Week 2 Report and Reflection : Personal Learning Environment and Goals

Hello again everyone!

It is great to be back at blogging this week and being able to share my knowledge of my Personal Learning Environment with you. I have learned many things this week through the many activities that were completed. We focused on many topics this week including a personal learning environment, social networking and web tools. A personal learning environment is a digital toolbox that involves sharing content online. It involves using technology for learning by using tools that support learning.

Where do I want to be in 5-10 years?

In 5 years, I hope to be completing my masters in Sport Management and have a career in the sport industry. My goal is to find a job that suits my interests which may take time after I am done school. I hope to be involved in the Brock University community and contribute to the school in any way I can. I also see myself moving out of the province because I enjoy changing my environment every so often. In 10 years, I hope to be employed at a full-time job that I enjoy. I want to enjoy going to work everyday therefore I will never have to work a day in my life. I also hope to have a family and if I do not live near my parents and siblings, I hope to visit very often. 

At this point in time, I am living with 5 other girls that also attend Brock University. I have no job and cannot travel due to lack of funds. I pay for all of my education on my own therefore I do not have a large discretionary income. I hope to be settled down in the future and not be worried about money in 10 years.

Present to future

In the next 5 years, I hope to learn more about how to be more independent. I am independent now but I go home often because I miss my hometown and family. I also want to learn more about the aspects of a business. There are certain skills needed to work in a sales job which is what I hope to do. This includes persuasion, knowledge on the products and hard work. I hope that i can be successful in the future and the skills listed above is how I will meet my goals.

Changing my environment

In order to gain more knowledge, I need to change certain aspects about my life. For example when I am studying for an exam, I need to leave my living room full of people and go in a quiet space. By studying harder for exams, I will retain more information about the sport industry which is crucial to my future. I can also plan out my days more effectively by leaving study time and social time. If I get up earlier instead of sleeping in when I do not have morning class, I can accomplish a lot more.

My PLE

This is my personal learning environment. I created four categories that I thought best fit my life and what I share online. To summarize my personal learning environment into words; I use many independent networking websites such as Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest, Snapchat and Twitter. From the social technographics ladder, (resource from session 2 this week), I put myself into the conversationalists part of the ladder which is the second highest rank on the ladder. I participate in social network websites to converse with people in the social world. I enjoy posting statuses and pictures but do not create my own pages therefore I am not a creator. I contribute to others ideas and comment on other people’s posts therefore I was above the level of a critic.

When conducting research, I use Google Scholar, Google search engine and the Brock University Library. To create slideshows for educational purposes, my favourite choices are Prezi, Google Docs, and Powerpoint. When I am communicating with others outside of phone calls and texting, I use FaceTime, WhatsApp and Skype. All of these aspects of my learning environment focus on the idea of lifelong learning as discussed in session 2 activities. These websites have and will continue to provide me with many tools that support learning.

Wilson, S. (CC) 2016

Wordle 

This is a word cloud that I created from my first reflection post about digital footprints from last week. This is an interesting representation of my blog posting from last week. It was interesting to see what the most common words that I used were. This is also more eye-catching than reading a page of text for viewers. Many people would prefer looking at something like this rather than a page of text as they can learn more from it. I learned that words can be more creative than plain text and that a representation like this can be quickly engaging. It is easy to develop themes about last weeks post based on this wordle. The common themes I can see from this are about networking, the digital world, data and social networking.

Wilson, S. (CC) 2016.

Anyways, that is it for this week! Hope everyone enjoyed discovering many things about themselves this week as much as I did. Bye for now!