Week 4 Reflection

This past week we had Jesse Miller of Mediated Reality as a virtual guest in EDCI 336 talking to us about the topics of social media awareness, mobile communications and associated behaviours and online content evaluation. An experienced presenter, Jesse Miller’s talks are “designed to reveal the truths behind the concerns, address the issues within your organization and provide participants with the awareness tools needed to better equip themselves for social media use” (Mediated Reality, 2013, About).

In our class, Jesse used questions from the cohort to drive the presentation while he offered anecdotal evidence and research as explanations for the need of teachers in the public sector to be informed and conscientious of the potential realities that exist with social media and technology use.

Some of the examples of the type of technology/social media that have captured the attention of employers/administrators in the education sector, and subsequently led to professional conversations and/or disciplinary action, were more humorous than shocking, to be honest. Being someone who has little-to-no online presence, I found myself smiling for most of the presentation. I was also very grateful for the plethora of knowledge and tips Jesse brought to our classroom discussion.

I was, however, drawn to do a Google search on myself and found three instances of my presence online, all connected to the University of Victoria: my MA project on UVic’s dspace; a Facebook post from the Chilliwack Child Care Resource & Referral office forwarding my invitation to participate in a research study; and a UVic news story connected to a COVID bursary my family and I received during the pandemic. I’ll hope future potential employers care to take a look!