V&R Map, Qiaoyang (Peter).

Digital Platforms for Professional Network Developing

Digital platforms that are used for developing professional network have various features. The ones that are used most includes Twitter, LinkedIn, and WordPress as we are using to create our blog posts. Twitter is great for reaching out for professional opinions and discussions. The openness of this platform has given us he opportunities to find any topic, any fields of study to find people of same interests. WordPress on the other hand, is great for building a personal page and recording one’s own ideas, resources and research results. These different features of the platforms allowed students to develop their network professionally.

Expanding Professional Learning Network (PLN)

By using these platforms properly, students could expand their PLN more efficiently. Students need to consider how to use the features of each type of platform to maximize the effort. For instance, when using Twitter as a platform, they could take into account the wide arrange of users as well as the hashtag function, the twitter chats function and the mentioning function so that they could get attention from people who may have similar interests in one topic. When using WordPress however, students should consider how to build their personal pages so that people would find it professional and want to reach out. They should also consider how to combine the use of both platforms to create better outcomes.

Data Privacy and PLN

Data privacy could limit a PLN in the way that the researchers’ access is limited. We may not be able to access to some personal studies or research results, or cannot add people we want to get in touch with as friends because of the privacy or security issues. This limitation could get in the way of some professional network developing. However, data privacy promotes a PLN by making sure that certain topics, studies, discussions are not disturbed by unrelated people or conversations. It also protects some research results and valuable contents and thus encourages original work.

Create a Digital Identity/ Reputation

Creating a digital identity is relatively simpler than creating a digital reputation. In my network, I would first create accounts on several popular media platforms such as Twitter, WordPress, facebook, LinkedIn etc, and having each account connected to the other so that they become a network itself. Then I would use the platforms where I could potentially reach out to more people, and use features such as mentioning, hashtags to comment on posts in my field of study to get attention from people who share my interests. Then I would build my own home page so that when people want to know more about me, they have a place to go to. This way I could build a digital identity and hopefully it develops into a reputation.

Social Media Connectivity, Professional Balance and Tendency to Work from Home

Working from home due to the COVID-19 pandemic has changed a lot of how we see about work and communication. We used to take for granted that taking a good chunk of time commuting is necessary and having a physical office for all employees to work in and communicate face-to-face are important elements to most companies. For students and teachers, offline classes are also considered necessary for authentic learning to take place. However, after staying at home to work or study, a lot of people have realized that in some cases, we do not need physical contacts to work in certain fields, and in fact, this kind of working style sometimes is even more efficient and more convenient which saves commuting time and money for renting work places.

This has made us to reconsider the role social media plays in our lives and the importance of its connectivity. The powerful features of social media have provided us with strong and effective communication methods that can be used not only for leisure chatting but also professional communications of teaching, learning or work meetings. Rethinking what social media could do to our communication for work and study could potentially make these activities more efficient and economical.