EDCI 338 Final Group Project
| Name | Task Description |
| Xinrong Zhao #V00956986 | ⢠Describe the key characteristics of any discussed social media platforms. ⢠Provide examples of individuals who have used a PLN to become leaders in a field of interest, discuss their presence in the platform? |
| Rick Kuang #V00974275 | ⢠Define what kind of PLN is successful. ⢠Describe what are social considerations that should be accounted for. ⢠Reference |
| Huayi Nie#V00989870 | â˘What features & characteristics of existing media technologies make it effective for personal learning? ⢠What are social considerations that should be accounted for? |
| Yudan (Yadira) Zhang #V00968400 | ⢠What are the strengths and weaknesses of the privacy, security and acceptable use policies for social media platforms. ⢠How do they use social media platforms to build their reputation/presence? |
| Tianjiao(Tiana) Li #V00932832 | ⢠How does the technology allow you to enhance/develop your digital identity/reputation? ⢠What are the ways the technology tracks and uses your data – how can this be used to benefit a PLN? ⢠Reference |
Describe the key characteristics of any discussed social media platforms.
The social media platform we researched is called Sina Weibo. Sina Weibo is a mix of social and professional terrace that allows everyone to share their trivial matters, and discuss hot topics on their PLN by using either application or website forms. We can click on a specific topic to browse articles posted by users and think about the views of others. When you publish your own discussion on related topics, you may get other peoplesâ comments, likes, and dislikes. Sometimes, you’ll get comments that rub you the wrong way. This is when you are made uncomfortable because of other peoplesâ views. At this time, rational thinking about other peoplesâ views can make us comprehensively develop in the way of thinking and understand whether the views we have been holding are close-minded and correct. While thinking, we have enhanced our media literacy, and also cultivated our ability to perceive different voices and ideas (Miller, 2021).
What features & characteristics of existing media technologies make it effective for personal learning?
Weibo encourages users to participate in personal learning networks. Weibo users are allowed to share their personal experiences, original articles, and opinions under their account. Due to this user-generated content feature, it enables Weibo users to promote knowledge exchange and collaborate on learning by sharing experiences among a variety of Weibo users. In addition, the function of subscribing allows users to follow people, topics, or institutions that they are interested in online. By subscribing to the professional or influential accounts, the users or learners on Weibo might gain deep or expanded learning resources from their selected contents or professional opinions.
How does the technology allow you to enhance/develop your digital identity/reputation?
As for how to enhance our personal digital identity, this requires us to frequently swim in digital media, keep us active, and let more people see our words and posts. Our digital identities are established when our articles are reposted and seen by more people.
What are social considerations that should be accounted for?
There are many social factors that we need to take into account when we share stories, post articles, and comment on other people’s blogs. Weibo is a type of public social media platform. Users need to carefully consider their posts, like opinions, to avoid public or social conflicts, especially when it comes to sensitive topics or issues. For example, we need to pay attention to whether the use of language is in line with the moral norms and the social system of the country, whether the accuracy of our topics will lead to bad public opinion, and so on. Because PLN allows users to share ideas with people around the world, it is vital to respect each other’s cultures. In the community of PLNs, users should respect others, valuing their opinions, creating a supportive as well as inclusive online environment (Miller, 2021). Meanwhile, ethical principles should be taken seriously for use of PLN such as respecting intellectual property rights, avoiding copying relevant content without permission and maintain integrity as well.
The technical tracking of Sina Weibo generally comes from Sina video and public opinion surveys, which are also owned by Sina. It makes PLN more vivid and interactive. For example, if your post is what your most used social networking sites, then providing a survey for netizens to interact with will make your post more popular. Much more interactive with the virtual crowd of dives.
How does the technology allow you to enhance/develop your digital identity/reputation?
In order to enhance digital identity, we need to add or change tags or labels on our Weibo account. At first, the Weibo platform will guess what we may like and recommend contents to us based on what people usually like in our age, occupation, gender, etc. in big data. If we accept to read and give likes to these contents, we will be given digital tags or labels like âfan of somethingâ, and if we donât, we would get âNot fan of somethingâ. We can also adjust our digital identity on some social media platforms if we feel that the platform is not identifying our interests very accurately by searching and browsing contents on Weibo, during which our digital identity is gradually built and developed in this process (GĂźndĂźz, 2017).
As we have digital identity on Weibo, the information recommended to us is mostly based on our interests and hobbies. If we like certain topics and creators on Weibo, we will be recommended with more similar contents or creators, similarly, it is easier for our contents to be recommended to more people and for us to get more followers on this platform.
Also, the information and contents presented on Weibo are continuously existent which is completely different from face-to-face chatting in which it does not leave any trace. Therefore, when someone leaves negative or harmful comments under our contents, we have chances to notice and delete this kind of information on Weibo (En, 2022), while when someone says something hurtful about us face-to-face, it is difficult for us to catch and stop their words and these negative comments or rumors are easier to be spread by word of mouth. We are able to use crawlers or databases to search for the information related to us using some keywords about us. Thus, we can monitor the comments on Weibo to identify the negative comments regarding us and deal with them in time. Once we notice some friendly and reasonable comments that are in good faith, we can actively respond to them to show our open mind and humility towards advice. If we see some extremely offensive or slanderous remarks, we can report to the platform and delete the message or even lock the personâs account to maintain our digital reputation.
Furthermore, the response function on Weibo also has the property of delay, which allows us to have enough time to adjust the wording when interacting and communicating with others and try to use gentle and friendly remarks to shape a positive digital identity (Miller, 2022, 11:04). Also, if we find something that we just said is not very appropriate, we can delete our remarks and send another friendly message to them.
Moreover, the forwarding function on Weibo enhances the convenience of information dissemination. When we do something positive, my supporters will forward my experience to allow more people to see it and notice my excellent character, which helps me build and maintain our positive reputation on Weibo.
What are the ways the technology tracks and uses your data – how can this be used to benefit a PLN?
Firstly, the identifying and recommending function based on big data will identify the contents when we search something on Weibo and then recommend relevant or similar contents to us, which help us to gain more knowledge about the topics that we are interested in and then build and improve our knowledge system and PLN on Weibo. Next, when we browse these contents and interact with the contents via giving likes, forwarding, commenting and following the content creators, we are very likely to meet other users who are interested in these contents as well (Miller, 2021, 27:06). Therefore, we can interact with them to make friends and share knowledge with one another, so this expands the nodes of our PLN on Weibo (Rajagopal et.al, 2012).
Furthermore, some users might publish information and contents about crimes on Weibo, but these will very likely be identified and distinguished by the platform very soon so that this kind of information will be screened or deleted to prevent other users on Weibo from seeing it. As a result, this can ensure normal users have a clean online environment and PLN on Weibo, without being banned by accidentally being mixed into illegal contents.
Provide examples of individuals who have used a PLN to become leaders in a field of interest, discuss their presence in the platform?
Regarding a person who became a leader in his field of interest because of using PLN, the person I want to mention is Zhenyu Luo. When Luo first began using Weibo in 2012, he used the platform to post videos called âLogical Thinkingâ. The video is about him self-studying a book, and then telling the audience vividly orally. Later, as a large number of people followed him, he opened his own video account on Weibo, and later created his own app. Nowadays, he has millions of followers, and great influence on Weibo. The articles he publishes will arouse the thinking of many public figures, and his articles will be reprinted.
How will you know that your PLN is a success?
The success of PLN is dependent on several dimensions. The most notable sign is a significant increase in your followers. Most of the followers join the conversation because the content matches their interests. This is a positive correlation, the followers increase with your quality of content. If your content is valuable, then it will attract more followers. Which means you will take more responsibility to repeatedly inspect whether the content is in line with media literacy (Bauer, 2010). In the aspect of knowledge exchange, the PLN has been successful. In addition, a community where people are actively engaged in discussions around the issues you raise such as if a person can actively participate in discussions, share insights, ask questions, have a large number of comments and likes, as well as drive a thriving community as a whole (Hermida, 2014), then it is a sign that his/her PLN has been successful in facilitating interaction. Otherwise, in professional development, as people are able to connect with professionals and be invited to collaborate and participate in conferences both online or offline, then it can be considered successful in terms of PLN.
What are the strengths and weaknesses of the privacy, security and acceptable use policies for social media platforms.
The strength of privacy, security and policies for social media platforms are known as private settings and content review, which are the key things that can protect users to control their information and prevent the distribution of harmful or inappropriate content. As the social media we are introducing is called Weibo, the security of the Weibo system is quite reliable. It has secure user systems, which can effectively prevent illegal login, and prevent users’ information from being hacked. At the same time, the professional security team, which improves the system every day to ensure usersâ online security while using the app. The weakness of privacy, security and acceptable use policies for social media platforms should gain more policies such as two factor authentication, it will be an improvement for all the users.
The advantage of the privacy, security, and usability policy is that our personal information will not be leaked, and we don’t have to worry about scammers stealing the fruits of our labor through the personal information we left when we created social media. The disadvantage is that we have certain limitations when using such social media, and there are some functions that we cannot use. For example, Sina Weibo does not allow us to bind our bank card for online shopping when we see some exquisite products, and we need to buy it through a third-party platform.
How do they use social media platforms to build their reputation/presence?
To build their reputation or presence on Weibo can be done in several ways, the users can demonstrate their skills through the short length videos or pictures, but for this social media, photos are more widely used than videos. As the users find their specific area to share valuable content, it will bring more followers for their accounts. The user can be more active on Weibo such as responding to followersâ comments and questions to gain more information and bring more interactions, promote more connections between them. By demonstrating professionalism, the users can enhance their reputation in the field, in addition, collaborating with other influences would expand more reputations for their accounts.
References
Bauer, W. I. (2010). Your Personal Learning Network: Professional Development on Demand. Music Educators Journal, 97(2), 37â42. https://doi.org/10.1177/0027432110386383
En, R. (2022). What Is Digital Reputation And How To Manage It [GUIDE 2022]. ReputationUP. https://reputationup.com/digital-reputation/#h-how-to-improve-your-digital-reputation
GĂźndĂźz, U. (2017). The Effect of Social Media on Identity Construction. Mediterranean Journal of Social Sciences, 8(5), 85â92. https://doi.org/10.1515/mjss-2017-0026
Hermida, A. (2014). #TelleveryoneâŻ: why we share & why it matters. Doubleday Canada.
Miller, J. [@miller159]. (2021, June 1). EDCI – 338 MARKIEL SIMPSON [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rsoDHGaXNNs
Miller, J. [@miller159]. (2021, June 6). MEDIA LITERACY with JULIE SMITH [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=57r3-aEnci0
Miller, J. [@miller159]. (2022, June 6). Sophie Lui – EDCI 338 [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wfcXgKLzOVM
Rajagopal, K., Joosten-ten Brinke, D., Van Bruggen, J., & Sloep, P. (2012). Understanding personal learning networks: Their structure, content and the networking skills needed to optimally use them. First Monday, 17(1), 1-12. https://doi.org/10.5210/fm.v17i1.3559
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