Reflection (Week 11, Blog 3)

 This week was an "international" day for me personally, which aligns with this week's topic. I flew from Korea back to Tallahassee after visiting my family for three months. As someone who has lived in the UK and the US for a fair number of years but spent the most time growing up in Korea, my home country has never felt so exotic. When I landed in Korea at the end of April, everything felt surreal. People walking on the street, cars and transportation, cafes open late at night—it had only been nine months since I was last home (still wondering where I should call home), but it felt extremely different. When I returned to Tallahassee, I had a similar feeling: "Why is everything so surreal?"

 I guess this is where reality kicks in for somebody living away from their home country in a different culture, speaking a different language, etc. Social media can definitely connect you with "what you miss," whether that be casual conversations with friends or your favorite places to visit. It also helps in gaining an international view—I found that there are so many statistics and travel information shared on Threads (the new text-based version of Instagram)! However, it can at the same time deepen the gap between those who have access to it and those who do not. This is an interesting point to delve into further, and I'm also interested in having a more international viewpoint when conducting research in my areas of interest.

Is Social Media Connecting the World or Not? (Week 11, Blog 2)

 Is social media connecting the world or not? This is a tricky question to answer. First, I thought yes, of course. We get to see and connect with others worldwide by the click of a mouse. We see different profiles from different backgrounds and choose to connect with selective ones, laugh at some funny memes made by you-know-who, or even participate in making similar reels or challenges on TikTok or Instagram. Especially with the AI-assisted translator functions, we can connect with somebody from the opposite of the globe. Yes, those are all the silver lining sides. 

Change of thoughts - if you think about those who might not be exposed to these contents, or, I would say, opportunities, do they even have access in the first place? Isn't social media rather solidifying the connection between the chosen and leaving some behind? These are some important points to consider, and I'd like to hear your thoughts!

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Social Media Use in Developing Countries (Week 11, Blog 1)

 One can vaguely imagine the lack of social media use in developing countries and how it could be due to the lack of infrastructure. When I jumped into the school library to search terms with the keywords "social media" and "developing countries," I found many articles written during the time of COVID-19, which especially hit those countries hard. I found this article by Haque et al. (2023), a comparatively recent publication, which elaborates on examining not only the use of social media in Bangladesh, an emerging country but also closely looking at some mediating effects that may be related to the culture. 

 Haque et al. (2023) explore how factors like social value, communication, trust, and perceived benefits of sharing knowledge through social media enhance the academic development of university students. They also examine how families and technology support have mediating effects. Here are some quotes I want to share from the paper:

"Bangladesh’s internet and digital technology use have grown rapidly in recent years. ... Bangladesh’s socioeconomic growth depends on education. To meet development goals, the government is expanding and improving education. Studying growth in academia, especially in relation to social media and technology, can help enhance educational outcomes and the nation’s overall development....  Bangladeshis value family. Parents often influence their children’s educational and employment choices." (Haque et al., 2023, p.3)

"From observation, it was found that the direct and positive influence of communication and collaboration in social media for academic development are significantly related to family and technological support. The findings from the study endorsed the positive relationship of communication and collaboration factors, and there was a mediation of family and technological support between them. ... Thus, family and technological support play a significant role in a student’s academic performance at the university level." (Haque et al., 2023, p.19)

I think this finding has much to imply to other developing countries, and even some developed countries, but with the high digital divide or educational gap. Especially in countries where the internet itself is expanding and influencing to a great extent, social media can play a crucial role in students achieving networked knowledge and knowledge sharing. Also, support from families and technology could be crucial in students achieving performance to the extent that they make the best out of social media.

References

Haque, M. A., Zhang, X., Akanda, A. E. A., Hasan, M. N., Islam, M. M., Saha, A., ... & Rahman, Z. (2023). Knowledge Sharing among students in social media: the mediating role of family and technology supports in the academic development nexus in an emerging country. Sustainability, 15(13), 9983.

Digital Citizenship (Week 10, Blog 1)

 Richardson and Milovidov (2019), a digital citizenship education handbook created by the Council of Europe, discusses digital citizenship in the setting surrounding schools and families. A digital citizen is defined as "someone who, through the development of a broad range of competences, is able to actively, positively and responsibly engage in both on and offline communities, whether local, national or global" (Richardson & Milovidov, 2019, p.11). The figure below describes principles that can be used to guide and assess digital citizenship skills from contextual, informational, and organizational levels.

Figure 4: Nine guiding principles for digital citizenship (Richardson & Milovidov, 2019, p. 19)

 ISTE standards also handle digital citizenship. ISTE standards, which are designed to guide students and educators in using technology, specifically provide standards for students on how to be digital citizens. Below are the standards under this category.

1.2.a. Digital Footprint: Students manage their digital identity and understand the lasting impact of their online behaviors on themselves and others and make safe, legal and ethical decisions in the digital world.

1.2.b. Online Interaction: Students demonstrate empathetic, inclusive interactions online and use technology to responsibly contribute to their communities.

1.2.c. Safeguard Well-being: Students safeguard their well-being by being intentional about what they do online and how much time they spend online.

1.2.d. Digital Privacy: Students take action to protect their digital privacy on devices and manage their personal data and security while online. 

Responsibility, opportunity, security, and privacy are some common terms mentioned in both principles that underpin digital citizenship for students. These critical points must be considered for students living in this world to protect themselves from any cyber harms and to become digitally mature. 

Reference

International Society for Technology (2020). ISTE Standards. https://www.iste.org/standards

Richardson, J., & Milovidov, E. (2019). Digital citizenship education handbook: Being online, well-being online, and rights online. Council of Europe.

Reflection (Week 9, Blog 3)

This week, reading many of my classmates' posts on group messaging tools and their thoughts on them was very interesting. I could feel that everyone has their own take on what works best for them and what doesn't. It was refreshing to reflect on the platforms I use daily for communication. Some platforms certainly work well in fostering a sense of belonging within a community.

Linking this to my research interest, I want to explore how teachers use these messaging tools to feel a sense of belonging and how it can help build their PLN. I look forward to exploring and elaborating on this topic in the upcoming assignments!

Group Messaging Tools (Week 9, Blog 2)

 This week's tool focused on looking at different communication tools for group usage. We have more and more new platforms coming out, and some past ones dwindling in popularity. The list can go from more daily and immediate platforms like WhatsApp, GroupMe, iMessage, Instagram DM, and Facebook Messenger to more group-based platforms with lots of resource sharing, such as Slack, MS Teams, Miro, Discord, and Padlet. You can find more tools on this website (even though this talks more about the business side, many things overlap!)

One question that stood out for me this week is whether we need all these different tools. As a graduate student engaging in different research projects and some social groups, I am currently using almost all the tools listed above. Some projects or research teams even combine tools like MS Teams plus GroupMe, Slack plus WhatsApp, etc, to boost efficiency. I agree with the part about how different people prefer different platforms, and each platform has its pros and cons, but sometimes it gets overwhelming. It can mean you have to check on each different platform every day so as not to miss any important news! 

Another issue to look at when discussing group messaging tools is whether we want all notifications turned on. What if we want to turn off and miss out on the very important news that you had to receive? Is there to blame someone if you miss a chat, or is it the responsibility of individuals to catch up on it? 

Here are some things we can consider when it comes to group messaging tools. Everybody seeks efficient and meaningful communication tools. What are your thoughts?

Digital Detox (Week 9, Blog 1)

 It's been long since I wrote my last post here. I gave myself a digital detox for two weeks. I can't say I was off my laptop and phone the whole time, but I spent considerably less time online. And it felt great! 

One good thing about staying away from online was giving my brain a rest from ongoing news. Sometimes, these news whether it be a gossip on social media or politics on local news page, especially headlines that are very provocative make people tired. Your brain needs a break and you need a break. 

Apart from this digital detox period, I have also been in my personal detox from Instagram. I have been spending considerably less time on Instagram which is my main social media platform. Checking people's accounts much less actually didn't change my life at all. I sometimes felt some pressure of having to upload what I'm doing, eating, and up to on a daily basis, but I didn't do it for a while on my private account and nothing changed. I saved some time having to take a picture that I want to upload and contemplating on what comments to write. I don't know how long I will do this but for now it feels great! 

Now, off to the last few weeks of the semester. I would say I feel refreshed, and I plan to spend more time on exploring course materials and keep writing blogs! 

Reflection (Week 6, Blog 3)

 This week, I couldn't spend much time online as I had some personal duties to finish. However, this week's topic interested me, and as next week's topic continues with the same content, I would like to explore the networked knowledge activities more.

For the next assignment, I plan to choose a concept version instead of a full version this time. I am considering choosing Instagram and Threads as Threads is advertised as Instagram's new text-version app, and I wonder what similarities and differences lie between these two platforms. I am an active user on Instagram but not on Threads, so exploring how people engage in knowledge sharing and tracking will be meaningful. I can't wait to hear what platforms others decide to choose for this assignment! 

Networked Knowledge Activities Using Miro (Week 6, Blog 2)

According to Dennen's (forthcoming) definition of six networked knowledge activities, learners engage in the activities of collecting, curating, sharing, brokering, negotiating, and constructing to manage, communicate, and create knowledge. One of the tools that make these activities possible is Miro.

Last semester, I started using Miro very actively across the classes I took and the class I taught. Before, I used Padlet quite often as my teaching tool, but after finding out about Miro and how interactive it can be, I dug deeper into it. The screenshots below show how I used Miro as a teaching material. I provided question or topic prompts and created the background and overall space where students could put sticky notes under similar categories and simultaneously see what others have shared. Students collected and curated knowledge by searching web engines or drawing from their own opinions. They shared and negotiated while discussing with each other to figure out the questions, and they constructed knowledge by coming up with agreed answers or creative thoughts.

Example 1

Example 2

Miro has more interactive features, and I believe I only used it for limited usage. I remember one student saying that all the cursors hovering over the screen simultaneously made her nervous. This could be the downside of Miro, as it can be a barrier to forming networked knowledge activities. What was your experience using Miro as a teaching or learning material?

References

Dennen, V. P. (forthcoming). Networked Knowledge Activities Excerpt from Social Media for Active Learning.

Blog Makeover Challenge (Week 6, Blog 1)

 This week, I chose to participate in the Blog Makeover Challenge. I wanted to change my blog a little bit to make it easier for myself and the readers to navigate. And to be more visually pleasing!

Below is what my blog looked like before and after:

Before

After

Some of the changes I made are:

1. Gadgets: On the top gadget space, I added the most popular blogs and limited the number to three. It is nice to see which ones got the most views. On the right sidebar, I included a list of all blog posts written so far. This will give a general overview of what I wrote; readers can easily move to it just by clicking the title.

2. Fonts: I didn't like the font of the title and the gadgets, so I changed to a slightly more neat one.

3. Background: I uploaded my favorite picture as a background image, which I took at the Parrish Art Museum in NY when I visited there back in 2020. 

I hope this makeover feels as I intended it to!

Reflection (Week 5, Blog 3)

 I was a little bit behind this week due to a family trip to Jeju Island. I finished the community assignment before I went on a trip, and now I am catching up on some challenges and writing blog posts. With the assignment, It was a great opportunity to analyze two communities using a theory from previous articles and my point of view. I am excited about the upcoming assignments and what I can learn from them. I also noticed my peers' comments on my latest posts - I appreciate them and plan to leave comments soon. I also plan to be more active in checking others' posts and some of the course accounts on social media platforms this week. At the same time, I try to stay not too overwhelmed by the number of tools introduced in this course as how Dr. Dennen described as a "social media buffet." I should focus on one or two tools each week and explore the ones that I can learn best. 

Flickr Challenge (Week 5, Blog 2)

I explored Flickr this week more closely. Flickr provides high-quality images and allows users to share and use others' work, automatically crediting the authors. Although some pictures seem to be outdated and the website is full of ads, just like many other tools these days, the gallery seemed to be a great space for teaching and learning resources. 

Below is the gallery I created for the Flickr Challenge. 

 Flickr Challenge

I chose "famous architecture" as a lesson topic. As students learn about different types of architecture and the history related to it in geography or social studies class, this gallery can help them see the actual pictures of these works. One thing we should be cautious about is unintentionally creating bias when introducing examples of images related to the topic. To prevent this, teachers can encourage students to create their own galleries by exploring on their own and presenting them to peers. 

Intellectual Property Online (Week 5, Blog 1)

The topic of intellectual property, copyright, and privacy always seems to be a very tricky matter to me. Even though we all know the importance of giving attribution and being given attribution by others when they are using or sharing my work, is it possible to check whenever you come across any resources online? What if the work you want to use has no CC license tagged? Can you make a presumption that this is a fair trade or public domain work and reuse it as you wish? 

When I was discussing this topic with the undergrads I was teaching last semester, these questions popped up to me. So, if only the judge decided whether the work falls into the category of fair trade, what could individuals do? Also, even if you shared some work under a specific license you approved, how can you check if somebody gave you the attribution as they were supposed to? Is there a way to track them?

As technologies evolve beyond our imagination, the issue of giving credit to one's ownership seems to get into even more blurry areas. Let's say you used some information you acquired from interacting with ChatGPT. Is it enough to give credit to just ChatGPT? Do you know where the information was coming from? Because this is such a tricky matter and will become trickier, it is essential to guide students in thinking about this issue—where we can make the blurry line clearer and what we can do at the very least. It will be good practice to start giving credit from a young age and to begin thinking about the importance of protecting copyrights and ownership.

"This image is copyrighted" by liako is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0.

Reflection (Week 3, Blog 3)

 This week, I started joining many online communities. I joined the class LinkedIn and Reddit, started following more of my classmates on Instagram, and enjoyed reading their posts! I haven't had time to interact with my peers on the blog, which I will catch up on soon.

 Some of the participation I did this week: I wrote a post on class Reddit on which subreddits I follow. I also uploaded a long hot weekend challenge on Instagram, showing what I did during weekends. Here is a more detailed version of the challenge.

1. Sports: I went on a walk to the park right across from where I live. 

2. Nature: I visited my parents' house, which is located in Cheonan, a rural area in Korea. It is literally in the middle of the mountains, so I loved the scenery and how quiet it was.

3. The arts: Some watercolor painting pieces are at my parents' house, so I can call them arts?

6. Fine dining: My family cooked every meal with what we had at a farm so I can call it fine "nature" dining!

7. A barbecue & 8. Relaxing: Enjoyed the rural area experience to its fullest, doing a barbecue outside and relaxing on a hammock. My niece was obsessed with playing with bubble toys I spent hours making bubbles with her!

10. Big night out: I wouldn't necessarily call it a big night out but we did celebrate my parents' 60th birthday. We threw a small party at home and took thousands of pictures. 

So this was my weekend. I plan to take a week off next week on writing blogs as I will be away from the town the whole week. I will be working on reading materials and catching up on my peers' posts as best as I can. 

Reddit: The New Tool (Week 3, Blog 2)

 Reddit has always been an online space that I wanted to explore more. Growing up in my cultural background, Reddit wasn't so widespread in Korea. There is an alternative Web 2.0 space called Naver, but it is mostly limited to usage in Korea.

 I heard some great things about Reddit before, especially how it helps you gain information from particular groups of people. One of my friends told me how she searched for information on apartments before starting the graduate program to see general sentiments on places she was interested in. If I had used Reddit like her, I would have decided to stay at an apartment other than where I am currently staying in Tallahassee! 

 So, I dug into Reddit this week. For the Community Assignment, I decided to join R/PhD. I was surprised at how active people were in the space and reading other people's posts with concerns similar to mine. I could relate to many circumstances and get help just by reading them. I read from the links on the course Canvas page that you earn "karma" on Reddit by participating and contributing to the community. My current karma point is low, but since I chose to be an "active participant" there for the assignment, I will try to see how it goes forward.

Context Collapse Online & My Instagram Network Diagram (Week 3 Blog 1)

 This week's VoiceThread really made me think about the context collapse I am experiencing online. I want to focus only on Instagram because that's the platform I most frequently use, and it lets users create different accounts. 

 I currently have three accounts I regularly use. My main account, which is private, started back in 2015 when I was an undergrad. So far, I have 453 posts posted on this account with many highlights of stories, which shows how active I am in sharing my life, travels, hobbies, and food I eat within my network. I was surely more active back when my network was relatively small. However, as I started living abroad, getting involved in different communities and networks, and began my career, I started to be cautious about what I uploaded, even within my network. Once, I even had a few of my elementary students I teach request to follow me, which made me very uncomfortable. I did not ever want to share my personal life with such young kids! I also had some people I didn't even know follow me at one time I made it public. This was the moment I experienced context collapse, which limited my freedom to share whatever I liked and whatever I used to. This constant self-censoring led me to open another account.

 My second account is very, very private. I only have 15 of my closest circle of friends follow me, and I upload my life - more so that it doesn't need a careful selection of pictures and more of a diary format (I feel like I can be more genuine here).

 Then I have my third account, which I opened at the beginning of this year mainly because I needed an instructor account for the undergraduate course I taught. I have been too busy to upload anything there, but I did communicate with students and followed some of my colleagues, professors, educators, and accounts related to my field.

 I created this diagram using Canva and realized that my main account and professional account rarely overlap. I think I prefer these accounts to be shared with different groups of people as the purpose is different. Then I start to wonder for those following my main account or my professional account only, do they know real me? Do they have to know the real me? Can I say we are on the same page within the network, or do I prefer it this way? If you have similar questions or wonder, please leave comments! I'm happy to discuss this with more of you :) 

Reflection (Week 2 Blog 3)

 This week, we started focusing on more specific terms related to Web 2.0 - produsage and digital natives. I wasn't so familiar with the word produsage before, so reading articles and peers' posts and getting involved in discussion helped a lot. 

 I know this is a choose-your-own-adventure type of course, but as a person who prefers to have plans, I think now I found the right rhythm of days to navigate this course that best suits me. I plan to read uploaded articles or watch VoiceThread at least by Tuesday and write the first blog post on a topic that interests me. Then, I plan to start participating in discussion posts and interacting with peers by commenting on blogs from Wednesday, writing another blog post on any new tools I tried by Friday, and writing a reflection post on Sunday. I will see how it goes!

 One more reflective point about using Feeder to connect with peers. I have been enjoying it a lot as I can navigate it so easily to see any new posts my peers have uploaded. However, it would have been better if I had gotten a notification about whether somebody had replied to my comment. I visited some of my peers' blogs and wrote a comment, but since there are many peers in this course and many posts are constantly uploaded, it is hard to keep track of where I left my comment. Does anyone relate to this? If you know how to get Feeder or just the Blogger itself to give me notifications, please let me know!

Are Digital Natives All Tech Savvy? (Week 2 Blog 2)

Are digital natives all tech-savvy? This is an interesting question, considering how many diverse technologies have been available and more than two decades have passed since Prensky first coined the term "digital native." Prensky(2001) referred to one's familiarity with technology as "accent" and "language." It is explained that the new generations think differently, raising the need to teach them differently. 

Illustration by Vanda Kovacs

As a former elementary school teacher, I did face some noticeable differences regarding this matter with the students I taught. I remember back in 2020, when I asked my 6th-grade students to search specific terms using the smart pads provided, most of them immediately started searching on YouTube. This was a surprise for me. I assumed that they would go to Google or Naver, a popular search engine in Korea. I remember asking them why they would use YouTube to search for things, and they said that because somebody explains it to them with video and audio, it is easier to understand. After that, I started to realize that some gaps do exist. Young generations these days are relatively more familiar with short video forms, creating and sharing them. They selectively use social media to share their life and to connect with others. 

However, it can cause some problems when making such generalizations that all digital natives will be tech-savvy. Below are two news articles I found interesting - stating that students may not be as tech-savvy as teachers or professors presume. 

Universities must stop presuming that all students are tech-savvy_TimesHigherEducation

Students Say They Are Not as Tech Savvy as Educators Assume_EdSurge

So what are the implications for teachers, then? Teachers should take into consideration that there can be a possible digital divide in the classroom and provide appropriate support. Assuming that students will have or lack existing knowledge or skills just because they fall into specific generations can be dangerous. This can be connected with the topic of digital literacy. What is digital literacy, and how can it be defined? What consists of digital literacy and are there different standards applied for different generations? What should be taught to enhance students' digital literacy and ease of use? I plan to dig deeper into it and look forward to discussing it with my peers! 

References

Prensky, M. (2001). Digital natives, digital immigrants part 1. On the Horizon, 9(5), 1-6. 

Learning about a new tool - RSS Reader (Week 2 Blog 1)

 As the world is filled with more and more information, I think we do reach a point where we get mixed up with what I follow in which account under which platform. This was a problem for me, too. I wanted to be up-to-date with the news that I was interested in and followed several accounts on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. As Instagram is the platform that I check most regularly, I tend to get news from Instagram page that I follow. The AI algorithm is also smart enough to tailor my feed after seeing how much time I spend reading these posts, which means what appears on my feed changes from time to time. So, I do not have the same amount of exposure to this news on a regular basis.

 I believe this week's new tool can be one possible solution to this problem. I wasn't so familiar with the RSS Reader program before, but after downloading Feeder, I could see how easy and quick it could be to get information on just one page. I was surprised to see how it generates new blog posts from my peers just by uploading the HTML file with the blogs' URL information. This will allow me to easily access my peers' posts and leave comments. I also connected some newsletter pages and keywords to have it appear on my feed. I will keep exploring what to add to my feed, and to manage a reasonable amount of feeds that do not overwhelm me but rather help me in getting information.

Reflection (Week 1 Blog 3)

 This week focused on Web 2.0 and its related terms. The second discussion topic and thread on Information or Instruction especially had me thinking about what role Web 2.0 and social media can play in an instructional context. With the configuration and distribution of information over media, there rises the importance of choosing the right information to one's needs. The topic of networking and community was also interesting, and I hope to learn more about this in the following week.

 Next week, I plan to participate more in the discussion sections and explore more about the networks and communities formed online with my social media accounts. 

Web 2.0 Tensions (Week 1 Blog 2)

 While watching Dr. Dennen's VoiceThread, the last couple of slides about Web 2.0 challenges and tensions stood out to me. Although Web 2.0 brings huge benefits to both educators and students, some barriers exist because of the nature of social media. Can the benefit of wide access counterbalance the threat of lack of accuracy of information? Likewise, can the merit of forming a networked community over social media counterbalance the lack of control? These are some interesting questions that arose to me and are also closely related to what I have been exploring in a few of my projects.

 The first question can be closely related to students' data literacy skills and, more broadly, media literacy. With the flood of information over social media platforms, gauging students' skills and knowledge regarding checking the accuracy of information is essential. This can give insights into what kinds of data literacy education should be held at the K-12 school level.

 The second question reminds me of my experience as a 6th-grade homeroom teacher back in 2020. During the pandemic, teachers couldn't really control what students were going through on social media. They were doing their best to connect with each other - which is a great thing, but at the same time, a number of cyberbullying cases were reported to the school. This issue is more of an ethical/behavioral matter but cannot be overlooked. 

 I hope to explore these questions so forth as the semester progresses. 

My First Blog Post (Week 1 Blog 1)

 I am excited to join this EME6414 course. The last couple of weeks have certainly provided me with a refreshing time to take myself away from my laptop and enjoy rest to its full extent. Now that I am back into student mode, I can't wait for what this summer semester goes like! 

While introducing myself to the discussion board, I realized that I have some professional social media accounts but rarely use them. Now is a good time to start building my social presence throughout this course and be more active. Below are my accounts.

LinkedIn

Twitter/X

Instagram