Month: June 2026 (Page 2 of 2)

From this week, the assigned reading was a chapter from Erik Qualman called Digital Leader: 5 Simple Keys to Success and Influence. This book is about how digital communication and networking can build and strengthen leadership, and Chapter 16 specifically looks at empowering others by working together, trusting each other, and building meaningful connections. One thing that stood out to me from the reading was the collaboration aspect. Qualman (2012) explains that the power of effective leadership is not about controlling each decision or having or always needing to have the answer, but instead it is about creating a space and opportunities for others to contribute, show their strengths, and make them feel valued. I can see a major connection to PLN’s and how they function. In a PLN, you see and experience different experiences and knowledge from multiple areas of life, work, and more. You learn from the collaboration instead of information from a single source.  

I found the idea from the chapter I found interesting was finding a network before you actually need it. I have felt that it is easy to reach out to others only when you need help. I am someone who is independent and finds it hard to ask for help and struggle till the task is completed,  but reading this chapter emphasises creating authentic relationships over time so that the trust and support are ready and available when a challenge exists, and makes me realize I could be closing doors I didn’t know were there to be opened. This makes me realize the importance of actively engaging with personal and professional communities and not just passively obverse them or fight with myself to do it alone. Whether it is commenting on a post, giving a resource, sending an email, or participating in a discussion, these small interactions can help build connections,  

The last point that resonated with me was the topic of digital footprints and online engagement. My digital footprint started at a young age and has been continuing to grow for the last 12 years or even more. The chapter makes a point that instead of focusing on every negative comment or criticism,  people should focus on positively contributing and creating meaningful material and content (Qualman, 2012). I think this point is especially prevalent right now when so much of our professional and personal communication happens online. This reminds me that our digital presence is constantly building and continues overtime. It shows that the way we interact shapes how we are perceived. Overall, this week’s reading symbolised the idea of strong relationships, positive contributions, and the willingness and being open minded to learn are some of the most important aspects of leadership and personal growth. 

Sources 

Digital Leader: 5 Simple Keys to Success & Influence Ch. 16 Qualman, Erik – Empower Others https://tinyurl.com/2afvzd7b

Image 1: https://www.magnific.com/vectors/community-support-illustration 

Image 2: https://www.in.gov/cybersecurity/blog/post/how-can-you-protect-your-digital-footprint-online

Here is our group Assignment 2. 

Our topic was on “The effects on learning due to the COVID -19 pandemic”. We made this assignment a podcast style and split our work by the four main focus questions on. our project was broken down by:

• What is your distributed and open inquiry question? 
• What is the relationship of your topic to teaching and learning?
• What are the pros, cons, and risks?   
• What are some of the strategies, best practices, and tips regarding your inquiry findings?    

In our podcast, I am the 2nd speaker completing the 2nd question from the list above

I looked at research that could help explain our topic an the shift between in-person to online/remote learning.

Sources

Source from my part:

Koh, J. H. L., & Daniel, B. K. (2022). Shifting online during COVID-19: A systematic review of teaching and learning strategies and their outcomes. International Journal of Educational Technology in Higher Education, 19(1), Article 56. https://doi.org/10.1186/s41239-022-00361-7

Sources other sources from project:

J. Broadbent, W.L. Poon, Self-regulated learning strategies & academic achievement in online higher education learning environments: A systematic review, The Internet and Higher Education, Volume 27, 2015, Pages 1-13, ISSN 1096-7516, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.iheduc.2015.04.007

Koh, J. H. L., & Daniel, B. K. (2022). Shifting online during COVID-19: A systematic review of teaching and learning strategies and their outcomes. International Journal of Educational Technology in Higher Education, 19(1), Article 56. https://doi.org/10.1186/s41239-022-00361-7

Madland, C., & Irvine, V. (2026, June 10). Week 5 [Zoom lecture]. EDCI 339,  University of Victoria.

This week’s blog post made me think about just how much responsibility comes with postings on social media and contributing to the online space when you have a bigger following. Before this course, I used social media as a communication tool and a source of dopamine (which I know isn’t the best).  Some of our videos and readings this week were about how we can use social media to build trust, shape how the public perceives us, and contribute to bigger ideas and conversations. This week, we watched a guest lecturer named Sophie Lui. Her topic on working in the public eye stood out to me because it targets how intentional people need to be, or even guarded, which is a word that comes to mind when they have a larger audience. Instead of using social media casually or for a fun outlet of expression, notable figures need to be cautious, with some even going through PR training just to make sure they are educated. 

Hirst (2018) talks about how misinformation and fake news get more views because it grabs the viewer’s attention, maybe because of the language, if it is a written post, or because it is clipped in a way to draw the viewer in at the beginning of the video. This makes me think about how it is so easy to view inaccurate information. With AI advancing, I see how people like my parents, who have not grown up with social media, can not distinguish between what is real and what’s not.  My dad will send me videos where I can tell they are AI but he can’t. This is an example of inaccurate information that is getting traction because the content is attention grabbing. On the other hand, people in positions or jobs that the public trusts, such as doctors, lawyers, or educators, the things these individuals post or interact with can be a greater risk because their credentials or professional reputation can affect the things they have worked so hard for. 

We have so many people with different experiences that could be in life, beliefs, socioeconomic status, family, work, all driving perspectives that could contribute to the conversation. Social media algorithms can be created around the things you search, like, the people you follow, all because it is things that we align with. The conversation we engage with can become tricky if the places we get our content from don’t go beyond our personal algorithms. This is why having a PLN that is diverse and wants credible information or media literacy. A space that encourages critical thinking, fact-based information, and respectful dialogue. Media literacy can help build you personally or when there may be arguments or discourse, it can help prompt thoughtful engagement with information rather than passively accepting it.

PLN & Education

The TED Talk video titled Encorporating & accounting for Social Media in Education by,  for this section by Henry Dyer  in 2016 emphasises how a PLN can be a tool for professional growth and continuous learning. One thing that has made these things possible is social media.  Social media has been able to make these connections more accessible, helping is going far beyond formal education settings. Some things a PLN and Education would have in common are that they both use collaboration, offer access to multiple perspectives, and help stay current with new information. 

Several platforms on social media help in the development of professional learning in an educational context. Linked in is used to help professionals network, while on the other hand, while this doesn’t happen as much now X used to help educators find people to discuss and access current information from people in the field. YouTube would be another app that helps provide instructional videos, tutorials, or even the TED Talk we watched for this week. These platforms can strengthen a PLN because it gives opportunities to learn from others on a continuous timeline. 

While people work in sectors with a vulnerable population, this could be children or youth, social media must be used carefully and professionally. Teachers or Educators must keep their lives separate and maintain their privacy, confidentially, and set appropriate boundaries online. There should be specific guidelines, whether they are put in place by the institution or maybe just an educator created for themselves, that should be stuck to. The TedTalk highlights that professionals need to be mindful of their digital footprints, going back to how, when you have an online presence, this can be influential in some capacity and can be damaging if not done with thought about how it could be perceived.

Sources

Digital Literacy Skills – Media Literacy pp.66 https://tinyurl.com/4n2cn89n

 Incorporating & accounting for Social Media in Education

Journalism by Martin Hirst Chapter 4. The Political Economy of Fake News – pp.78

http://ezproxy.library.uvic.ca/login?url=https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/9781315401263

Media Literacy – Facts Matter – Course YouTube Channel 

For our inquiry project, our learning pod is working on understanding the impact of social media on our attention spans. How does social media usage affect productivity, focus, and learning in digital environments? 

For my first process post I will be diving into research, consulting course content that could be applicable and reflecting on our own social media and online habits. 

At the starting of our inquiry project, our learning pod created a google document where we listed out the tasks to be accomplished and delegated them among the learning pod. 

This week’s tasks included: 

• Gathering research/stats that discuss the social media use in teenagers and its impacts 
• Looking into Australia ban on social media usage for teenagers and the impacts of the ban. 
• Looking through the course content to find research on how social media is used in education and learning

Before I jumped into the research I wanted to get an understanding on social media use in youth. One source I found was by the Public Health Agency of Canada (2022), where they completed a survey of over 17,000 youth that found that 3 in 10 boys and 4 in girls ages 11-15 used social media extensively (seen in figure below). This usage is not just scrolling for hours, but is being used as a tool to connect with classmates, family, and friends.  

Figure 1

Percentage of students who reported extensive social media use by age and gender

   Additional research I looked at was a review completed by Santos et al, (2023) who analyzed 50 articles that looked at potential connections between adolescents mental health impacts and screen time. When observing the data in conclusion they found that prolonged screen use showed greater impact negatively on mental health especially on younger females (Santos et al., 2023). They also touch on how different languages should be adopted, and the term “screen time” does not accurately reflect what their target research is and how that term is broad. There is a major difference between a cell phone for personal use and a computer in an educational context.    

When thinking about the negative effects social media can have, many examples could be used. One of the more relevant topics that comes to mind would be legislation that was put into place in Australia. The Australian government banned social media usage for youth under the age of 16 due to concerns of mental health effects, online hate and potential predator factors (Fardouly, 2025). When we think of all the ways social media is used these can be factors, but what about how we access other content?  Educational content through personal learning and school use websites like Youtube that were a part of a ban. Where even in my personal learning at that age, I was asked to use these websites to view Ted Talks.  An article published by Prendergast and Dyer (2026) talks about this exactly. They looked at how tension can occur when media coverage highlights the ban while simultaneously taking away children’s access to social media and the impacts that could have. They found at the end of their analysis that while the goal of law makers was to protect youth at the same time they are incorrectly generalizing young people and the way they use social media (Pendergast & Dryer, 2026). After this a question I have is maybe banning social media is not as  effective and looking into better strategies could be more beneficial such as teaching youth about internet safety.       

Another aspect of the inquiry includes understanding our social media habits (that we will work collectively as a group): 

• Stats: average screen time, most common app used, how many time is the phone unlocked 
• Reflection: When do we tend to use social media, and does that have any significant impacts in our learning (distractions)
• Future implications: Would limiting social media use have any changes on our ability to learn better (ie. improved attention spans) 

One thing that really stood out to me while researching this topic was, I found it was sometimes difficult to separate the positive and negative impacts of social media. Although many studies focus on concerns about distraction, reduced attention spans, and mental health challenges, social media usage, communication and learning for many young people.

In my personal reflection, social media is used daily, often switching between educational content and entertainment. This has made me curious about whether social media is actually reducing our ability to focus and what kind of content we are absorbing intentionally and unintentionally. We all use social media in personal and educational ways and have a decent ratio of both.

We believe our inquiry connects well with digital learning environments, learner engagement, and self-regulated learning. As we continue our project, I am interested in exploring how learners can balance the benefits of open access to information with the challenges of distraction and maintaining focus. 

Going into next week I will be looking at our own habits and tracking our personal social media use. I am hoping to track this for the remainder of the course to see whether changes to our social media use affect our productivity, concentration and overall learning experience. 

Sources 

Fardouly, J. (2025). Potential effects of the social media age ban in Australia for children younger than 16 years. The Lancet. Digital Health, 7(4), e235–e236. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.landig.2025.01.016

Prendergast, K., & Dyer, E. (2026). Youth social media age restrictions: examining Trans-Tasman media coverage of Australia’s social media ‘ban. Journal of Youth Studies, 1–17. https://doi.org/10.1080/13676261.2026.2626495 

Public Health Agency of Canada. (2022, January 4). Social media use, connections, and relationships in Canadian adolescents: Findings from the 2018 Health Behaviour in School-aged Children (HBSC) study. Government of Canada. https://www.canada.ca/en/public-health/services/publications/science-research-data/social-media-use-connections-relationships-canadian-adolescents.html 

Santos, R. M. S., Mendes, C. G., Sen Bressani, G. Y., de Alcantara Ventura, S., de Almeida Nogueira, Y. J., de Miranda, D. M., & Romano-Silva, M. A. (2023). The associations between screen time and mental health in adolescents: a systematic review. BMC Psychology, 11(1), Article 127. https://doi.org/10.1186/s40359-023-01166-7