{"id":267,"date":"2020-09-13T10:20:22","date_gmt":"2020-09-13T13:20:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/malat-webspace.royalroads.ca\/rru0157\/?p=267"},"modified":"2020-09-13T10:20:22","modified_gmt":"2020-09-13T13:20:22","slug":"social-media-and-blogging","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/malat-webspace.royalroads.ca\/rru0157\/social-media-and-blogging\/","title":{"rendered":"Social Media and Blogging"},"content":{"rendered":"

Societal Relevance of Ed Tech (Chapters 9-18 of 25 Years of Ed Tech)<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

Media, in general, is a medium of consumption and, while there are aspects of it that I do enjoy (connecting with friends on Facebook), it seems that the Social Media climate has become extremely explosive of late, Twitter<\/a> especially. Aspects of trolling<\/a>, online abuse<\/a>, loss of employment<\/a>, offensive posts<\/a>, and concerns regarding fake news<\/a> have shown no signs of stopping since Weller’s book was written<\/a>. For these reasons, and because it is such an open platform, I have not had an account until beginning the MALAT program. As much as I see the discussion on Twitter, as well as its value in providing a platform or voice to marginalized groups<\/a>, I struggle with how these seemingly inherent traits create an unsafe environment for students, educators, and simply general discourse, as shown in the need for UNESCO to create a guide<\/a>. It has made me hesitant to engage, though it seems to be the platform where the most discussion occurs.<\/p>\n

For this reason I feel more comfortable with the idea of blogging and am grateful for the opportunity provided in the MALAT program for not only having a blog, but actively encouraging us to post through the course activities. In a world where information is limited by the amount of characters<\/a>, having a place where words are unlimited and ideas can be fleshed out feels like a remarkably different experience. You also have the ability to limit, to a degree, the visible replies which provides a more curated discussion where trolling and the more dangerous activities associated with Social Media are limited. Discussions can be more fleshed out and nuanced, allowing for views to be expounded with potentially less of the jumping to conclusions that we see on platforms where only a sentence or two is shared. The downside is that commenting tends to take a lot of time and time is often in short supply. It also seems to be more difficult to find blogs or join the conversation as there is no clear, central hub for Blogs.<\/p>\n

At the same time, I wonder if my own view is myopic. Just because a platform has inherent limitations does not make them flaws. Perhaps engagement needs to be reassessed as not worse or better, but just different. As Orben explains, there is a need for not just nuance but for those engaging in discussion on the internet to take a step back when posting and replying<\/a>. Being a researcher, it is understandable that Orben’s view would be to gather information and facts before simply reacting.<\/p>\n

If we are looking at learning as inherently collaborative, both of these methods allow for collaborative learning to occur. The question seems to be one of which is more useful or appropriate for a certain situation, but also seems to require education on its use so that students, educators and support staff feel they are able to engage in meaningful discussion in a like-minded community.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Societal Relevance of Ed Tech (Chapters 9-18 of 25 Years of Ed Tech) Media, in general, is a medium of consumption and, while there are aspects of it that I do enjoy (connecting with friends on Facebook), it seems that the Social Media climate has become extremely explosive of late, Twitter especially. Aspects of trolling, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":174,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[110,111,24,117,115,109,112,107,114,116,113,118,108,36],"class_list":["post-267","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-lrnt523","tag-blog","tag-blogging","tag-community","tag-education","tag-engagement","tag-malat","tag-marginalization","tag-media","tag-nuance","tag-orben","tag-platform","tag-safety","tag-social-media","tag-twitter"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/malat-webspace.royalroads.ca\/rru0157\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/267","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/malat-webspace.royalroads.ca\/rru0157\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/malat-webspace.royalroads.ca\/rru0157\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/malat-webspace.royalroads.ca\/rru0157\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/174"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/malat-webspace.royalroads.ca\/rru0157\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=267"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/malat-webspace.royalroads.ca\/rru0157\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/267\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":272,"href":"https:\/\/malat-webspace.royalroads.ca\/rru0157\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/267\/revisions\/272"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/malat-webspace.royalroads.ca\/rru0157\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=267"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/malat-webspace.royalroads.ca\/rru0157\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=267"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/malat-webspace.royalroads.ca\/rru0157\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=267"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}