Blog #11

This final blog post was on empowering others. As this week was fairly open-ended in terms of questions to answer, I will be reflecting on my personal experiences in regards to my PLN. 

Developing my PLN

Developing a meaningful PLN takes time and commitment from both ends of the party. In order to make a meaningful connection, both parties need to be committed to growing and developing this relationship. As we’ve built up our connections, part of their value is the wisdom they will be able to supply – every connection we have knows something we don’t in that we need to communicate and learn during these times. Everyone has endured different experiences in their lifetime which is a fundamental reason why networking is so valuable. We can learn and grow from a network without having to have experienced it ourselves. 

Secondly, in order to have a meaningful network, we need to curate our networks to keep those that serve us a purpose; those who deem to constantly ‘drain’ us should be eliminated from our networks as they are only providing negative energy. DUBOIS stated a very good example of eliminating draining customers. He mentioned: that it is “OK and recommended to eliminate [networks] that digitally drain our [wellbeing]”. To add to this point, “oiling a squeaky wheel is much different than oiling a broken one” in that we need to discover our “broken” networks and move them to the “junkyard”. Not to sound insensitive but, this is what it feels like when I disconnect/unfollow a network. Lastly, praising those who are important is fundamental; it is as though we are giving them a “virtual hug”. An example of this could be when a network receives a new job and their PLN praises their accomplishments on social platforms for their new role. 

This brings us to the use of social platforms and networked publics.

Social media platforms have become a ‘life source’ for those living in the 21st century – we use these programs for leisure use and for professional gain. They have been a great tool in building and maintaining a PLN as minimal efforts are needed to stay connected. The text highlighted 3 great strategies to connect with people online that would help lead to lasting relationships. Personally, I can see myself using/have used 2 of these strategies. The first is Facebook groups. Everyone likes being a part of a ‘group’ and groups are an easy way to share and communicate with smaller or larger groups of people. For instance, if I wanted to connect with a few friends (ex. school), Facebook groups are a great way in communicating with one another. For larger groups, one trying to deluge into a particular interest can easily do so and gain a lot of insight. Personally, I am interested in investing therefore, I joined a few investing Facebook groups to gain insight and network. The second strategy is the status tagging. Whenever we need to communicate with one another, social platforms have utilized the @ symbol to notify the user. This helps start and maintain a conversation as individuals are being notified when urgently needed. I use both these strategies to date in my professional practice.

Some takeaways I’ve learned from this course is the importance of a personalized learning network. Prior to this course, I had little to no knowledge of what a personalized learning network is and its value in creating and maintaining a meaningful network. However, those views have greatly changed after watching the interviews every week with a different professional as each interviewee benefited regardless of their field. A takeaway from this week was on negative posts. The text brought up a good point when referencing positive feedback. Personally, I attentively/solely look at positive reviews when looking up an item to buy however, I should also be looking at the negative reviews as not all negative comments are ‘bashing’ the product rather the review is an honest opinion. These honest opinions may be relatable in that I may also not like the product despite the positive reviews. An example of this is ordering something online. The product may have really good reviews and the item looks great in the picture but the physical product when arrived may not be as good as we thought (amazon). I’ve purchased a number of items thinking they were good quality however I soon came to realize it was a $0.10 drop shipped item from China. 

Overall, I enjoyed my time taking this course; the guest interviews, weekly discussion with my group, and course content. I also appreciate that I was able to form a small meaningful network with my group. We got along with each other well which made this course less painful to participate in.