Beyond this course, I plan to further my digital identity by making an effort to work on the ‘Interactivity and connectivity’ piece of building a PLN. With regard to this stage, it is said that “to obtain knowledge produced from the activity performed in the network” (Morgado & Oliveira, 2014, pp.473) “dialogue and interaction [must occur] between members of the network” (Morgado & Oliveira, 2014, pp.473). Therefore, I think that it is important for me, moving forward in my career, to try to engage more with others on social media. In addition, in order to ensure that this dialogue can be two-way, I think that I will have to make it a priority to create some content of my own. Having a digital identity in my chosen field of Health Informatics is crucial to ensuring continual professional development and learning, and often comes with opportunities such as the chance to collaborate on projects, job offers, invitations to events, and invitations to speak at events. In any tech-oriented industry, it is important that the community is well connected and is making an effort to learn continuously as technology tends to change and adapt at a rapid pace. These connections in addition, ensure that good ideas in our space spread and can be adopted far from where ideas originated.
Throughout my time in post secondary, I have been connecting with peers, professors and professionals in the community in an attempt to build a mix of ‘strong’ and ‘weak’ ties in my PLN. I have met most of my connections through school, but have connected with some at extracurricular events, and through volunteering. I do think that as I progress through steps of my career that I will be able to rely on my PLN for professional opportunities. Many graduates of my program stay connected with one another and collaborate on projects, or come back to guest lecture for certain classes. I have also heard stories from others in my cohort of receiving offers to interview through LinkedIn. It should be noted, however that these students tend to have professional headshots on their profiles, and extensive co-op experience. So while connections are important, you also must have the knowledge, credentials and online presence to warrant people wanting to reach out to you.
References
Zaphiris, P., & Ioannou, A. (2014). Learning and Collaboration Technologies. Technology-Rich Environments for Learning and Collaboration First International Conference, LCT 2014, Held as Part of HCI International 2014, Heraklion, Crete, Greece, June 22-27, 2014, Proceedings, Part II. Cham, Switzerland: Springer International Publishing.
Hi Rachelle,
I quit agree with your last point about Linkedln. It is undoubtedly important to share and interact frequently and increase activity on social media. However, the professional nature of Linkedln suggests that we present more professional content on our personal homepage. This is why the barriers to entry for social networking are low, but the barriers for social development are extremely high.
Hi Rachelle,
This is a very insightful reflection on this week’s topic. When you said that most of your connections are through school while some are through extracurricular events, I realized that one of the advantages of PLNs is that it keeps you in touch with different people. In my personal experience, I still managed to keep in touch with those I meet through seminars during the pre-pandemic times. It is just amazing that I met those people only once but we constantly contact each other whenever we wanted to confirm an information or we just wanted to exchange ideas.