Reply to Hamzah Shihadeh’s Blog Post 5

I really like the way that Hamzah provided clear evidence to show how popular and useful YouTube is for online learning and communication. Personally, I definitely agree that “YouTube is useful because it caters to a wide range of impairments and learning modifications”. In my opinion, YouTube allows for more e-learning opportunities and it’s free, accessible, and open for people who are from different places to learn and communicate online asynchronously. Also, in Hamzah’s post, an interesting idea attracts my attention as well, which is about “how well online courses will do depending on the learner and their environment”. In my opinion, if social media is used in a safe and appropriate way in our education, it will benefit learners and help to fill in the gaps in learning successfully. Moreover, in my opinion, Hamzah’s ideas and examples in the post are very clear, effective, and useful. 

Reply to AbdulAziz AlChammat’s Blog Post 5

Personally, I think AbdulAziz’s post is very clear and well-structured. Also, AbdulAziz provides some new and different ideas about using social media in education, which I had never thought before. For example, as AbdulAziz mentioned in the post, some social media tools, such as Chegg, Quizlet, and Khan Academy, “are banned by institutions across the world, as they have been used in ways that may result in cheating or plagiarism”. For myself, I had used Khan Academy to participate in online learning before, but I had never thought about its risks. AbdulAziz’s ideas provide me more new perspectives about using social social in our learning. Additionally, I agree with the opinion about that “enhancing strict rules and regulations with consequences will create a formal and professional setting where people are interacting appropriately”. In my opinion, while enhancing strict rules and regulations, we should also keep our posts and other interactions focused on productive conversations and behave in a respectful manner. 

Questions

How does a PLN help and hinder the development of thoughts and ideas in education discourse?

In my opinion, a PLN can either help or hinder the development of thoughts and ideas in education discourse. When a PLN is diverse, we can not only build a direct connection and interaction with other thinkers, but also can learn from their ideas, communicate with them, and gain new perspectives from them. However, social media may determine what the content that we will see on the platforms; therefore, it may cause bias and hinder the development of our thoughts as well. In my opinion, having an inclusive PLN and accepting hearing from different voices will be much more useful and effective for us to learn from different perspective and reduce bias from media. 

How do educators create discourse?

One of the functions of discourse in education is to allow instructors to communicate academic subject materials to their students. Educators can explain and discuss the ideas and concepts that they are to get across to their students by using social media tools. For example, they can use social media tools, such as Zoom, to create synchronous online meeting, in order to talk to their students, listen to them, and answer their questions. By using social media, educators and instructors can create discourse effectively. 

What is the role of social media in education?

In my opinion, the role of social media in education is to help both students and teachers to get more useful information, connect with and interact with other educational systems, and make education more effective and convenient. The use of social media will not only provide more learning opportunities to learners, but also will improve learning and/or teaching methods effectively. 

What are some problems with social media communications in educational settings?

However, in my opinion, there are also some problems with social media communications in educational settings. For example, First, if students are encouraged to participate in-class discussion and communication through social media, it may impact their ability to interact in face-to-face situations. Also, it’s difficult to monitor how students use social media communications in their learning process. Students will easily be distracted when using social media communication in online class.