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

Education discourse means ability to communicate with people either formal or informal, written or spoken or, descriptive or prescriptive.

In education, discourse helps people to express ideas and thoughts and figure out solutions for the most complex questions.

One thing that hinders in the education discourse is when the other party doesn’t agree with what we say and this might cause unnecessary arguments and we cannot fully trust the other people when it comes to sharing our ideas.

  • How do educators create discourse?

Human connections in PLN are strengthened through various degrees and forms of interactions. For example, blogging platforms, photo and video sharing and other social networking platforms.

The biggest advantage for an instructor who has an open course is that it allows him or her to refer students to other professors who are willing to help them with their areas of study or interest. By this throughout time it helps the students to strengthen their PLN.

  • What is the role of social media in education?

The role of social media in education is its easy to access information, it serves as a research center and enhances a healthy competition to name a few.

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

Even though social media could be helpful for education purposes it does have some drawbacks too. Distractions and poor self regulation, cyberbullying, posting unsuitable content on social media and lack of face to face communication to name a few problems.

  • Which social media platforms are beneficial in education?

The social media platforms that are beneficial in education would be LinkedIn (to communicate with professionals), Twitter (class message board) and Facebook (for live lectures and discussions) to name a few.

  • When working with the vulnerable sector, how does social media fit into professionalism and regulations?

Social media professionalism and regulations affect differently when working with the vulnerable sector and they would be cyberbullying and harassment involving minors, some stories or posts may inflict emotional distress on minors.

As a solution to overcome this problem we could raise digital literacy and online safety and restrain sexual exploitation of children and other abusive content involving children.