SMCEDU in Central VA: The Beginning of Something Big

After meeting with members of Social Media Club-Richmond, VA, it’s evident that central Virginia and SMCEDU are a great fit.

I met with Kendall Morris, a media specialist and social media consultant associated with SMCRVA, Nathan Hughes, the programming director for SMCRVA, Marcus Messner, a journalism professor at Virginia Commonwealth University, and Jennifer Greenwood, an undergraduate student at George Mason University.

I had an interesting conversation with Prof. Messner regarding his journalism classes. As most know, the print journalism industry is in a state of decline, and journalism across all mediums is facing major changes. The future press corps is being educated in classrooms that must embrace change, and it sounds like many students are entering these classrooms unprepared. Although Prof. Messner said that almost all his incoming students had Facebook accounts, the majority are unaware of how to apply social networking technology beyond this most popular application.

It’s just more evidence of why this project could benefit so many people. Kendall Morris spoke of her work with the creative firm Punch. As a social media advisor to many businesses in her area, she championed the effort to teach social media knowledge not only as an employable asset, but because so many students (especially young women) were unaware of the wide net social media profiles can cast. We’ve all heard of the cautionary tales involving visibility of one’s private life, but Prof. Messner and Kendall Morris both told stories of how students that are afflicted with a “it hasn’t happened to me” mentality when it comes to embarrassing photos can quickly change their perspecitives once the ease with which private information can be shared becomes evident.

Again, more reason to teach the principles behind social media, and how current and future tools can/will affect multiple aspects of a person’s life.

What’s really exciting about the SMCRVA group is their enthusiasm and potential to connect with a sizeable network of schools in the area.

The VA Board of Education just launched their Virginia Education Wizard, an online tool to help students create a plan to make college education a reality. The announcement of “Ginny’s” release was made using Twitter, and shows the area’s willingness to use social media tools to communicate with students.

Virginia Commonwealth University makes for a great starting point. In October, the school will host the first in a lecture series that will be hosted by VCU’s School of Mass Communication. The first event in the series will deal with social media, and attendees can expect to hear from a broad panel of social media experts/users that will range from student advocates to proven business practitioners.

There are many ideas behind the lecture series, including opening up attendance for students from other schools (although nothing has been formalized just yet). The proximity of schools and the excitement of SMCRVA could be a formula for great advancement in social media education, and would in the very least provide a way for schools to communicate with each other to collaborate and create a unified curriculum.

We’re still looking at ideas to spread awareness and get others to participate…I’m seeing questions from people in other areas that are asking about how to create a SMCEDU group in their area. As I wrote about earlier, SMCEDU in Washington, D.C., is working with members from George Washington University. Now, Georgetown University is also advancing the cause, as Renee Goldman, president of Hilltop Consultants, Inc., has posted a charter for an SMCEDU group at the home of the Hoyas.

We’re hoping this charter can serve as a model for any school interested in establishing their own SMCEDU group. If your school is interested, please stay connected to the overall effort via our SMCEDU Ning group, and don’t forget to check in on two of our current working groups, SMCEDU-GW and SMCEDU-GU. I’ll stay in contact with Steve Radick, the professional sponsor for both chapters, and post updates as both groups grow.

I’ll also try to contact those that have inquired about creating SMCEDU groups in other areas and see what we can do to help. If you have any questions, please post them to the SMCEDU Ning group forum, and we’ll provide some direct information or guidance to get SMCEDU going in your area.

The D.C. Connection: SMCEDU in the Nation’s Capital

On Monday, I had lunch with Steve Radick (the social media lead at Booz Allen Hamilton), Nicole Morales (an undergraduate student at George Washington University), and Cathryn Sitterding (a graduate student at GWU). We discussed the relationship between the Social Media Club-DC chapter and GWU in regard to SMCEDU, a discussion that provided a very insightful sit-down.

One of the more exciting aspects of SMCEDU (besides the enthusiasm of all those involved) is the “newness” of this effort. It presents an interesting challenge: getting people, ideas, and goals on the same page, especially when dealing with something as diverse as social media, is no small feat. Since there isn’t a precedent for this effort, there will be different ways to approach the main goals of SMCEDU, and the SMCDC/GWU partnership looks like they’ve got some great ideas.

One of the goals of SMCEDU is to create relationships between the national chapters of Social Media Club and their respective local universities. To do that, Steve Radick proposed that students at GWU get involved early by creating a SMC group at the renown university. In doing, steps taken and lessons learned from establishing a group could be documented and shared on the SMCEDU wiki, providing a road map for future relationships between SMC chapters and local universities. Both Cathryn Sitterding and Nicole Morales touched on a critical consideration: the relevance of social media to each student’s course of study. They also brought up great points about how to get the student body at both the graduate and undergraduate levels interested and the initiative required to garner support.

One of the goals of this proposed student group would be to provide opportunities for students, teachers, administrators, and business leaders to network and collaborate. One of the teachers during the SMCEDU kick-off call voiced concern that there needs to be a rationale for how social media can be distinguished from other academic disciplines; there needs to be a way to explain why social media is relevant/important. Imagine now a panel discussion where social media advocates (those with real-world experience) could answer questions from people that don’t see its value. Industry-specific examples would provide proof of why tools such as Twitter are largely misunderstood and under-utilized, and also address the “What’s in it for me” question (aka the “How does this help me get a better job” concern that fuels many students). This is just one example of how these student groups could establish dialogue between interested parties (i.e., students, faculty, business recruiters), create interest for social media classes, and create a consensus on both the definition and value of social media.

That’s just one example of what this group could do; the potential value student proponents can provide is tremendous. The actual establishment of such a group would provide many lessons in itself: finding sponsorship among faculty; writing a charter, a living document that establishes the goals and purpose of the group; locating a meeting place and establishing a schedule of events that will allow stakeholders to meet and collaborate. All these tasks could be valuable for any groups interested in doing the same. Of course, any steps taken here in the DC area wouldn’t be the final say in how things are done — such is the beauty of social media. The SMCDC/GWU partnership would be just one method in how to form the SMC/University relationship. This method can be utilized as a model, or could be improved upon by a group that has found another way. The importantance of transparency and communication is obvious — without sharing, progress becomes severely limited. The spirit of collective knowledge will be evident and on display on the SMCEDU wiki for this and any future SMCEDU endeavors.

Another interesting point from our discussion that I can’t leave out: the difference between social media concepts/principles and the social media tools that so often carry the guise of definition. In other words, to answer the question of, “What is social media?” by answering, “It’s Facebook,” or “It’s Twitter,” doesn’t really help the inquirer grasp the fundamentals behind the idea. Tools change, the principle of information gathering through collective dialogue won’t. As this another important aspect of social media education, I’d love to hear your thoughts in the discussion!

On Thursday, I meet with Nathan Hughes and Kendall Morris of Social Media Club-Richmond, VA. There’s a lot going on in central VA as well, and I look forward to the continued momentum of this exciting project!

SMCEDU in Virginia: Social Media in Education Conference

I had a great SMCEDU conference call on Tuesday with Nathan Hughes and Kendall Morris of Social Media Club of Richmond, VA. There is a lot of excitement within this local chapter, and I’m looking forward to working with this group of people as we reach out to local schools.

It seems that we’re still in the “create awareness” stage of things with SMCEDU, but we’re moving into action phases. Here’s one that represents that:

Tonight (Wednesday) from 6-8pm EST, SMCRVA will host a discussion with the Virginia Department of Education, the State Council of Higher Education, Virginia’s Community Colleges, and the College Savings Plan and Education Credit Management Corporation. The discussion will focus on how Virginia seeks to take the lead in creating tools to promote affordability and access in education.

Virginia’s Community Colleges seem very interested in setting an example of how social media can be applied in education and communication, and tonight’s conference will be available for everyone to participate and follow through Twitter using the #steakchat hashtag. Also, check out Virginia’s Education Wizard, an online portal for career and education planning in Virginia, for the podcast and blog posts about the event.

This is just one example of how the SMCEDU effort is happening as we speak. I know there are others — if you’re hosting/participating in one, please let us know so we can share knowledge and spread the word faster!

With social media again making headlines this week with Facebook’s acquisition of Friendfeed, I thought it a poignant opportunity to bring up this point.

Yesterday, I had a conversation with two college students and the subject of Facebook came up. Out of curiosity, I asked if either would be interested in taking a social media class if one was offered at their school. The response was mixed…it seemed both would be interested, but neither could honestly find the value of “just learning about Twitter.”

I understand two people’s opinion is not an accurate representation, but it was a sentiment that was echoed by others listening to the conversation and seemed to reflect the definition of social media for at least a percentage of college students.

That’s part of our challenge — spreading awareness of first, what social media is, and second, why it’s important. I could have bored the two students with a definition/lecture of social media, but instead filed away the opinions as a marker for future discussion. I’m curious: social media is a powerful tool now, and will only become more prevalent in the future. If a percentage of the current generation that’s in school isn’t prepared to take advantage of existing technology, what percentage is?

Are classes enough to teach students (and anyone else that’s interested) that there’s more to social media than Facebook? Or that Twitter isn’t a waste of time? The classroom is a conventional atmosphere that brings with it a level of seriousness; in other words, if students see social media classes in their course catalogs, perhaps more will see it as something that’s more than a frivolous Internet outlet. Just a thought.

Summer of Social Good

Social Media Club is proud to partner with the folks at Mashable and the Global Giving Foundation to support the Summer of Social Good Tweetup Tour. The Summer of Social Good is an online charitable campaign to raise funds by spreading awareness around four major organizations who affect policies that have profound impacts on the world. Those organizations are @WWF_Climate, @OxfamAmerica, @HumaneSociety and @LiveSTRONG.

The Summer of Social Good tour comes to six (6) cities; New York (NY), Chicago (IL), Denver (CO), Los Angeles (CA), Washington (DC) and Boston (MA) and ends with a Social Good Conference taking place in New York City, NY on August 28th.

Please try to join us at one of these other #Hyatt4Good Tweetup Tour Dates:

• Denver, Thursday, August 6th, 2009
• Los Angeles, Friday, August 7th, 2009
• Washington, Thursday, August 13th, 2009
  
• Boston, Friday August 21st, 2009

The tour has already taken place in New York and Chicago. If you cannot participate in person, you can still give online. Do it. Then buy yourself a cookie. You deserve it.

SMCEDU: The First Steps

After a week of introductions, let’s see how we can get the next step of our project underway:

We want to teach people about social media technology, but let’s not forget the “social” component. Although the tools we use to communicate are varied and great, nothing beats personal interaction. To that end, I’m hoping to start small and locally by meeting members of both the Social Media Club and social media educators.

After Chris posted a question about where to start, we received a few great suggestions. As I’m based in Northern Virginia, I contacted local chapters of Social Media Club in the Washington, D.C., and Richmond, VA, areas. There is already a SMCEDU rapport established between Social Media Club DC and George Washington University (based in D.C.)…this seems like a natural place to start. As more develops, I’ll post reports and ask for feedback/suggestions on how we can establish similar relationships between SMC chapters and their local universities.

Another important focal point of our project is the cumulation of current social media curriculum.

As teachers continue to add their information to the directory, the community of social media educators becomes closer. Thanks to Alex de Carvalho, Corinne Weisgerber, Bill Handy, Gaetan Giannini, and Pierre Edelman for contributing so far. I’ve taken the liberty of adding your resources to the SMCEDU wiki under “Social Media Curriculum”. This is a temporary holding for social media resources, and for now serves as a central location to review what teachers are currently offering in their classrooms. If there’s anything you’d like to add, it will help tremendously!

As an aside, I began thinking about the difference between social media and social networking. Perhaps the term “social media” can be used interchangeably to describe either the content created and shared by users, or the medium by which they communicate. To me, the definition of “social networking” is more specific: it is the activity of creating or participating in groups that share information/resources. This can be achieved by using technology to reach anyone with access to the same technology, or it can be more immediate in that you’re working with people face-to-face.

I bring up the two terms because they are both a big part of what we’re doing: we’re of course connecting (i.e., networking), but also sharing written material, video, and audio…in other words, media.

By opening up a dialogue and collecting a consensus on ideas such as this from those actively participating in SMCEDU, I hope it will standardize what social media education means to everyone.

As always, any questions/thoughts/hints/comments/concerns/suggestions are welcome!