personal learning network to support my professional development. I now have an entire blog site that showcases a variety of posts displaying my academic abilities. Additionally, I have created a site on GitHub that I could use if needed as an academic example for professional applications. Due to the fact that I had never used GitHub, in the beginning, I struggled significantly to understand the platform, but I now realize it has helped to grow my PLN. Due to the newfound platform, I was able to connect with others and learn from their posts and comments. 

Identify privacy issues and practice online behaviours that are legal, safe, consensual, and ethical

In week 4, I was able to identify privacy issues and learn about online behaviours. My understanding of this began with taking UBC’s Privacy and Survaliance quiz. To my surprise, I had not been engaging in very safe online practices. I was shocked at how many of my responses to the quiz were deemed unsafe. My classmate Kayla also shared a similar experience with this. She too was shocked at how much companies can impede on your own privacy and emphasized the importance of being aware of how much of your life is being tracked and recorded. In addition to week 4, I also continued to demonstrate my understanding of privacy issues in my major project. I was able to identify the “fine print” details within TikToks terms of services and was stunned to see the conditions I had consented to. It is never a good idea to sign and consent to a lengthy document in which you don’t understand the terms and conditions as you are agreeing to give up a lot of your privacy. Moving forward, to practice online behaviours that are safe, legal, consensual, etc. one should thoroughly read the conditions and always be aware of what they are agreeing to. 

Recognize data ownership and licensing (Creative Commons, Copyright, Fair Dealing, and Public Domain) as a core practice when creating, sharing, or using resources online

Many years ago I experienced being copyrighted when I shared a video on youtube that I did not have ownership of the song used. I was confused when it happened as I had previously not been aware of the importance of recognizing data, ownership and licensing.  However, I now feel as though I have a thorough understanding of the topic. Mia did an excellent job at expressing the concerns surrounding copyright and potential ways to avoid it from happening to you. In relation to TikTok, if a video is flagged for copyright, TikTok deletes the video and the creator could potentially face legal actions. Therefore, you must always be mindful of the type of music you are using in video and make sure if it is a TikTok video, the sound is coming directly from the app. I was able to demonstrate my understanding of copyright when my learning pod created an education vegan ceviche video on TikTok. We recognized the importance of data ownership and licensing and created a video that used a sound directly from the TikTok app and had one of my group members create a voice-over on the video of her own voice to avoid facing any copyright issues. 

Practice digital, networked, and open literacies in support of learning about social media and personalized learning

In order to support learning about social media and personalized learning, I made sure that all of the posts I made were open literacies. I made sure everything I posted was set to public so any viewers could access my content to use it to support their understanding of social media and personalized learning. Open literacies are essential to support learning as they give everyone the ability to access educational content to strengthen their understanding and open doors for more educational opportunities. Chapter 6 of Emerging Technologies in Distance Education is a very useful resource to understand the many benefits of open learning. It showcases how great open learning can be as it presents a class that was originally set to be 20 students but ended up having over 200 students learning from the course. Mary continued on the topic of open learning and provided a great list of strategies she found for developing a personal learning network. The list included the points immerse yourself, learn to read social media, strengthen your PLN, know your connections and PLNs central to learning. 

Lastly, I want to end by saying I have thoroughly enjoyed having the opportunity to take EDCI 338 this semester. I have learned so much throughout the course that I will take with me as I progress through my academic and professional career. I feel as though I have accomplished all of the learning outcomes and I am motivated to continue my understanding of the topics in the future.