When I first heard the world PLN, I thought that I still do not have it. However, after learning in class that PLN could be any groups where people learn from one another. In the previous readings, I was inspired by what Shelley Moore shared in one of her videos. According to her, students are more likely to be successful academically when they discussed the lesson with their peers. I would say that I agree with Moore, because in my case, whenever I did not get some of the concepts discussed by the professors during class discussion, I would seek help from my friends and it is actually a good thing that I learn the lessons through them. Now that everything is online, I could not only seek help from my friends but I could also seek the help of other teachers and professionals that I could connected with online. Just recently, I checked the #EdChat and #EconTwitter and it helped me expand my PLN. Aside from expanding my PLN, I also had an idea on how I could better improve my PLN.
I want my PLN to not just to help me but to help others as well. Just as Bianca Woods mentioned in her article, a PLN should not be a one-way street (73). This means that if I really wanted to get help through my PLN, I should also make it a point to make significant contributions that my PLN members could benefit from. One of the possible contributions that I can share in my PLN are infographics on basic economic terms and/or financial literacy. I have chosen these topics because I believe that people need to understand basic economic terms in order to better understand other topics in economics like financial literacy. Of course, my target audiences are not only Economic Majors like me. I also would like to reach young professionals who are planning their personal finances and those people who are struggling financially. In order to reach a wide variety of audiences, I believe that TikTok would be a great avenue.
While I was casually checking the trending TikTok videos last time, I came across a TikTok video of a kid who teaches people basic elements of music. Her videos are fun and interactive like as if she is talking to her audience. For instance, when she discussed the “Four On the Floor” concept in music, she played different popular music that follow this beat. She even mentioned that most of the songs that follow this beat are easy to dance to. After watching the short TikTok video, I had two realizations: (1) it is possible for people online to learn something new through a short video and (2) learning is really fun when it is entertaining. I am not into the technicalities of music but because I find her videos entertaining and her explanations easy to follow, I was encouraged to swipe up and check more of her videos. When I saw that the TikTok content creator has a lot of followers, I felt happy for her because she was able to reach a lot of people with a kind of content that actually makes sense.
Works Cited
Woods, Bianca. “Building your own PLN: seeking new insights and ideas? Expand your personal learning network.” T+D, vol. 67, no. 11, Nov. 2013, p. 70+. Gale OneFile: Business, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A348998538/ITBC?u=uvictoria&sid=ITBC&xid=1010abdf.