Blog-3

How diverse is your existing PLN?

I believe my PLN is fairly diverse right now. As an International student, I have to quite separated social networks, one in Canada and the other back in China, which are constantly providing me very different information on a daily basis. On certain topics and matters, these two social networks actually put me into two angles of views. Therefore, I think my understanding on certain things is more critical. Closely connected to the previous point, as I am a bilingual, I actually have a broader access to not only knowledge and information in English, but also in Chinese. In addition, although I have been to Canada for couple years already, but I am still meeting new people and organizations every day, which also contribute to my PLN.

In your PLN, are you learning from a variety of voices, or are you the loudest in the room?

I have always been a good listener, I believe this is part of my personality as I always try to collect as much as information until I feel confidence and comfortable enough to respond. My experience in Canada also taught me to be more confident and willing to share opinion. More importantly, when interacting with others, we should be wise and sensitive to know when to listen and when to share, so that we are promoting the both-way-traffic communication. 

Do you participate in a silo of information sharing (similar themes or wide range of interests)?

I used to be quite comfortable with a silo of information because it make me more confident on a certain topic. However, after I left my hometown, and study and live abroad, I started to realize how different people could be from each other. If I want to be friends with others, being to self-centered is not a good idea, instead, I should know a little about everything so that I can easily participate in different conversation.

How can you use a diverse PLN to broaden your view of inclusion?

Our initial understanding about a something or a new term is always based on our personal knowledge, experience, cultural background, etc. However, with the iteration of personal information, our point of view is likely to change. At the first glance of the idea – inclusion and inclusive education, I got this basic notion that it is about including everyone into the system, but after I watch the video and the book, I got a much deeper understanding about this topic. Especially after taking to classmates, this idea has become more structural in my mind.

In your professional setting of choice, do you think inclusion is actively embraced?

With the progress of globalization and the rapid development of the Internet, I believe almost every professional field is requiring us to be more inclusive than before. For instance, the world of business and economy has become much more diverse and creative than decades ago. E-commerce platforms actually is not something new anymore, but many sub-forms are generating from the earth of e-commerce. In China, because of the influence of pandemic, millions of brick-and-mortar stores were shut down, and the young employees of these places turned to the battlefield of the Internet, but they had very different choices: living- streaming e-commerce, game commentator，video content creator, online Tarot divination service and so on. The world itself is becoming more diverse, and the customers are always looking for something new and creative.

How has your thinking about inclusion and PLN evolved after reviewing the videos and readings?

For me, two things are the main takeaways for me. First, education is not just something teachers preform in school, but it is a matter of the whole community. If we want to build a better future for our children, everyone has to contribute to the progression. Next, when we put the different methods/ models of the evolution of inclusion into a time line, it is much easier to understand the logic of the development. According to Moore, we should not view inclusion as an end of the process, but it may be just one of the phases, and we probably can still do better in the future. In addition, the achievement we see in one community is not going to be suitable for another one. Education is also a product, which need to be localized to fit into a new market/environment.