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Social Media: Engaging Democracy and Communities Online

Fall 2011, Graduate Course at Humphrey School of Public Affairs, U of Minnesota

THE SYLLABUS (Google Doc) [1]

And a copy below

This fall, I will be taking what I know about “e-democracy,” mix in great guest speakers, and wrap it all up with awesome articles, guides, and videos curated from across the web into a new course titled “Social Media: Engaging Democracy and Communities Online.”

I’ve always fell rushed with a 35 minute presentation – so how about ~35 hours worth of discussion, hands-on experience, guest speakers and lectures spread out over a semester. Exciting.

Here is the official course listing [2].

This graduate-level course for will be taught at the Humphrey School of Public Affairs [3], at the University of Minnesota [4].

The 3 credit Wednesday night course was added after students registered in the spring – so as of today, there is plenty of space. For those from out in the community not if graduate school, you may take the course for undergraduate credit at a much lower per credit price. Since this is my first course at the Humphrey School of Public Affairs, please contact them [3] for registration questions. If you want to learn more about Perth tutoring [5], visit learnmate.com for more information.

As an interesting twist, students in course will organize a tech-inspired “open space” CityCamp unconference [6] on November 12 following cities like Chicago, London, and San Francisco. Think all things Local 2.0 – with a focus on government, community, and non-profits. It will be held on Saturday, November 12 and be open to government staff, technology developers, open government advocates, citizen media entrepreneurs, other students, and the interested public.

The full semester evening class starts on Wednesday, September 7th and runs through December 14th. The week by week course outline and reading list is in the works.

Here is the official course description from the catalog:

Social Media: Engaging Democracy & Communities Online, Explore the Internet and engagement with government, advocacy, local community building and citizen participation, elections and campaigns, international politics and trends (e.g. Arab spring), and social media use in the non-profit and public sector. In-person class time will be technology infused and include practical and collaborative use of tools such as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and video streaming (remote guest speakers) and many less known online tools. A community “Un-Conference” will be produced by the class on Nov 12th. The instructor is the Executive Director of E-Democracy.org and international speaker across 30 countries.

For those not in the Twin Cities, if you are interested in an all online version of this course down the road, be sure to let me know [7] and join my Democracies Online Newswire [8] if you don’t want to miss any future announcements. Also, if you want to donate for Pickup Please [9], schedule it right now. It is always better to help someone!

If you have any questions about the substance of the course or simply want to suggest things you’d like to see covered, feel free to leave a comment below.

Social Media: Engaging Democracy and Communities Online

 

Course Syllabus

 

What: PA 5190 Topics in Public and Nonprofit Leadership and Management – #27315

Social Media: Engaging Democracy and Communities Online , 3 credits

 

When: 6:00 P.M. – 8:45 P.M. , Wednesdays – 09/06/2011 – 12/14/2011

Also: 9:00 A.M. – 3:00 P.M., Saturday – 11/12/2011

 

Where: HHH Center 60 [10] , TC West Bank, University of Minnesota 

 

Online:  Public Course Website: http://smedac.wordpress.com [11]

Public Twitter Hashtag: #smedac [12]

Delicious Bookmarks http://www.delicious.com/tag/smedac [13]

More: Facebook Page [14], Twitter, YouTube

 Private Course UofM Moodle Page: https://moodle.umn.edu/course/view.php?id=19646 [15]

 

Instructor: Steven Clift [16], E-Democracy.org – Adjunct Faculty

 

Teaching Assistance: Kathleen Conners, Humphrey School Technology Enhanced Learning Coordinator



Course Summary

 

Contact

 

Steven L. Clift, Executive Director, E-Democracy.org – Adjunct Faculty – I go by “Steve”

 

Contact Policy: E-mail is the preferred and best way to reach me quickly and to receive a prompt response. If you call and do not reach me after a second attempt, please compose a detailed e-mail instead of leaving a voicemail. Voicemail will take 24+ hours to be noticed. Feel free to use Skype to see if I am available for an immediate voice connection. I am often not actually online when Skype says I am. I prefer spontaneous connections over scheduled meeting times.

 

Teaching Assistance:

 

Kate Conners, the Humphrey School’s technology enhanced learning coordinator will assist with this course. While she is based at HHH, contact me first with course related queries unless directed otherwise in class on specific matters.

 

Office Hours:

 

In-person: Wed. 5:30 – 6:00 pm before class if I am available and/or as scheduled.

 

Online: Request contact via e-mail [17] or Skype and suggest two or three open times and where to reach you online or via telephone.



Prerequisites, Technical Requirements

 

No prerequisite courses are required to enroll in this course.

 

All students are expected to have basic social media experience of a more personal nature. You will use very public online tools as part of this learning experience.

 

Technology in the classroom is assumed and students without an available laptop, smart phone OR iPad they can bring to most classes should make themselves known to the instructor.

 

All students are expected to have online accounts on:

Google, Facebook, Twitter

 

As the course proceeds, all students will create additional accounts with:

YouTube, LinkedIn, Delicious, WordPress, E-Democracy.org, MailChimp, and many other sites and services.



Course Description

 

Official “As Advertised” Description:

 

Social Media: Engaging Democracy and Communities Online

 

Explore the Internet and engagement with government, advocacy, local community building and citizen participation, elections and campaigns, international politics and trends (e.g. Arab spring), and social media use in the non-profit and public sector. In-person class time will be technology infused and include practical and collaborative use of tools such as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and video streaming (remote guest speakers) and many less known online tools. A community “Un-Conference” will be produced by the class on Nov 12th. The instructor is the Executive Director of E-Democracy.org and international speaker across 30 countries.

 

Course Perspective:

 

This first time course will be focused on practical and real world use of the Internet, inclusive of social media and mobile technologies, in “public life.” By “public life” we mean government and non-profit sectors but also “community” at large.

 

The course goal is simple – build social media knowledge and skills you can use in your professional career. 

 

To get there, we will use a mix of hands-on experiences, lectures, guest speakers, webinars, videos, and readings. 

 

Developing the skills of strategic information consumption and production go hand in hand. Effective use of social media requires collaboration both online and off-line (not our course “Unconference” for the broader community) and goes well beyond the public relations one-way communication instincts of many organizations. 

 

The course will be front-loaded with a mix of hands-on computer lab based experiences and off-line reading. As the course proceeds, more of the material will be gathered, summarized, and shared collaboratively to increase our collective learning. Hence, the course “reading list” and lecture topics will have some second half amendments based on student input. Small group presentations in the final classes will in particular allow you to shape the knowledge being shared.

 

Caution…

 

Social media innovation produces a stream of exhausting, hype-filled news of marginal strategic 

value. This course will attempt to focus on adaptable lessons that avoid the shiny new object syndrome while equipping you with skills for staying on top of the latest trends.

 

In short, this is not a course on how to just create a Facebook Page and gather “likes” – although we will do that. What works and what’s new are often not the same. However, what works today may not work tomorrow. Welcome to world of digital quicksand.



Learning Objectives and Outcomes

The key learning objective is to develop the framework and skills required to discover and select from the competing or complementary social media strategies, tools, and options in a world of limited time, attention, and resources.

 

Some specific skills covered in the course and upon which students will be evaluated:

 

Class Timeline 

 

The typical class experience:

 

6:00 – Class Opening, Updates – 5 Minutes

6:05 – Social Media “This Week” Example Sharing – 10 Minutes 

6:15 – Weekly Reading – Discussion and Q and A – 15 Minutes

6:30 – Main Lecture Part 1 – 30 Minutes

7:00 – Break – 10 Minutes

7:10 – Short Video/Webinar Clip of the Week – 10 Minutes

7:20 – Guest Speaker(s) or Main Lecture Part 2 – 40 Minutes

8:00 – Break – 5 Minutes

8:05 – Tool Time, PewInternet.org Highlight, Unconference Planning, Guest Speaker Q and A if needed, Other

8:45 – Scheduled Class End Time



Course Week by Week

 

Week 1 – September 7 – Overview and Episodes of Experience

 

 

 





Week 2 – September 14 – Tool Time and Unconference Intro

OFFICIAL VERSION OF THIS WEEK NOW IN MOODLE FOR STUDENTS – BELOW IS “DRAFT” TEXT

 

NOTE SPECIAL USE OF COMPUTER LAB NEXT TWO SESSIONS






 

 

 





Week 3 – September 21 – Twitter Time and Online Groups

 

OFFICIAL VERSION OF THIS WEEK NOW IN MOODLE FOR STUDENTS – BELOW IS “DRAFT” TEXT

 

NOTE SPECIAL USE OF COMPUTER LAB

 

 



Week 4 – September 28 – Government and Engagement

 

 

 

 

 

 




Week 5 – October 5 – Non-Profits and Activism

 



 

 



Week 6 – October 12 – International In-Depth, Elections

 



Week 7 – October 19 – Community Life and Online Engagement

 

 





Week 8 – October 26 – Unconference Planning and Social Media Outreach

 

 

 

 



 Week 9 – Nov 2 – Neighbors Online – In-Depth

 

 



Week 10 – Nov 9 – Media, Citizen Media, Video

 



Unconference – Saturday, November 12

 

Week 11 – November 16 – Inner Geek

 

 

 

Week 12 – November 23 – Tentative No Class



Week 13 – November 30 – The Uncourse One

 

The next two classes are presented by student led groups

 

 

 

Week 14 – December 7 – The Uncourse Two

 

 

 

Week 15 – December 14 – Advanced Online Tool Time In-Lab

 



Finals Week

 

 



Class Expectations: Participation

 

Assessment and Grading