Blog Post #3

Visitors & Residents map “is designed to explore individuals engagement with the Web” (White, D. 2019). According to my map, I focus uniformly on the personal & visitor, personal & residents, residents & institutional sectors, the institutional & visitors sector is less slightly.

1.What digital platforms are students currently using to develop their professional network?

Based on my V&R map, the digital platforms that students currently using to develop their professional network could be google search engine, LinkedIn and Indeed. In google search engine, students could find out the answers of the questions they want to know, or receive any new knowledge and information they never know before. After filling their professional area with brand new information, their professional network would be developed. For example, students from psychology program could learn more about people’s micro-expression, which they do not know before, by searching on google so that their knowledge base could be developed and their professional network could become wider. LinkedIn and Indeed have similar function for students to develop their professional network. These two applications records students’ professional information such as study career, learning fields, past experiences and professional interests. As these searchable information could be found by others, such as employers or people who have the same hobbies, students could get opportunities to chat with them and contact with more people in the professional area so that students’ professional network could be developed.

2.What can you (as a student) consider to expand your professional learning network?

As students, they could expand my professional learning network by participate in online activities, or communicate and display their abilities to others who are interested in or expert in the same professional area. Online activities could provide students opportunities to practice their abilities, learn new skills and know more people who are related to the professional area. For example, If a student is studying in English language major in the university, he/she could find opportunities such as online volunteer works for English institutions (being a translator, or being a teacher assistant of an online course). While helping others through the volunteer work, this student could also develop his/her professional skills at the same time. Meanwhile, participate in volunteer works always enroll cooperation with many new people, this is also an opportunity to make new friends who study in the same professional area on the internet. As a student’s skills are developing, and the people he/she knows more and more on the internet, his/her professional learning network would expand. Same as communicating to the others who are interested in the same professional area on the internet, communications would help students build relationships with strangers so that the students could receive new information and expand their professional learning network by sharing different thoughts and perspectives with strangers. In addition, to display students’ abilities on the internet may attract people who are expert in the professional area. In this way, students could meet people at a higher-level. As they can learn many new knowledge from higher-level people, their online professional learning networks could go one better.

3.In your network, how can you create a digital identity/reputation?

To create a digital identity or reputation in the network, the most important thing is to let people know the existence of you. If a person does nothing in his/her online community, or completely live without social in his/her network, this person would never build a digital identity or reputation. The reputation or digital identity always base on a person’s footprint on the internet. For example, the comments that you leave under a forum, the chat between you and your friends, or the posts or blog you shared on your community. These activities could all build digital identities. Therefore, If I want to build reputation or digital identity on the network, I would participate in online activates actively. If I want to build a positive personal reputation, I could share positive posts or chat with friends friendly. If I want to build a positive professional reputation, I could participate in the forums that relate to my professional area and express significant communications with others.

4.Consider what a local employer would do if you applied for a job with them – can they search the content, is it of benefit to the career path, does it hinder the opportunity of employment?

I think if an employer wants to hire someone, he/she always wants to know about that person’s age, appearance, personality, abilities as well as what do his/her friends say about this person. If I am the person who wants to apply for a job, the searchable contents of me on the internet may benefit to the career path, but also may hinder the opportunity of employment because the footprint on the internet could represent the first impression that the employers have of me. For example on the LinkedIn, If the information on my profile is interested by the employer and think I am right for this job, the searchable footprint of mine is benefit to my career path. If the employer does not satisfy with my information and think I am not that suitable for this position, sometimes I would lose the opportunity to show my abilities to the employers in real interview. Therefore, in this situation the searchable footprint may hinder my opportunity of employment. As all the people want to protect their privacy and security from public internet, sometimes their defense mechanism may cause them lose opportunities to participate in online activities, or to chat with strangers to share thoughts and receive new things. Under this situation, the limitations to expand PLN arouse. However, the privacy and security of data could also provide people safe environment to develop PLN. If people’s privacy and security are guaranteed, most of people would willing to expand their PLN. Therefore, the data privacy and security is double-aged sword, it could cause the limitations of PLN due to people’s defense mechanism of leaking information, but it also could provide people safe environment to develop PLN.

Reference:

White, D. (2020, January 13). V&R mapping. Retrieved February 06, 2021, from http://daveowhite.com/vandr/vr-mapping/