Join ADP for a Live Presidential Debate Tweet-Up

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

As part of ADP’s eCitizenship (http://www.aascu.org/programs/adp/eCitizenship/) and Political Engagement Project (http://www.aascu.org/programs/adp/PEP/) Initiatives, the American Democracy Project is planning a multi-campus dialogue (Tweet-up) during the first presidential debate this Wednesday, October 3; the debate – on domestic policy issues – will be televised and begins at 9:00 PM Eastern.

Along with watching the debate, we encourage students and faculty to engage in a discussion about it – and the domestic policy issues most affecting higher education – using Twitter.

It only takes a few minutes for most students to learn to use Twitter; however, it helps to have students register on https://twitter.com  in case their identities need to be confirmed along with a few practice tweets before the debate starts.

We will use the hashtag #ADPdebate. ADP’s Twitter handle is: @ADPaascu.

As ADP is non-partisan and interested in preparing the next generation of informed, engaged citizens, we hope many of you will join us and encourage your students to do so as well – we want to encourage more students to engage in the electoral process and are not looking for a partisan battle, but for a supportive, interesting, and analytical conversation that encourages civic and political engagement.

Also, check out the Debate Series Learning Activity Mary Sorenson, a second-year graduate student and instructor at Illinois State University created for students taking a required communications class: “Communication as Critical Inquiry.”

About the Debate:

The first in the series of Presidential debates between President Barack Obama and Governor Mitt Romney will be happening tonight at 9pm et, 6pm pt from the University of Denver in Colorado. The debate will be 90 minutes long with a focus on domestic issues. We will have the live stream embedded so you can watch the debate right here on this page.

Air Time: Wednesday, October 3, 2012 @ 9pm et / 8pm ct / 7pm mt / 6pm pt

Channels: ABC, NBC, FOX, CBS, CNN, Fox News, MSNBC and more including CNN Espanol and others

Live-streamed here: http://www.2012presidentialelectionnews.com/2012/10/first-presidential-debate-tonight-from-the-university-of-denver/

Moderator: Jim Lehrer (Host of NewsHour on PBS)

The debate will focus on domestic policy and be divided into six time segments of approximately 15 minutes each on topics to be selected by the moderator and announced several weeks before the debate.

The moderator will open each segment with a question, after which each candidate will have two minutes to respond. The moderator will use the balance of the time in the segment for a discussion of the topic.

Helpful links:

Twitter: https://twitter.com/

YouTube on how to sign up: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4YGp4cWdndc

Commission on Debates (info. on the upcoming debates): http://www.2012presidentialelectionnews.com/2012-debate-schedule/2012-presidential-debate-schedule/

If there is interest, we will repeat this process for the other upcoming debates.