Informed Citizen Project Survey on Media Literacy

The Informed Citizen Project, a special venture of ADP’s eCitizenship Initiative, is collecting information on campus media and information literacy efforts across the country.  We want to know your opinion of the role media and information literacy play in building student civic engagement and what efforts your campus is engaged in.  Please contact faculty and staff at your institution who may be engaged in media and information literacy efforts before completing this survey and ask them about any efforts they are involved with.  The survey will take you no more than 10 minutes to complete.  We ask you to complete the survey by August 20, 2012.

Here’s the link to the online survey: http://survey.fhsu.edu/takeSurvey.asp?surveyID=1174&invid=x

For the purposes of our survey, we utilize the Center for Media Literacy’s definition of media literacy as: “Media Literacy is a 21st century approach to education. It provides a framework to access, analyze, evaluate, create and participate with messages in a variety of forms — from print to video to the Internet. Media literacy builds an understanding of the role of media in society as well as essential skills of inquiry and self-expression necessary for citizens of a democracy.”

We define information literacy according to the standards of the American Library Association: “Information literacy is a set of abilities requiring individuals to recognize when information is needed and have the ability to locate, evaluate, and use effectively the needed information.”

If you have any questions or concerns, please contact the survey’s primary investigator, Chapman Rackaway of Fort Hays State University, at crackawa@fhsu.edu.

Take the survey here.

Thank you for taking the time to complete this important survey which will help guide ADP’s efforts to prepare informed, engaged citizens for our democracy.

————————————-

About the Informed Citizen Project

In the pursuit of greater student engagement, the American Democracy Project has tried to encourage civic participation among students.  The eCitizenship initiative focuses ADP’s efforts in the online world.   To help build the skills that college students need, the Informed Citizen Project brings campuses together to develop and share efforts towards one of civic engagement’s most important foundational skills: media and information literacy.

Media and information literacy are more important than ever.  The fragmented media environment requires that we are more critical of the information we consume than ever.  Online text, audio, and video tools all make for new ways to communicate and engage in civic leadership.  Web 2.0 tools mean that content consumers are now creators and must be cautious about what we communicate to the whole world.  The prevalence of polls mean that today’s voter must understand how survey research works to ensure they maximize the informational value of polls.

The Informed Citizen Project Areas of focus:

1)      News consumption

2)      Recall of news

3)      Print and online media

4)      Web 2.0 and students as content producers

5)      Source differentiation

6)      Critical thinking

7)      Polling and data criticism

The Informed Citizen Project is beginning to add member schools who are currently engaged in or interested in creating media and information literacy programs to join.  Project member schools share best practices in college-level media and information literacy and innovate new programs to ensure the next generation of graduates have the critical thinking skills necessary to be leaders in today’s society.

Upcoming Civic Engagement Conferences

An incomplete listing (by date) of upcoming civic engagement conferences that may be of interest to ADP participants! Of special note is the pre-conference session on ADP’s new Campus and Community Civic Health initiative with NCoC at the IARSLCE conference in Baltimore at the end of September (see details below)!

National Conference on Citizenship | Friday, September 14, 2012 | Philadelphia

The 67th Annual National Conference on Citizenship will be held in Philadelphia on Friday, September 14, 2012 from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. in partnership with the National Constitution Center and with support from the Case Foundation, the Knight Foundation, and KPMG LLP.  Registration is available at http://NCoC.net/conference. Seating is limited so we encourage you to secure your seat today. The theme for this year’s Conference is “Jobs, Jobs, Jobs: Exploring the link between civic engagement and employment.” The Conference will showcase and present new research and programs that explore the role all types of civic engagement play in creating and maintaining thriving communities.  Throughout the day, we’ll hear from speakers such as Jonathan Greenblatt of the White House, Jack Miller of the Jack Miller Center, Eric Liu and Jena Cane of the Guiding Lights Network, Chaeyoon Lim of the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Diane Melley of IBM, and many more. There will also be plenty of time for networking and connecting with colleagues old and new.

Register | Learn more

International Association for Research on Service-learning and Community Engagement (IARSLCE) | September 23-25, 2012 | Baltimore

The theme for the 12th annual conference is  Connected Knowing: the generative power of connections and relationships in research on service-learning and community engagement. The IARSLCE annual research conference is targeted to scholars, practitioners, students, and community partners interested in research on service-learning, community-based research, campus-community partnerships, and civic learning outcomes in P-20 education. Attendees include faculty, administrators, and scholar-practitioners in higher education, community partners, educators in K-12, and professionals and leaders in educational policy and community development. To advance understanding of scholarship from international perspectives, scholars from outside of the United States are particularly encouraged to submit proposals. Hosted by the University of Maryland and co-sponsored by American University, George Washington University, Johns Hopkins University, Loyola University Maryland, Maryland Campus Compact, McDaniel College, Montgomery College, and University of Maryland Baltimore County.

Of particular interest, may be the Morning Preconference Session: 9:00 AM- 12:00 P.M on September 23:

Measuring and Improving Campus and Community Civic Health

The purpose of this workshop is to discuss the roles higher education institutions play in advancing the civic health of their campus and broader community (e.g., how do service-learning and community engagement enhance civic health). Participants will learn about the new Campus Civic Health Initiative, a three year partnership between AASCU’s American Democracy Project and the National Conference on Citizenship, designed to support institutions to assess, understand and promote campus and community civic health. Participants will leave the workshop with an understanding of common indicators of civic health (e.g., political engagement, public work, volunteering and giving, group participation, online engagement, social trust, civic knowledge and agency, social connectedness) and how they are measured. Participants will be asked to consider how they would define and measure civic health in their own campus, organization, and/or community and to consider where there are conceptual, practical, or process-oriented gaps in our work to-date.  Participants will leave the session with a campus and community civic health assessment tool and an understanding of how they can use it to conduct their own research, evaluation and action planning.

Presenters: Kristi Tate, National Conference on Citizenship; Jennifer Domagal-Goldman, American Association of State Colleges and Universities

Register | Learn more

Imagining America: Artists and Scholars in Public Life | October 5-7, 2012 | New York City

This year’s Imagining America conference theme is Linked Fates and Futures: Communities and Campuses as Equitable Partners? Registration is now open. We encourage you to register and take advantage of the early-bird rates, which expire on August 31^st. Here’s the link: http://imaginingamerica.org/convenings/national-conference/registration/.

**ADP’s Jen Domagal-Goldman and Cecilia Orphan will present as part of the Communications and Technology: Innovations, Cogitations, and Cool Tools to Tell the Story of Engagement seminar at the IA conference.

Register | Learn more

Campus Spotlight: C-SPAN Visits Western Carolina University

By Todd Collins, Associate Professor of Political Science, Western Carolina University

C-Span Bus visits Western Carolina University

The students, faculty, and staff  at Western Carolina University were happy to welcome the C-SPAN Campaign 2012 Bus to our campus on May 3^rd.  This event was part of a six-day tour of universities and towns in North Carolina by C-SPAN leading up to the N.C. primaries.  The tour was also scheduled in anticipation of the Democratic National Convention, which will be held in Charlotte, N.C., during the week of September 3^rd.

Western Carolina students, local residents, and university employees were able to speak with C-SPAN representatives about C-SPAN’s extensive Campaign 2012 programming and resources.  Visitors learned of the many ways to connect with C-SPAN including Facebook, Twitter, Foursquare, YouTube, XM Radio, and iPhone and Blackberry apps.  Inside the bus were many interactive election resources, as visitors were encouraged to explore the many sources of election current and historical information offered by C-SPAN.

Visitors to the C-SPAN bus were also able to share their thoughts on campaign issues via Tout, a video-based social media service.  Participants were asked to comment on the presidential candidates and the issues most important to them in this election cycle.  Their responses were captured in 15-second videos and uploaded onto various C-SPAN social media platforms, including C-SPAN’s own Tout page (http://www.tout.com/cspanbus).

This visit served as a great opportunity for our students to think about the upcoming election.  As North Carolina has been considered one of a few “swing states” in the upcoming election, N.C. voters may have a large impact in the next election.  The C-SPAN Campaign 2012 Bus allowed our students and other visitors to reflect on the importance of voting, elections, and civic engagement.  C-SPAN’s visit encouraged our students to consider their roles in the electoral process and highlighted many of the important concepts that faculty emphasize in the classroom.  A big thank you to the staff and administration at C-SPAN for including us in its tour!

 

EveryVote.org: The Civic Engagement Social Network Platform

By  Derick Downey, Multimedia Specialist  & Mitch Downey, UX Developer, EveryVote.org

At the time of writing this, there are 10,393 bills before the US Congress, and thousands more at the state and local levels. Only a tiny fraction of these bills are covered in television and print news media; meanwhile, the internet allows access to unprecedented amounts of civic data, but is so vast and disjointed it turns-off everyone but the most web-savvy political zealots. The result: most Americans feel overwhelmed by the political process, alienated from their elected representatives, become cynical about the integrity of the US government, and tune-out.

EveryVote.org is an open-source, non-profit project in development trying to address these problems by making in-depth civic engagement as easy and fun as using Facebook or online dating sites. We believe EveryVote’s ease-of-use and robust functionality can inspire younger generations to participate in elections, and older generations to participate on the internet.

The primary functionality of EveryVote is to provide users with an intuitive interface that enables users to vote on bills, officials, candidates, other EV users, and organizations, and then to automatically compare their voting preferences with all other voters’ preferences on the site.

Other essential functions include: sending registration deadline and election day reminders; helping users run for office themselves; facilitating organized representative-to-constituent and user-to-user dialogue; providing democratic news sharing tools; and much more.

EveryVote will debut hosting all the legislative and electoral API data of the US Congress available online, but any user can add their own governing body’s information (with its own custom parameters) to the EV platform and make use of the same civic engagement tools. This means K-12 students can use EV to manage the legislative and electoral procedures of their own student council or mock government as part of a civics education curriculum. And if EV can help manage student councils, maybe it can help PTAs, teacher’s unions, and any other organization with legislative and electoral procedures.

As a user browses the site, EV automatically compares that user’s voting record to the records of officials, candidates, other users, and groups, and displays the result as a % correlation next to that person or group’s profile picture.*

On the bills page, users can learn instantly how the people and groups they support or oppose are voting on that issue. For example, 8 of 10 groups a user supports are voting in favor of a bill, the groups/supports databox would display a green +60%; if the same amount were voting against, it would display a red -60%; and a split of 5 yeas and 5 nays would display a black 0%.

Ultimately, since EveryVote is an open-source platform that allows users to add and facilitate their own government or organization’s legislative and electoral processes, EveryVote’s goal is to promote democratic civic engagement across the world.

—

For more information about the EveryVote project, please visit our homepage and signup for the EV mailing list. Our goal is to have a limited-functionality beta of EveryVote finished by Fall 2012. If you have any questions, or would like to help create EveryVote with us, please email the EV team at contactus@everyvote.org. You can follow EveryVote on Twitter at @everyvoteorg. Like them on Facebook at here.

—

Mitch Downey is an EveryVote co-founder and user experience developer and Derick Downey is EveryVote’s multimedia specialist.

*Quoted from OpenSource.com interview

Follow ADP 2012: Civic Engagement 2.0 on Social Media

We’re employing a suite of online tools to share resources and connect people and ideas at the 10th annual ADP National Meeting in San Antonio, June 7-9, 2012 — Civic Engagement 2.0: Re-Imaging, Strengthening and Deepening Our Civic Work.

Whether you’re able to join us in San Antonio or not, you can use the following social networking tools to connect with your colleagues and follow the meeting:

WEBSITE: You’ll find information about registration, hotel accommodations, a schedule-at-a-glance and the bios of plenary speakers here. You can also check out the ADP website here.

WIKI: You will find the full meeting program, suggested pre-readings as well as PowerPoint presentations and handouts on the ADP/TDC 2012 National Meeting Wiki.

TWITTER: You can follow the ADP on Twitter at @ADPaascu. You can then follow and comment on the ADP 2012 National Meeting using Twitter hashtag #ADP12. (You can also follow @eCitizenship.)

FACEBOOK: You can “like” ADP on Facebook and connect with your colleagues before the meeting by posting comments about the meeting on our wall here. Be sure to use the meeting hashtag  (#ADP12) when you post comments! (ADP also has the following additional topical Facebook pages: eCitizenship, Global Engagement, and Civic Agency.)

BLOG: You can subscribe to the ADP National Blog here. There are currently a number of blog posts about pre-conference workshops, plenary and featured sessions and important topics at the ADP National Meeting on the blog. We will also live blog from the meeting, so stay tuned!

YOUTUBE: If you capture video of the ADP National Meeting, we encourage you to upload it to the ADP YouTube Channel. You can also subscribe to the ADP YouTube Channel to see what various ADP campuses are up to!

ADP12: Pre-Conference Workshops and Meetings on Thurs. June 7

Have you checked out the pre-conference offerings at the American Democracy Project National Meeting, June 7-9, 2012 in San Antonio? We have an ADP Orientation Session for new folks and open pre-conference workshops for our Global Engagement (formerly 7 Revolutions) and eCitizenship initiatives. You can also learn more about AASCU’s Urban Civic Minor work, attend a meeting of the Political Engagement Project, or learn more about ADP’s work with the American Commonwealth Partnership.

See you in San Antonio!

– Jen Domagal-Goldman, ADP National Manager

Thursday, June 7

9 a.m. – Noon
Urban Civic Minor Working Meeting (by invitation)

9:30 a.m. – 3 p.m.
Campus Civic Health Summit and Working Lunch (by invitation, rsvp required)
The Campus Civic Health Initiative, a newly created effort to measure and improve campus and community civic health, will serve as a signature program of the 10th anniversary of the American Democracy Project (ADP). The initiative, part of ADP’s Civic Engagement in Action Series, will engage participating institutions in assessing the civic health of their campuses and communities and developing action plans to improve civic health. The Campus Civic Health Initiative is informed by the critical work of the National Conference on Citizenship – our convening partner organization – on America’s civic health, by national thought leaders, and by research centers and projects on civic issues. This Campus Civic Health Summit will provide participating institutions the opportunity to learn about a number of models for measuring and advancing civic health, as well as provide the opportunity to develop their own action plans in consultation with convening partners.
Presenters: Saundra Curry Ardrey, Co-Director of Institute of Citizenship and Social Responsibility, Western Kentucky University; Eric Bain-Selbo, Co-director Institute for Citizenship and Social Responsibility, Western Kentucky University ; Kristen Cambell, Chief Program Officer, National Conference on Citizenship (Washington, D.C.); Jen Domagal-Goldman, ADP National Manager, AASCU; Abby Kiesa, CIRCLE; Kristi Tate, Director of Community Strategies, National Conference on Citizenship (Washington, D.C.); Byron P. White, Vice President for University Engagement, Cleveland State University (Ohio)

9:30 a.m. – 3 p.m.
eCitizenship Pre-Conference Workshop: An Interactive Introduction to Campus Programs, Tools, Assessment and Results (open to all)
In this pre-conference workshop participants engage in an ongoing Athena Bridge discussion of the meaning and importance of eCitizenship on college campuses. Participants also have an update about the eCitizenship initiative at Southern Polytechnic University: what is working, what did not work and what our future plans will be; included are recommendations for methods, no-cost tools and actions for possible adoption on participants’ campuses. Finally, participants are introduced to an assessment tool that was developed and utilized at Missouri State University to examine the relationship between the use of online social networking tools and offline civic engagement for students on their campus, with a special emphasis on how the results of the assessment can be used to improve ongoing eCitizenship efforts.
Presenters: Mike Stout, Associate Professor of Sociology, Missouri State University; Renee Bricker, Assistant Professor, Department of History and Philosophy, North Georgia College & State University; Marc Kruman, Director, Center for the Study of Citizenship, Wayne State University (Mich.); Rich Halstead-Nussloch, Professor of Information Technology, Southern Polytechnic State University (Ga.)

9:30 a.m. – 3 p.m.
Pre-Conference Workshop and Working Lunch
Addressing Global Challenges: Teaching from a 7 Revolutions Framework
($50 registration fee, registration required)
This day-long institute introduces participants to numerous tools for educating globally competent citizens. Global Engagement Scholars (faculty members) from 10 AASCU campuses describe how they have built courses and curricula around the Center for Strategic and International Studies’ Seven Revolutions Framework (population, resources, technology, information, economic integration, conflict and governance). Institute leaders demonstrate the teaching materials and resources they have found most valuable in the courses they teach (including introductory, first-year, major and honors courses) and guide participants in anticipating how these same tools could be used effectively on their home campuses.

Participants also have the opportunity to learn more about how to bring the new national Global Challenges blended learning course to their campuses. The blended learning model course, designed by the AASCU Scholars, includes a variety of teaching methods to deliver and facilitate classroom materials and activities. The course is delivered through the Epsilen eLearning Environment, a web-based application that allows students to access course materials, The New York Times Digital Content Repository and much more. Costs for the 2012-13 academic year are $50/student for AASCU institutions.

Presenters: Steven Elliott-Gower, Director, Honors and Scholars Program, Georgia College; Dennis Falk, Professor, Department of Social Work, University of Minnesota Duluth; Keisha L. Hoerrner, Associate Dean, University College, Kennesaw State University (Ga.); Shala Mills, Global Challenges National Course Coordinator, Fort Hays State University (Kan.); William Payne, Interim Dean, School of Fine Arts, University of Minnesota Duluth; Nathan Phelps, Faculty, Honors College, Western Kentucky University; William J. Reckmeyer, Professor of Leadership & Systems, San Jose State University (Calif.); Martin S. Shapiro, Associate Professor of Psychology and 7 Revolutions Scholar, California State University Fresno; Brett Whitaker, Instructor, Leadership Studies, Fort Hays State University (Kan.); Yohannes Woldemariam, Assistant Professor, International Relations and Environmental Studies, Fort Lewis College (Colo.); and Stephen Wright, Professor, Politics and International Affairs, Northern Arizona University

9:30 a.m. – 11:30 a.m.
American Commonwealth Project Working Meeting (by invitation)

10 a.m. – 3 p.m.
The Democracy Commitment Pre-Conference Workshop and Working Lunch (by invitation, rsvp required)

11:30 a.m. – 1 p.m.
Lunch on your Own

1 p.m. – 3 p.m.
Pre-Conference Workshop: American Commonwealth Project Open Forum (open to all)
The American Democracy Project and The Democracy Commitment are two key partners in the new American Commonwealth Partnership (ACP). ACP is an alliance of colleges and universities, higher education groups, P-12 schools and others dedicated to the democracy college ideal for all higher education. Launched at the White House on January 10th, ACP grows out of the Civic Agency Initiative in the American Democracy Project and its ‘We the People” conference in Washington, DC in November, 2010, which laid initial plans for a movement in higher education to deepen civic identities of colleges and universities, spreading empowering pedagogies and community-connecting practices, in partnership with policy makers.

At this pre-conference forum, participants have a chance to hear about several key ACP initiatives including the deliberative dialogues on higher education’s role in America’s future; “Citizen Alum,” strategies for broadening the role of alumni from “donors” to “doers”; and Empowering Pedagogies, approaches which bring civic agency into curricular and co-curricular innovation. We will also discuss ADP’s new Campus Civic Health Initiative, on ways to measure and improve civic health.

Forum Moderator: Harry Boyte, Director, Center for Democracy and Citizenship, Augsburg College (Minn.)

Key Initiatives:

• Citizen Alum:  Strategies for Campus Teams          
  Presenters: Julie Ellison, Lead Organizer, Citizen Alum and Professor of American Culture and English, University of Michigan; Thomas Morgan, Executive Director, Center for Faith and Learning, Augsburg College (Minn.); and Kara Lindaman, Associate Professor and ADP Director, Winona State University (Minn.)
• Deliberative Dialogues on Shaping Our Future
  Presenters: Kara Lindaman, Associate Professor and ADP Director, Winona State University (Minn.)
• Empowering Pedagogies 
  Presenters: Blase Scarnati, Director, First Year Seminar Program and Global Learning, Northern Arizona University

1 p.m. – 3 p.m.
Political Engagement Project Meeting (open to all)
An informal gathering of current PEP participants and those interested in participating in the Political Engagement Project.
Facilitator: Steve Hunt, Professor, School of Communication, Illinois State University and Political Engagement Project faculty chair

 

1:30 p.m. – 3 p.m.
Civic Minor in Urban Education Pre-Conference Workshop: The Nuts and Bolts of Designing and Implementing a Civic Minor in Urban Education (open to all)
Five AASCU urban campuses were selected in fall 2010 to design and implement new Civic Minors in Urban Education within three years. Each Civic Minor must be developed as a partnership between Education and Arts & Sciences faculty and be available to all university students. Each campus designated a design team headed by two Design Team leaders – one from Arts and Sciences, the other from Education – to create its own version of the Civic Minor, with both unique and common core elements. The unique elements will reflect the circumstances and needs of each particular urban community, its P-12 school district, and the university. Each Civic Minor in Urban Education will offer pre-service teachers, and their peers who might not otherwise consider a career in education, an opportunity to take other courses that develop a rich understanding of the public policy context of urban schools and community factors that affect school performance, community connection to schools, and learning outcomes for students, especially civic outcomes. AASCU’s Director of Teacher Education, Jolanda Westerhof, and Design Team leaders from the five project campuses will share design specifics and implementation strategies in this hands-on workshop for faculty, service-learning/community engagement directors, deans and provosts interested in creating and implementing their own version of a Civic Minor in Urban Education.

The AASCU Civic Minor in Urban Education project is funded through a grant from the Corporation for National and Community Service.

Facilitator: Jolanda Westerhof, Director of Teacher Education, AASCU

Campus Design Team Leaders:

Buffalo State College (N.Y.)
Kathy Wood, Interim Associate Dean, School of Education
Amitra Wall, Associate Professor, Sociology

California State University-Fresno
Steven Hart, Assistant Professor, Literacy and Early Education
James Mullooly, Associate Professor, Anthropology

University of North Carolina at Charlotte
Susan Harden, UNC Charlotte Crossroads Coordinator, Adjunct Professor College of Education
Janni Sorensen, Assistant Professor, Department of Geography and Earth Sciences

West Chester University of Pennsylvania
Vicki McGinley, Professor, Department of Special Education
Hannah Ashley, Associate Professor of English

Wright State University (Ohio)
Anna Lyon, Associate Professor of Teacher Education
Marjorie McLellan, Associate Professor, Department of Urban Affairs and Geography and Department of History

2 p.m. – 3 p.m.
The Democracy Commitment (TDC): Welcome Session and Orientation (open to all)
All participants from TDC member colleges and those interested in learning more about TDC are invited to this session. This session focuses on getting to know each other and coordinating our participation in the conference.
Facilitator: Edmundo Norte, Dean, Intercultural and International Studies, De Anza College (CA)

2 p.m. – 3 p.m.
ADP Orientation (open to all)
Is your campus new to the American Democracy Project? Is this your first ADP meeting? This session introduces you to the American Democracy Project and gives you a chance to meet and talk with George Mehaffy, ADP’s founder and Jen Domagal-Goldman, ADP’s national manager. Come learn what ADP is all about!
Facilitators: George Mehaffy, Vice President for Leadership and Change and Jen Domagal-Goldman, American Democracy Project National Manager, American Association of State Colleges and Universities

To view more of the draft conference program, go here.

eCitizenship: A Perspective from the Field

Make sure to check out Brian’s presentation about eCitizenship at the ADP 2012 National Meeting in June (#ADP12)! Here’s the information:

Friday, June 8 | 3 p.m. – 4:15 p.m.Concurrent Session: Activism 2.0: Tools and Practices for Change through eCitizenship With the recent evolution and social significance of social networking, it is becoming increasingly important to explore opportunities for meaningful integration of social networking sites as opportunities for guided and purposeful learning of the tools themselves, and their increasing significance in civic engagement and education. Social Media and Social Change: Frameworks for Connecting eCitizenship to Leadership Presenter:  Brian LeDuc, Manager, Leaders in Kennesaw (LINK) Ascend Program, Center for Student Leadership, Kennesaw State University (Ga.) Engaging Students in eCitizenship through OpEd Writing, Ethical Debates and Peer Review: The Anthropology Community Action Project Presenter:  Karol Chandler-Ezell, Assistant Professor, Anthropology Program, Stephen F. Austin State University (Texas) The Medium is the Messenger: Using Web 2.0 Tools in the Classroom Presenter:  Chapman Rackaway, Associate Professor of Political Science, Fort Hays State University (Kan.)

By Brian LeDuc, Manager for Leadership Programs at Kennesaw State University (Ga.)

As efforts for social change evolve to include or rely upon social networks to inspire, educate, and facilitate movements, our students are becoming not only citizens in the physical spaces of our democracy but also digital citizens in new online and social media spaces.  And with the drastic increase in and emphasis on web 2.0, the evolution of online participation has begun to impact nearly every aspect of daily lives.  But presence, especially within the civic arena, is unlikely to inspire action—so, as Reshan Richards (2010) mentions in his work on digital citizenship and social media, our understanding and assertion about what participation online entails must be infused with an acknowledgement of the tenets and requisite responsibility of such power and access.

While many have debated the sustainability of such tools as catalysts for change in the complex systems that exist beyond blogs and tweets, the recent proliferation of social movements focused through social media channels identify that these networks are not only willing to contest the skepticism, but that they are reshaping how we view relationships and information, and how we organize, unify and mobilize ourselves.

Whether you’re willing to describe the Obama campaign’s focus on social media in 2008, or the presence of #Occupy, KONY2012, or Travon Martin on your Facebook timeline as a political media turning point or not, its presence in our collective consciousness as a means of creating topics of sudden concern goes beyond criticism of the source, or even the content itself.  They signify a turning point marking the virility of a message through a new medium in driving activism, much the way that Gutenburg’s printing press dawned unprecedented communication and access to information.  More importantly, however, the participatory, conversational, and democratizing nature of social networks drives the content and message to let users decide their relevance or importance.

To the educator, an essential focus beyond enhancing knowledge and effective use of the tools or movements taking place on these networks are the collateral forces impacting the students growing up with them.  Reflecting their own lives and growing up “on” social networks, effective and responsible use of these tools and the movements will depend on the values, ethics and knowledge of users.

In an effort to effectively empower digital and social citizenship responsibly, I believe the conversations must begin with self-reflection and awareness in the context of leadership.  Thankfully, in a concurrent session on eCitizenship at #ADP12 with Chapman Rackaway (Fort Hays State University) and Karol Chandler-Ezell (Stephen F. Austin University), I will be exploring my reflections of social media and citizenship, frameworks to connect our current practices connected to eCitizenship in the context of leadership, and empowering educators to create programs that explore the increasing levels of complexity related to our lives as digital citizens.

James Matthew Barrie once said “the printing press is either the greatest blessing or the greatest curse of modern times, one sometimes forgets which.” I believe we’re nearing a similar point with respect to social media—it is time that we come together to ensure the message we intend to impart is clear, and that we provide meaningful opportunities for reflection, understanding, and skill development for our students.

Please, join me in this conversation around leadership, social media, and citizenship in the weeks ahead, and let’s connect in San Antonio!

______

Brian LeDuc is a Manager for Leadership Programs at Kennesaw State University, focusing on the Ascend program developed around domestic exchange projects grounded in leadership development to impact local and national social issues.  He holds a Bachelors degree in Psychology from Roger Williams University and is a recent graduate of Texas A&M University with a Masters in Educational Administration.  He recently completed a two-year term serving as a Student Member on the National Association for Campus Activities Board of Directors. He writes frequently on his blog at brianfleduc.com and can be found on twitter, @BrianFLDuc.

eCitizenship: FHSU Tiger Talkback

By Jen Verhagen and Shaley White, Student Project Coordinators, American Democracy Project, Fort Hays State University (Kan.)

The FHSU eCitizenship initiative is exploring new ways to get students involved in the conversation about the events that are important to them in the world around them.  In 2012, we’ve taken our Tiger Talkback democracy forum online.  We were inspired by projects like IUPUI’s Democracy Plaza, and when we posted dry erase boards in our student union, FHSU’s students had something to say.

But there’s no need to keep the conversation restricted to the Memorial Union.  Twitter has allowed us to let students participate in the Union, on the quad, from home, anywhere.  From the website to Twitter-friendly apps on smartphones and tablets, the weekly Tiger Talkback questions are prompting FHSU students to take the conversation into the cloud and engage with our virtual students as well as the world beyond. Follow Tiger Talkback at https://twitter.com/TigerTalkback!

With mobile students and a large virtual college population, FHSU is a great university to have a mobile discussion platform.  Traditional and virtual students might be classmates passing each other on the street and never know it.  Virtual students can feel disengaged from the campus community and campus students can feel like they have no voice.  By putting Tiger Talkback on Twitter (@TigerTalkback), we bring everyone into the conversation.

We have produced two short videos for Tiger Talkback online: one to promote it by Learning Commons Director Cynthia Garrety, and another instructional sign-up and use video by Dr. Chapman Rackaway.  As students become more accustomed to using Twitter participation has been expanding.  Students live-tweeted recent Student Government Association President and Vice-President debates, and the number of FHSU students with their own Twitter feeds grows every day.

For additional information:

• FHSU ADP Blog
• FHSU ADP Website
• FHSU ADP Facebook

___

Jen Verhagen is a senior from Holland, MI. She is majoring in Political Science with International Relations and Pre-Law and also received a certificate in Leadership. Jen will graduate in May 2012 and plans to continue her  education at FHSU by getting a Masters in Liberal Studies in Organization Leadership. She is a Student Coordinator for the American Democracy Project. Jen works at organizing programs to engage students in the participation of democracy and allow students to have a better understanding of the current issues facing the world today.

Shaley White serves as a Student Project Coordinator for the American Democracy Project at Fort Hays State University. She creatively develops and assists in developing programs to engage the Fort Hays community in active participation and awareness of our Democracy as well as current issues. Shaley attends Fort Hays State University through the Kansas Academy of Mathematics and Science and intends on staying at FHSU to attain a Nursing Degree. She is from Leoti, Kansas.

Thoughtful Thursdays at Towson’s Freedom Square

This guest blog post is an update to an earlier blog post on Towson University’s On-and-off-line Freedom Square. A hybrid example of a Democracy Plaza (see this blog post about IUPUI’s Democracy Plaza concept). Students at Towson recently received an “Ask Big Questions” grant from the Hillel Foundation to fund “Thoughtful Thursdays” programming in their physical and online Freedom Square spaces. I had the opportunity to visit Towson’s Freedom Square for their inaugural “Thoughtful Thursdays” program in December. Below you’ll find photos and a short video I took during my visit.

- Jen Domagal-Goldman, National Manager, American Democracy Project

Angie Hong and another TU student at one of the Freedom Square chalkboards

Thoughtful Thursdays at Towson’s Freedom Square

By Angie Hong, Program Assistant in Civic Engagement, Towson University

Thursdays at Towson University now have a new meaning. The Office of Civic Engagement has created a program called Thoughtful Thursdays with the help of a grant from the Hillel Foundation’s “Ask Big Questions” initiative. You can find out more information on this initiative at go here.

For this program, we have four undergraduate interns, which we like to call our Freedom Square Fellows.  Our Fellows ask one big question –like “What are your thoughts on the recent explosion of KONY 2012 on social media?”– at the beginning of every week and post it on our online blog, TUFreedomSquare.com. We encourage students to answer the question on the blog and let us know what they think about the given topic. Throughout the week the Fellows promote the question anywhere that they can, whether it is on Facebook or on their Twitter account. We didn’t want to stop there because we realized that the most powerful way to catch someone’s attention is in person and by word of mouth.

On Thursdays, the Freedom Square Fellows head to Freedom Square, our physical space where students are encouraged to write their thoughts on two large chalkboards. If students did not catch the question from our advertisement, we have scrolling marquees above the chalkboard that allows the students to read and understand the question of the week. If they need more information, we have used the iPAD that is connected to TUFreedomSquare.com. The Fellows then go around campus and talk with students, encouraging them to have thoughtful conversation. This enables diverse groups of students to share their specific understanding of the week’s questions. We have had giveaways such as frisbees, tote bags, pens and pencils, notepads, lemonade, chocolate, etc. to serve as encouragement for students to participate. The chalkboards have been filled with opinions and even responses to other people’s opinions. By physically writing their opinions on the chalkboard, the students are taking ownership of their responses and making sure they are communicating them effectively for the next person to see.

In the future, we hope that these thoughtful conversations become a part of the culture at Towson for students. We want students to believe that being knowledgeable about current events and having an opinion on topics is “the cool thing to do” during their time here and beyond. Currently on our campus, our students are having conversations about the distinction between freedom of speech and hate speech. We are hoping that our Freedom Square initiatives will put into practice the power of freedom of speech for students. Also, we want to challenge the students to no longer take an apathetic approach to issues but, become passionate about them.

Visit TUFreedomSquare online here.

Campus Spotlight: University of Alaska Anchorage’s ENGAGE Week

By Judith Owens-Manley, Director, UAA Center for Community Engagement & Learning

ENGAGE: e Citizenship at UAA, hosted in the Center for Community Engagement & Learning and supervised by Director Dr. Judith Owens-Manley, has created an active group of ENGAGE Social Issue Liaisons, students committed to connecting faculty, students, and community partners around social issues and community goals and through social media.  ENGAGE Social Issue Liaisons interviewed faculty and gathered student and community information over the course of last year to generate our new website pages at www.uaa.alaska.edu/engage.  In January 2012 ENGAGE Liaisons will begin supervising 6-8 new service-learning projects in the Anchorage, Alaska community.  AmeriCorps VISTA Project Coordinator Kris Katkus is coordinating the ENGAGE Social Issue Liaison projects this year.

An Engaged University

ENGAGE took a departure from technology in October, 2011 and met person to person for our first ENGAGE Week, brought to UAA by one of our ENGAGE Students, Alyssa Logan, who attended the Impact Conference last spring in Deland, Florida at Stetson University. The IMPACT Conference is historically the largest gathering in the country focused on the civic engagement of college students in community service, service-learning, community-based research, advocacy and other forms of social action.  Alyssa attended a session from another campus that was doing a week of similar activities and came back to Alaska determined to create our own week!  ENGAGE Week was held Oct. 17-21 as 5 days of brown bag lunches, service activities, and discussion panels in the late afternoon/early evening focused on social issues of importance to the Anchorage community.

ENGAGE week was sponsored by the Center for Community Engagement & Learning in Academic Affairs and Student Life and Leadership in the Dean of Student’s Office.  Each day had a theme such as Poverty, Education, Health, Immigration, and Environment.  More than 400 students, faculty and staff participated in ENGAGE Week events, culminating in two special events on Friday.

Student reflections on ENGAGE Week confirmed our belief that this is a program that we would want to hold every year.  Their comments point to the connections, awareness, new learning, and call to action that we hope to create in our eCitizenship project and in events like this one.

• ENGAGE Week was an important series of events to me because it was a chance to connect with new people who share the same interests I have in environmental issues and sustainability. I had a great time during the Recycling Relay and met several people I expect to collaborate with for future environmentally-focused projects.
• It was truly amazing to see the reactions of students when they engaged in a visual activity representing the division of poverty in the world. Sitting back and watching their reactions, comments, and behaviors made it clear that this was forcing them to open their eyes to how things are for people in other places, or even other situations, than themselves.
• I had the opportunity to learn about courses I can attend right here at UAA that I never knew about before. I would definitely recommend these courses to my friends because it sounds fun, interesting, and incredibly relevant to Alaskan citizens.
• Only one other student who attended [Invisible Children documentary] had previously heard about the Invisible Children campaign. Now an entire room full of people knows about the longest-lasting war in Africa and is inspired to do something about the injustice we learned about. One of the students who saw the film decided to start a club at UAA about Invisible Children! This event was an amazing success at engaging students in their world.

Community Partner Speed Dating was one special event that was attended by approximately 50 community agency representatives and faculty, with each “couple” spending 5 minutes together brainstorming connections for community projects before moving on to the next partner.  These 5 minute discussions followed a breakfast and welcome by Louise Van Rhyn, an internationally renowned South African expert on building community.

Community members thanked us for hosting Community Partner Speed Dating, which we will include again as a culmination to ENGAGE Week next year. Agency representatives told us:

• We have gotten results – exposure, direct connections, new ideas.
•  This is a great event with many interesting conversations and short enough that it was easy to do!

Faculty members reported benefits and appreciation of the opportunity to meet others:

• I’ve gotten to talk with agencies whom I have met for the first time who provide new opportunities.
• It’s helpful as I engage with students . . . I’m more aware of what’s out there.

And students, who were invited to attend at the end of Speed Dating, were enthusiastic:

• I discovered SO many community organizations that I never knew existed in Anchorage. I went to speed dating in the hopes of being able to find somewhere to volunteer, and now I have lists of local volunteer opportunities that I can choose from!
• It was fun talking to new people about engaging in the community and finding that there are other people in the community who are excited about being engaged, too!

As a second special event on Friday, Dean of Students Dr. Dewain Lee hosted a celebration luncheon for ENGAGE week students and participants in a new student “Emerging Leaders” program that Dean Lee initiated this year.  Community programs featured during Engage Week included Homeward Bound; Project Puqigtut, an Alaska Native Education program; The Alaska Immigration Justice Project; and Refugee and Immigrant Services Program.  Student Clubs hosted the luncheon events: Oxfam Club, The Heifer Club, Social Work Coalition, Panhellenic Council, American Medical Student Association, Sustainability Club, and the Student Nurses Association.

For more information about UAA’s Center for Community Engagement and Learning, check out their annual report here.