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

Nowadays, to create a professional network, students are using digital platforms to further their connections. I often see students using networks such as LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, Indeed, business Instagram accounts, etc. These platforms allow students to showcase their previous work experiences, and network based on their professional interests and goals. This also makes it easy for professionals in the industry to view these professional profiles as it clearly lays out and gives brief descriptions of the person’s work experience, skills, interests, and other relevant information needed by the employer for professional matters.

What could the student consider in expanding their professional learning network?

To build upon and expand their professional learning network, students should use professional networks specifically for professional use to connect with people in their specific area of interest as well as attend professional development workshops and meetings to further expand their networking. For example, as a future teacher, I will attend Professional Development Days so that I can network with other experts in the field to share resources and continue my learning journey. By putting ourselves out there and connecting further with other professionals, we are able to build a network full of other professionals which can help us to learn from one another, gain perspective from others in the field, as well as build lifelong connections to help us through our career journey. Building our professional learning network online allows us to ensure that we can keep in touch with these connections and have an easy way of contacting them if needed. We are also able to make more connections through using online networks as we can connect with more people who we share mutuals with. Being able to maintain these connections, share resources, experiences, etc through one networking platform such as LinkedIn makes it much easier for our professional networking community to grow.

How does data privacy and security limit and/or promote a PLN?

Data privacy and security helps promote professional learning networks by ensuring that a person’s personal information and privacy is maintained. It also helps to ensure that any information shared between professionals stays private and confidential, so there is no risk of information leakage that could jeopardize both the professional and the business. Our PLN’s can then be a trustworthy site as all data is protected and secured.

However, our data privacy and security can also limit our PLN’s by preventing us from sharing certain types of information on the network. This could be seen as a limit because there could be information that our students want to share which may be useful to the employer/visitor, yet due to security/data reasons, the website may not allow the resident to share the information.

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

To create a digital identity/reputation, we must be active on our PLN’s in which we are using all aspects of the network. For example, on LinkedIn, this would look like connecting with those who we share connections with, liking and sharing posts, interacting with posts, etc. This will allow us to be known and recognized in the networking community so that other people can view our activity and engagement. This will help create an algorithm so that we appear in other people’s searches as we are active online.

Consider how an employer would respond if you applied for a job with them and they assessed your social media presence via your digital identity.

I believe that if an employer were to assess my social media through my digital identity, my LinkedIn profile would pop up. My LinkedIn contains all my work history including my skills, schooling, a professional photo, and my connections. From that, I hope that my employer would see my professionalism in the field. My social media would not come up because I have all my settings to be private. Especially as a future teacher, I have ensured to make all my social media private so that there is a professional boundary between my personal life and my professional life. I feel that I would not want professionals who are visiting my accounts to see my private social media because they include more private and personal things about my life that would not be appropriate in the workplace (i.e., photos of getting drinks with friends). However, with that being said, as my personal social media is private, I believe that an employer would be pleased with my professionalism online knowing that I use privacy and safety for my personal life, while keeping my professional accounts professional and strictly for work/business.