To curate my social media with a critical public audience, I would be selective about the groups that I am following on social media; I would find out whether we share similar core values and vision. Thus, minimising the occurrences of having to deal with contradicting opinions. I access information on the PLN with a critical eye. I check the sources of information that are shared to ensure that they are reliable. Hirst highlights that “the problem of fake news is one all of us are going to have to face, whether we are consumers, professional journalists or working in the social journalism space” (Hirst, p.99). Fake news have a stake in trying to catch our attention but we have to try our best to critically analyse the information to the best of our ability.

There are some benefits for public figures to engage with a public audience in a media space. If you take the example of a government official, they can engage with more members of the public through social media; showing that they care about public opinion. They can also clarify certain misconceptions. However, the risks is that they can get harassed by people who disagree with them or get trolled. If the government official takes the comments at heart, these experiences could have a negative impact on their professional or personal life.

It can be hard to receive negative replies and reviews, which reflect one’s personal values. However, it is important to take a step back from the situation; one should avoid getting defensive because this can escalate the disagreement which could potentially lead to nasty arguments. Furthermore, we should be respectful of the reviews and replies; we have to realise and appreciate that people are allowed to give their opinions, although it could sometimes be hard or hurtful to accept it. We have to realise that if we chose to share something on social media, we could be subject to these kind of risks.

There are often many restrictions when using certain online tools in the professional setting. Employers set up these limitations to safeguard everyone in the workplace or associated with the workplace. For example, they need to protect data for confidentiality.

Hirst , Martin. Navigating Social Journalism: A Handbook for Media Literacy and Citizen Journalism. -1st ed., Routledge, 2018.

(487) Social Media And Self-Image – YouTube

Interactive learning is becoming very common in modern education. It has several benefits; for example, learning is more engaging, collaborative, hands-on, flexible and it can offer different learning styles to the learners.

What kind of interaction would the video require from your students? Does it force them to respond in some way (inherent)?

For this task, I will use the behaviourist approach; it is “inherently interactive, as it forces learners to respond” (Bates, 2019).

I will use H5P.com to include certain activities such as comprehension questions; learner to materials interaction. The video will be paused at several points and students will need to answer certain questions in order to be able to watch the rest of the video.  

What activity could you suggest that they do after they have watched the video (designed)? What type of knowledge or skill would that activity help develop? What medium or technology would students use to do the activity?

For the designed interaction, students will have to complete certain tasks after watching the video, therefore they will use their own initiative to make notes and actively watch the video knowing that they will have follow up activities to complete based on the video.

Firstly, students summarize the keys points of the video and talk about a similar experience that they have heard or find another resource that relates to this topic. They will be able to choose their own learning style; they can present their work through a short paragraph or a video.

Secondly, students will write a blog following some prompts that will be provided to them. They will need to comment on two other classmates’ posts and add a link in their post. During this learner-to-learner interactive activity, students develop their communication skills and work collaboratively with other classmates.

How would students get feedback on the activity that you set? What medium or technology would they and/or you use for getting and giving feedback on their activity?

For the H5P comprehension questions, students will receive instant feedback. They will have the opportunity to attempt the questions several times.

Students will create their blog on WordPress. They will receive comments from the instructor and as well as theirs peers on WordPress itself.  

How could the video have been designed to generate more or better activity from viewers or students?

Perhaps, at the beginning of the video, the creator of the video could have included a reflection question that will prompt viewers to start thinking about the content of the video before watching it. Furthermore, there could have been a little pose before the interlocutor’s answers or responses. Thus, prompting the viewers to think about the question as if they were asked to them.

I think that my peer wrote an interesting sentence in her blog https://esltechnician.opened.ca/.

“The purpose of this discussion would be have learners look within, introspect and evaluate their present day beliefs and ideas”. The discussion would provide learners with the opportunity to do some self-reflection. This is a great way to make learning more meaningful to the learners as they are able to connect with what they are learning.

Bates, A.W (Tony). Teaching in a Digital Age – Second Edition. Pressbooks, 2018.

“Social Media And Self-Image.” YouTube, uploaded by Amaze Org, 11 Nov. 2021, www.youtube.com/watch?v=C9N6k3nfwao.

I find the image where three young people are attempting to watch a ball game very powerful, it is a great example to demonstrate equality and equity. It highlights the idea that we should identify the barriers and overcome those so that all learners are able get the most out of their learning experience.

In my lesson, students will be offered the choice of how they can access the content, information will be represented in a variety of ways, for example, I will provide reading materials, videos for visual and auditory learners. I will also use the interactive resource on H5P to create some formative questions that students can answer while they are watching a video; this will help them check their understanding, if they grasped the key points.

I will offer students different options through which they can express themselves and demonstrate their learning; they can write an essay or present their work in a video or infographics.

I will provide various means of engagement. Learners will be able to collaborate with other learners through discussion sessions and this will allow them to feel part of the learning community. They will also have the opportunity to reflect on their learning, completing self-assessments; for example, they can have a better insight on how they learn best.

In my lesson, there will be mixed abilities discussion groups. I believe that it is a great way to help learners without special needs to develop the “cognitive effort required to explain themselves and [to benefit] from the contributions of peers with SEN from which they can learn”. (Roldán, Marauri, Aubert and Flecha, 2021).

If ever there is a pandemic, I will adjust my lessons to ensure that all my students are able to access the learning. I will implement blended learning, synchronous and asynchronous. Sometimes, not all the students are able to access their lessons if it they are being taught synchronously. Perhaps, there is only one computer in a household and if more than one learner has to use it to attend their classes, then some of the learners are bound to miss the synchronous learning. Therefore, by including asynchronous content in my lesson, my learner can access the learning content in his or her own time.

I was reading a peer’s blog ESL Technician (opened.ca) and I found that it was very interesting that they have modified their plan, changing in from a debate to a role-play in order to ensure that all the learners could benefit from the learning.

Roldan, Silvia Molina, et al. “How Inclusive Interactive Learning Environments Benefit Students Without Special Needs.” Frontiers in Psychology, 2021, https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8116690/. Accessed 1 Jul. 2023.

Social media uses various ways to engage people, it is visual and auditory, and we have access to a lot of information through this platform.

However, social media can challenge communications as sometimes information is manipulated. There have been so many cases of deep fake and circulation of false videos or written materials. Sometimes these are done so professionally that viewers will believe the information that is shared without a single doubt.

Social media tend to be inclusive because anyone can communicate through this medium. People from all over the world can post, access and share information that is on social media.

My PLN often highlights the view of others, if I like a post on Facebook, I will hit like to let the creator of the video know that I enjoyed the post. Sometimes, if I think it is useful to others I will even share the post to others who I think will be interested about this topic.

When it comes to policies of employer, the code of conduct has to be respected, one has to be conscious about what is being shared online, one should be cautious not to refer to your employment.

To build my PLN, I choose some people or organisations that I find interesting and I follow them. They often share information on their profile, which could be of interest to me. Then I follow those new people as we share the same interests and I add them to my PLN.  

Instructional approach: Inquiry-based learning

According to Queen’s university, inquiry-based learning harness the curiosity of learners. The responsibility for learning is often placed on the students, encouraging them to arrive at an understanding of concepts by themselves. (Queen’s University, 2023).

This learning approach makes learners more inquisitive and prompts them to find the answers to their questions, hence increasing their knowledge and competencies. Learners are active and they discover information individually, in pairs or groups. As an instructor, it is a good idea to choose topics that are of interest to the students, hence they will be more motivated to find out more about the subjects and learning becomes more meaningful. It is a also great opportunity for learners to share their knowledge and skills in the learning environment. Another Important element of inquiry-based learning is reflection and feedback from peers and instructors as it is a way to check learning. Inquiry-based approach encourages students to become self-directed learners and they learn to work collaboratively.

Inquiry-based learning aligns well with one of the blue print task on “Influence of social media users on us and our self-esteem”. Students will conduct research to answer a couple of guiding questions, which will be provided by the instructor. They will also analyse those guiding questions and create some sub questions that would be relevant to the guiding questions. Then, they will devise their own questions to find out about things that are of interest to them but making sure it is relevant to the topic. Coffman encourages instructors to “facilitate inquiry throughout the learning process to guide students in higher order thinking by having students question and reflect on their findings” *(Coffman, 2017, p.18); I will implement this in the research task because it is always good to evaluate information that we receive. Finally, students will communicate their findings in a blog post on Word Press.

For the blueprint, another member of the group is implementing the open pedagogy approach and I find that this is another interesting approach. Instead of being consumers of information, students become creators of information.

Inquiry-based approach is becoming more and more popular in the world of education; for example, International Baccalaureate schools find great value in this method.

Coffman, Teresa . Inquiry-based Learning. 3rd ed., Rowman and Littlefield, 2017.

Queen’s University . “Inquiry-based Learning.” Centre for Teaching and Learning, www.queensu.ca/ctl/resources/instructional-strategies/inquiry-based-learning#:~:text=What%20is%20Inquiry%2DBased%20Learning,by%20themselves.%20Lee%20et%20al. Accessed 23 Jun. 2023.

Inclusion plays an important role in the education system, British Columbia’s vision is “to provide inclusive and responsive learning environments that recognize the value of diversity and provide equity of access, opportunity and outcome for all students including students with disabilities and diverse abilities” (BC government).

Teachers cater for all students by diversifying the learning material, by taking into consideration students’ needs, by facilitating participation and building a rapport with every student. Educators ensure that students feel a sense of belonging by creating a welcoming and safe environment, focussing on increasing and maintaining students’ motivation and encouraging participation.

As Moore stated in her book, I agree that students should be given the option to learn, for example “to choose to work in the hallway, in the library, at desks or at tables – the more choices the better” and this variety help students to become more successful. (Moore, 2016, p.27).

Social media plays an important role in increasing my knowledge and developing my practice as a teacher. For example, I joined several Facebook groups that talks about teaching and learning. These groups are regional, national and international, of different school types and of different age groups. I believe that as educators we can all benefit from learning from one another; the more diverse the group the better, we learn more from people from different backgrounds, abilities, views and experiences. Thus, we can better support our learners.

Social media is such as important tool for our development and our contribution to our society and the world; it helps us to connect with individuals from all around the world. Furthermore, there are variety of social media platforms that we can benefit from, for example: we can use YouTube, which is a great audio-visual learning medium, and we can share our ideas, tips and strategies with the creator of the video as well as with other viewers; learning from one another.

BC . “Inclusive Education Resources.” British Columbia, 31 Jan. 2022, www2.gov.bc.ca/gov/content/education-training/k-12/teach/resources-for-teachers/inclusive-education. Accessed 16 Jun. 2023.

Moore, Shelly . One Without the Other : Stories of Unity Through Diversity and Inclusion. Portage and Main Press, 2016.

Nowadays, LinkedIn and Twitter seem to be among the most common digital platforms that individuals use to develop their professional network. They could also consider creating their own YouTube channels or create their own websites that they could share with their professional network.

Data privacy and security may limit PLN as the information that we share about ourselves are not always publicly available on the internet because we often limit access by setting some parameters for our own privacy and safety online.  On the other hand, organisations who are registered, have been vetted and legal and who agree to the terms and conditions of data privacy and security, they can access our information and be of our PLN’s.

I am considering creating a digital identity by using more professional sites such as LinkedIn or Twitter. To help build my reputation, I could include recommendations from some professionals in my profile to support any claims I make about myself.

 I think my social media presence would not affect my employability. I am mostly a visitor online and use it more professional reasons or as a requirement by some institutions.