My Flight Path

Current Coordinates

My experience with multimedia and technology has mostly stemmed from my education (taking different courses at UVIC) and my work experience in marketing as a marketing coordinator. I have used Canva and PowerPoint and have had experience creating educational content through previous EDCI courses. For instance, I have created comics and educational videos, which have helped me become more comfortable with presenting visual information that is easy to understand. I feel like one of my strengths is organizing the layout of visuals so that the information is easy to understand. In my last education class, we talked a lot about why this is important, and I have found over the years how important clear visuals are in having a deeper understanding of topics being presented in class. When I was a marketing coordinator, I focused on creating visuals for their social media and organizing advertisements for their brand in the local community. This taught me to tap into my creative side and allowed me to continue improving my design skills. Therefore, I feel like my skills are design and teaching to an audience.

Although I am familiar with social media, I have not really looked into using this as a learning tool. I use platforms like TikTok and Instagram, which I know can be used for educational purposes, but I typically associate them with entertainment rather than learning. I am very comfortable with using social media, but I want to learn how to intentionally use it for learning specifically.

Mapping the Route

One of my main goals for this course is to learn how social media can help support my future career and my final year of university. Since I am studying Psychology, Technology & Society, and Business, I am interested in how technology can be used in different professional settings. I want to use social media to find useful information and learn how to use it as a helpful learning resource. I also want to explore the biases that can exist on social media and become better at analyzing the information I come across. My goal is to develop the ability to identify what information is useful and relevant while also recognizing when information may be biased or unreliable. Rather than just using social media to scroll as a break, I want to become more conscious about what I am consuming. I am also interested in using social media to develop a personal learning network. Last year I created a LinkedIn account and have been making an effort to connect with people and build my professional network. However, I want to continue to learn to help support my professional development, like finding out the best approachable messages to send or learning how to word questions to get the best responses. Since I have chosen to study a variety of different areas and I am still unsure about exactly what career I want to pursue, I think developing further connections could help me learn about different career paths as I enter the job market.

Lastly, another area I want to learn more about goes hand in hand with what I mentioned above about biases. I want to better understand what it means that the Internet is not a neutral or equal space for everyone. Since I want to use social media as a source of information, I think it is important to understand how things like algorithms, biases, and access to information can influence what people see online.

Anticipating Turbulence

Part of the course that appears the most daunting is fully understanding data ownership and copyright. Even though I am fairly comfortable using social media, I do not know much about what happens behind the scenes when I use these platforms. I think it will be interesting to think more critically about something that I normally do not consider when using these platforms. I plan on asking questions when I am not understanding something and use my classmates as resources as well. I like how supportive this class is and how easy it is to help each other out. By the end of this class I hope to be more confident with understanding how social media can support learning and my professional development in the real world as I move into the job market shortly!