Flight Path
Current Coordinates
I am currently a fourth-year Health Informatics student who is also pursuing a minor in GIS. My experience with personalized learning and social media for education is fairly limited, but I have had some professional experience using social media to communicate health information.
Through my work with Eupraxia Pharmaceuticals, I was involved in a social media advertising campaign related to eosinophilic esophagitis, or EoE. I helped develop advertisements and informational materials that explained the impact of the disease and provided information about a potential treatment. Facebook was used as the main platform, and the campaign relied on its algorithms to reach audiences who may have been interested in or affected by the condition.
Looking back, I think this experience connects to the course more than I initially realized. Although it was not education in the traditional sense, we were still trying to take health information and present it in a way that was understandable and useful to a specific audience. It also made me more aware of how algorithms influence who sees certain information online. My background in health informatics has also given me experience working with data, digital systems, and privacy, which I think will be useful when looking at social media from a more critical perspective. At the same time, I have not yet thought much about how these tools can be used intentionally for my own learning, which is something I hope to explore further in this course.
Mapping the Route
One of the topics I am most interested in exploring is privacy. Privacy and responsible data use are already important in my work with healthcare and clinical-trial data, but I have not spent as much time thinking about how these issues apply to social media. I would like to better understand what information platforms collect, how that information is used to personalize what users see, and what the risks are when people use these platforms for learning or professional purposes.
I am also interested in learning how to build and use a personal learning network. Until now, I have mostly used social media for communication, entertainment, or professional advertising rather than intentionally using it to support my own learning. I would like to identify reliable researchers, organizations, professionals, and other sources related to health informatics, GIS, healthcare technology, and clinical research. My goal is to finish the course with a better understanding of how I can use online networks to keep learning outside of university and throughout my career.
These goals connect closely with the course objectives surrounding social media, privacy, digital literacy, and personal learning networks. I also want to become more critical of the information that appears in my feeds and better understand why certain information is shown to me in the first place.
Anticipating Turbulence
The biggest challenge I anticipate is adjusting to the fully online structure of the course. I have used Microsoft Teams extensively in professional settings, so Teams itself is not unfamiliar to me. However, I am used to UVic courses being organized through Brightspace, where I normally check due dates, course materials, and submissions. Using Teams as the main course environment will require me to change the habits I have developed throughout university.
I also have limited experience with some of the websites and information streams that may be introduced during the course. To manage this, I plan to become familiar with the platforms early rather than waiting until an assignment is due. I will also keep my own list of deadlines, regularly check Teams, and make sure I know where assignments and discussions are located.
By the end of the semester, I hope to be more confident navigating different online learning environments and more intentional about how I use social media. I also hope to leave the course with practical ways of using social media and online networks for my own professional development rather than simply using them passively.