I grew up and went to high school in Hanoi, Vietnam. Unlike most high schools in the country, my school had the reputation for being diverse, in the sense that it recruited students from all over the country. It was the first time I was exposed to a learning environment where not everyone in my classes lived within a 10km radius from me. I had a classmate from out of town, and I could not give the correct answer when questioned about whether her hometown was in the Northern or Southern half of the country.

A personal learning network (PLN) is something we develop throughout our lives, whether we are conscious of it or not. This moment when my friend taught me about the geography of her hometown was when I became aware of how much I could learn from everyone around me because everyone, in their own way, is different.

My journey to understanding diversity and inclusion in learning would evolve greatly, as I move to Canada to attend university. Comparing to Vietnam, Canada’s learning environment is more diverse in many ways. I had the opportunity to interact and network with people from different countries, different walks of life, political beliefs, different identities and sexual orientations. Faced with the challenge of having to try and understand it all, I turn to the Internet for help, and that was when I realized the importance of utilizing technology the right way. I was on the wrong platform for the job. Facebook was the dominant social platform in Vietnam, but it is wildly unpopular among people my age in the western world. My first step in diversifying my network was to engage with new platforms such as Snapchat and Instagram, where I learned more about my peers, the way they share their thoughts, beliefs and interests. These social media sites also allowed me to learn about the social and political climate of the west, form my own beliefs and engage in active discussions with my peers. As a foreigner I was ecstatic to be included in healthy discussions and activities in a system that I thought was well built for learning. I soon found out that not everyone had the same positive experience I did.

My best friend is a Cree, one of the First Peoples of this land that I now reside in. Through her I learned about the history of indigenous people in Canada, and their relationship with the modern government. The level of inclusion that I enjoyed was not afforded to many, in a country that prides itself on its diversity. Then I and many Canadians learned about horrific incidents that had been buried by the history books. Centralized media is a big part of many people’s PLNs, but its decrease in popularity and loss of public trust in recent memory made me question the reliability of every aspects of my PLN. The only way forward was to make sure my PLN was diverse and include others the way my peers had included me.

Clark and Aufderheide (2011) analyzed the term “Public Media 2.0” as “media both for and by the public” (p. 56). The manifestation of this is social media sites. These sites, along with new technologies, have done a good job in being accessible and providing platforms for a large portion of the population, demonstrated by their large user bases. The interactive nature of social media creates opportunities for learning never seen before. Users could share their thoughts, see others’ opinions and participate in discussions with very few constraints. While new media has been an integral part of one’s PLN, it can also presents challenges to efficient communications. Without a learning attitude, online discussions among a diverse crowd can quickly turn toxic. The relative anonymity of the online space has led to the sharing of offensive, malicious content as well as given way to cyberbullying. Conversations about differing opinions can quickly turn into personal insults and even threats. It is up to the individual to filter online content, and treat opposite opinions as learning opportunities.

References

Clark, J., & Aufderheide, P. (2011). A new vision for public media. In S. C. Jansen, J. Pooley, & L. Taub-Pervizpour (Eds.), Media and social justice (pp. 55-67). New York, USA: Palgrave Macmillan.