#SMCEDU is a part of Social Media Club, a nonprofit organization that is working to promote media literacy and connect people to share what they are learning about social media.

With the combination of spring break, SXSW, and busy mid-semester schedules, it was a slower-than-usual day with #SMCEDU chat.

We still tackled a big topic: the announcement that the No Child Left Behind law (the previous administration’s attempt to close the gap between schools in lower and higher income areas) was being dismantled. New standards and goals in education were announced, key among them:

• States are called upon to adopt standards that ensure students are ready for college or a career rather than grade-level proficiency
• States would be allowed to use subjects other than reading and math as part of their measurements for meeting federal goals
• Schools will be judged on indicators like pupil attendance, graduation rates, and learning climate, along with the traditional test scores
• Give more rewards — money and flexibility — to high-poverty schools that are seeing big gains in student achievement and use them as a model for other schools in low-income neighborhoods that struggle with performance.
• Punish the lowest-performing 5 percent of schools using aggressive measures, such as having the state take over federal funding for poor students, replacing the principal and half the teaching staff or closing the school altogether.
• The name No Child Left Behind will be dropped because it is associated with a harsh law that punishes schools for not reaching benchmarks even if they’ve made big gains

You can read the more about the proposed changes here and here.

While some of our regulars didn’t want to wiegh in because the issue doesn’t deal directly with higher education, our community in the past has discussed the importance of K-12 preparation for later learning. On Monday, our chat featured these thoughts:

• Emphasize individualized exploration
• Stress critical thinking skills
• Implement broader measurement tools
• Teach life skills

While the hard details of the new plan haven’t been revealed, it’s an interesting time for education, from the early stages of learning into adult learning. At SXSW, there was a session on the purpose of the University in 2010; check out this post that covered it.

What are your thoughts on the changes? Leave us an impression in the comments below.

We’re coming back next week with more topics that cover social media in education, we hope you can join in the conversation!

Whatever the reason your panel was rejected, here is your second chance to present your talk with your panel on the afternoon of Tuesday March 16, 2010. So submit your panel to us in the comments below (make sure everyone can be there still) and we will, at our sole discretion and judgment, select two (2) or three (3) panels which will receive 30 minutes each to live stream to our global audience from the Social Media Clubhouse beginning around 3pm.

We have this fantastic venue 20 minutes from the convention center, a shuttle bus and a live musical performance we are putting on from Kole Christensen starting at 5pm as part of our KUT Live series.  We also have a daily recap show to produce on Tuesday at 6pm with TechZulu. But we don’t yet have a Summit booked, or a sponsor for it other then Social Media Club, which has a pretty awesome announcement to make this week </teaser>.

So let’s go for it and share some knowledge together. If you get it, we will stream it!

Suggestions

• If it’s a commercial pitch, forget about it, you should have signed up as a sponsor
• If you want more immediate attention, tweet it @socialmediaclub with a link to the panel submission elsewhere online and make sure to use the #SMCH3 hashtag
• We are looking for topics that are interesting to our Social Media Club members from around the world, so if you have a strong case why it would be, present it in the comments (or on your own blog post)
• Don’t contact me personally, please. Especially if you know me personally. I just dont have time to deal with all those extra communications while we are in the midst of producing #SMCH3
• The ‘application’ we choose will be notified by Sunday night so there is time to prepare on MON
• Ummm, well, if you have something to talk about regarding media literacy and how to create more of it, or anything to do with our core missions, that, well, that might get some preferential treatment.

#SMCEDU is a part of Social Media Club, a nonprofit organization that is working to promote media literacy and connect people to share what they are learning about social media.

With today’s #SMCEDU chat, I wanted to brainstorm with our community on ways to encourage non-technical educators to explore and learn about technologies that can potentially improve the learning process.

I imagine it’s a sensitive subject: educators work hard, and many that have never used any form of technology have been teaching for years using a system that has helped numerous students achieve their goals in learning.

Yet we’re at a point in many industries, and in our culture, where some changes can’t be ignored. To better prepare students for this world and to enhance learning in all subjects, schools and instructors need to make the changes to both curriculum and teaching methods to:

a) keep students engaged and interested in learning

b) stay relevant against a constantly-evolving backdrop that’s created because of, and through, an increasingly technical society.

Educators that aren’t as technically adept need a reason to become more so; why and how they should start was the focus of our chat.

Maybe the reason social media gets such a bad rap in the educational world is misperception, and maybe teachers just don’t understand the effectiveness of using technology to teach.

The reasons why some educators haven’t applied technology to the classroom can go on. We tried to focus on the reasons they should.

So much of social media is driven by the practice of sharing. The act of teaching is one of giving, an act that fosters trust. It would seem the best way to increase interest among the skeptical is for trusted colleagues that have the experience to convince them of its upside.

One way to do this is through formal teaching in the form of workshops, although the willingness to invest time (if even for sheer curiosity) must be present in those that lack technical exposure.

PLNs (Personal Learning Networks) are another great resource to expand knowledge, but challenges exist there as well.

In fact, any sort of guidance that’s technically-based (such as PLNs) are part of the problem…the problem being that it takes some willingness to cross a digital divide that’s greater than some realize (for another example of why it’s wrong to assume techical ability, check out this post from ReadWriteWeb). PLNs and PLEs (Personal Learning Environments) are extremely effective, but there has to be a starting point.

But once again, I’m focusing on the reasons educators won’t migrate to using technology in the classroom, while instead I should be focusing on reasons why, and how, they should.

Another approach to persuade educators to adopt technology is to remind them of their primary responsibility: to teach. If students can present compelling ways they use social media to learn, then it’s a callous teacher that won’t listen to that argument.

In fact, it’s exactly these types of student-driven, multi-purpose projects that will be impossible for teachers to ignore and for students to forget.

Students aren’t alone in convincing their instructors. By connecting with businesses that use social media and creating projects that give them real-world experience, the dual-cry of requisite from educational institutions’ two most important customers (the students that populate their campuses, and the businesses/organizations that hire those students) will force change.

That change won’t happen overnight, but it will happen. Just remember this quote from retired U.S. Army Chief of Staff General Eric Shinseki:

“If you don’t like change, you’re going to like irrelevance even less.”

We’re very excited to have so many new participants each week, we’re grateful for all the shared thoughts and ideas. We look forward to more in the future, see you all again next Monday at 12:30pm EST!

For a complete transcript of today’s chat, click here.

Links to resources mentioned during today’s chat

• From Ana Adi (@ana_adi): U.S. Department of Education draft, National Educational Technology Plan 2010
• From Terry Eberhart (@digin4ed): The Educator’s PLN, #edchat on Twitter
• From Dana M. Nelson (@danamnelson): Steve Radick (@sradick) keynote speech at the University of Southern Indiana
• From Kristina Setzekorn (@ksetzekorn): #lrnchat on Twitter

The event, hosted by GWU’s Andrea Genevieve (@andreagenevieve), welcomes all educators, students, and professionals that have a stake in improving social media education at the university level.

The event will take place on Thursday, March 11, at 5:30pm at George Washington University in the School of Media and Public Affairs building, 4th floor conference room.

If you’re thinking about starting an SMCEDU chapter at your school, or want to share ideas for hosting events, this would be a great opportunity to meet others doing the same!

If you have any questions, please contact either Andrea or myself. Hope to see you there!

• New Website, New Membership Drive To Launch on March 12th!
• Social Media Clubhouse: Your Virtual Home for SxSW
• Local Leadership BBQ at SxSW: Request Your Invite!
• It’s a Wrap: Social Media Week
• Social Media Club Census 2010
• Local Chapter News
• Welcome New Members!
• Conference Discounts Just For You

New Website, Membership Drive To Launch on March 12th!
We’ve been thinking about this since we first realized the traditional association model was broken in the era of do it yourself community and inexpensive global network organizing tools, and the day is nearly here! On Friday March 12, 2010 we will debut our new Social Media Club web site and kick off a new membership drive as we kick off SxSW at the Social Media Club House with a special BBQ for all our local leaders and members. (more details below on the BBQ

Many of you have asked how we sustained this organization, and the answer has long been the tiring refrain of ‘we built this on our credit cards and through the generosity of a few hundred folks who bought expensive t-shirts!’. Well that time has come and gone, and we are ushering in a new era. An era in which we give you several great reasons to actually join us as a paying professional member or business member. An era in which we can build our organizational infrastructure to more fully and forcefully deliver on our primary missions. An era where Social Media Club grows from its humble roots in the Chris & Kristie home office and goes out in the world as an adult.

While the site has been refined in our heads for a long time, it won’t be refined in the real world to the point that we are completely happy for a few months. We need to hear from you with your criticism and compliments. We want this to serve your needs, which we understand, but which we don’t yet see or appreciate fully enough. So at the very least, when the site launches, please go and sign up as a free member and give us your feedback so we can talk about the ‘overnight success’ that Social Media Club has become in the 4 years since first registering the URL and dreaming this big dream.

Stay tuned for details on the http://www.socialmediaclub.org/ website. Follow our updates on Twitter and check out the new site on Friday March 12, 2010. ::we are so excited::

Social Media Clubhouse: Your Virtual Home for SxSW
If you are unable to make it to Austin for SxSW this year, don’t fret, because the Social Media Club House will be your source for all things SxSW from March 12-21. We have big plans for “The Clubhouse” in 2010. First launched in 2007 as a place for members and supporters to stay together and make media during a double conference stint in Las Vegas, then reinvented for Le Web this past December, we are now evolving the concept even further as our home away from home where we can report on conferences that matter to you.

In addition to reporting on SxSW with blog posts from clubhouse residents each day and our daily recap show produced with TechZulu and Justin.tv every day at 6pm CST, we are doing some pretty special events. With our sponsors/partners we will be hosting several conversations that matter in addition to a musical showcase with local NPR affiliate KUT 90.5.

We invite you to tune in to our live streams on the Social Media Clubhouse blog of The Synaptic Web Summit (Saturday, March 13th @ 3pm CST) sponsored by Intel, Maximum Engagement: Understanding the Social Media Multiplier (Sunday, March 14th @ 3pm CST) sponsored by Awareness, Inc and the Co-Working Summit (Monday, March 15th @ 1pm CST) sponsored by Moonfruit. Each show will be followed by a special musical performance from a rising star in the music world and then later on by the daily recap show.

It’s going to be a great start for our new site and we hope that you not only tune in, but help us by embedding the live video feed in your local chapter’s site and/or your own blog. Please do help us spread the word on this so that we can knock this out of the park and ensure that we can do bigger and better clubhouse’s at the events that matter most to you.

Local Leadership BBQ at SxSW: Request Your Invite!
If you are a member of the leadership team of a local SMC chapter or a professional member attending SxSW, you are invited to request an invite to join us at the Social Media Clubhouse on Friday 3/12 from noon to 2pm. Here you will be able to meet other leaders from around the world to network, share success stories, discover the new members site and hear about our important plans for the future (including how we will be getting you more sponsor dollars and providing more operational support if you want it). Even better yet, the BBQ is being catered by the world famous Salt Lick BBQ, which has been featured all over television as the best BBQ in Texas.

The Club House is about 15 minutes from the Convention Center on Lake Austin, and we will be providing transportation to/from the event to make it easier for you to attend. This event is first and foremost for local leaders, but if we have room, we will be opening up the guest list to more members and supporters as space allows. If you are not a SMC organizer or you are, and have not received an invite yet, you can request an invite here. Well, since we haven’t gotten the invites sent to local leaders yet, consider this your invite and register your interest in attending and we will reply to you confirming attendance ASAP! If you know a local leader, please do forward this to them for us and make sure they can attend to bring you all the info you need to know about the future of Social Media Club International.

In addition to serving as the official Austin Ambassadors at the Social Media Clubhouse, the local host chapter in Austin is organizing two other events during SxSW which you can register to attend:

• The fine folks at Kickapps and Akami are hosting a party on Sunday, March 14th and you are invited! You must register to attend, so please do so sooner than later at http://www.kickapps.com/ barparty
• Then on Tuesday, March 16th join our hosts for their monthly meeting of SMC Austin at the Bazaarvoice offices. Registration page is opening up shortly, so its best to follow SMC Austin on Twitter accounts for details. Both Kristie Wells and Chris Heuer (thats me) will be attending and talking about the new site and the bigger plans for Social Media Club, Social Media Camp, SMCEDU and all the other initiatives you haven’t even heard about yet.

We look forward to seeing you in Austin very soon!

It’s a Wrap: Social Media Week San Francisco
One week. Six cities. 100’s of events. Learning. Teaching. Networking. Good times.

As the organizers of Social Media Week San Francisco we can tell you it was a real blast and really exhausting with all these events happening in such a short time frame. Since we jumped into SxSW mode before the week was even out, we haven’t had much chance to tell the bigger story, but we do want to thank everyone who came out to the events to make the week a big success. We learned a lot across the week, at our 2nd official Social Media Camp, at workshops, at panels and even yes, in bars and living rooms. As a bonus, we closed the week with a terrific closing party that also raised $1800 for NetSquared!

Please join us in saying a hearty ‘thank you’ to all the Social Media Week San Francisco sponsors without whose support we never would have been able to do it all: Biz360, IDEA, Bing, SAP, GoGrid, Justin.tv, LinkedIn, Tungle, and Visible Technologies.

We love you guys. Thanks for all you do and for supporting this week’s worth of events. It is much appreciated and it was key in laying the foundation for our future growth. We also want to thank Toby Daniels, the original organizer and inspiration behind Social Media Week for allowing us to participate and for putting up with our vocal opinions throughout the process.

Social Media Club Census 2010
If you or someone you know is part of a local organizational team, please take a moment and complete the Social Media Club Census. We need to collect the ‘Census’ information so that when reporters, sponsors, or members of our community ask us about the current state of the organization, we can give them an up to date and truthful answer instead of our best guess (as I have been doing over the last few months especially). This information, in conjunction with the new website, will provide powerful levers in furthering our primary missions to promote media literacy, share lessons learned, encourage ethical behavior and promote industry standards.

Also again, we need your help! Can you please check in with your local leadership to make sure they see this link and complete our census? It really is going to take the village in ensuring we get to everyone we need to make this effort a success. https://socialmediaclub.wufoo.com/forms/social-media-club-chapter-survey-the-basics/

Local Chapter News
Social Media Club has experienced a strong period of growth over the last six months – going from 91 chapters in July 2009 to over 160 chapters today (though I suspect there are still some more smaller ones hiding out there somewhere). In fact, we have confirmed sitings of chapters on six of the seven continents on this fine planet of ours (we are coming Antarctica, I promise!!).

Every local chapter is a little different from the next, just as every local neighborhood has its unique flavor. Some use Facebook. Others use Ning. A chapter might user Twitter just to promote their events. Another uses an email service, like iContact. Some love the wiki. Others don’t even know where to find it. This is good. This is a chance for us all to learn. The experiences of each of the chapters has informed our growth along the way and lead us to some important insights we have put to good use in the new site launching on Friday March 12, 2010 (see above).

We plan to focus on infrastructure in 2010, improving the ways we communicate with one another and helping local chapters find the right path to sustainability for their particular needs. We sincerely appreciate everyone who has taken a leadership role in Social Media Club. Your efforts are the reason we exist today and we love you for it. While the new site will bring some changes and a bit more structure to our operations, our principles of openness and inclusivity remains at the core of our being.

However, in order to support our global efforts we need to secure more funds to employ the staff required. It can no longer be Chris and Kristie working on Social Media Club as a secondary job without income from it if we are to succeed at our mission. That said, the way we are setting this up, as we will discuss with local leaders during the BBQ during SxSW, is a great turning point for taking SMC to the next level and we hope you not only join us, but help lead us to the next great milestone!

Welcome to our Corporate, SMB and Professional Members!
We’d like to acknowledge our new Corporate, Small and Medium Business and Professional Members here. Thank you ever so much for opening your heart, and your wallet, to support the mission of Social Media Club.

• Corporate: Lacy Kemp (RealNetworks)
• SMB Members: David Berkowitz (360i)
• Professional Members: Tammi Hitchcock, Guillaume Vermeulen, Kyung Han, Michael Kauffman, Charle-John Cafiero, Candice Strudel, David Vanderpoel, Tina Hui, Suzanne Reinfranck, Richard Reader, Suzanne Alderson, Kathlen D’Amato, Wing Lian, Michael Moloney, Debbie Pascoe, Stacy Van Meter, Michelle Krasniak, Sean McCandless, Sean Engmann, Shelly DeMotte, Derek Brookmeyer, C. Rachel Dunnavant, Deidra Bodkin, Bronwyn Saglimbeni, Adam Helweh, Michael Howard, Stephanie Sammons, Eric Weaver, Constance Marshall, Anne Bertelsen, Andrew Sternberg, and Kevin Urie.

We would be honored if you were able to join as a paid member so that we can continue sharing our knowledge and bringing people together to expand our collective abilities. We think that once you see the new site and hear our story, it will be very worth your while – so much so in fact, that for the first time we are not only comfortable asking you to consider joining as a paying member, we are actively encouraging it! But hey, don’t take my word for it, take a look at the new site that will launch on Friday March 12, 2010 and see for yourself.

If you are able to support Social Media Club so that we can continue to advance Social Media professionalism around the world, please register here today. We look forward to welcoming you officially to the SMC family very soon!

Conference Discounts Just For You
Below you will find several conferences that have offered special discounts to SMC members. In the future, the only way to find these benefits will be through the members site, but until then, these are for everyone on our mailing list and blog too.

• Social Media Club Local Leaders BBQ: March 12, 2010 in Austin, TX. We are hosting a special (free) BBQ featuring Salt Lick BBQ for our local chapter leaders who are in Austin during SxSW. Watch your email inbox as your invitation will be coming in the next 24 hours. Space is limited, and this will be on a first come, first served basis. If you are a new local leader or you dont think we have your proper email address, you can ensure we know about you and get you an invite by filling out a request to attend right now.
• Social Media Marketing: March 15-16, 2010 in Singapore. This conference is designed to facilitate organisations’ adoption to a customer centric approach to marketing by building a framework for social network marketing. It will help organisations recognise the value of using this platform and will reveal the latest trend in this field, current best practices and how marketers are employing it today and in the future.Mention “SMC” and receive a 10% discount!
• Social Media Strategies Conference: May 18 – 19, 2010 in Santa Clara, CA. The conference will focus on social media marketing, optimization, analytics, case studies, work shop & best practices and how executives, managers, and marketers can leverage it to meet their business goals. Social Media Club members receive $200 off registration when using ‘SMC2010′.
• NewComm Forum: April 20-23, 2010 in San Mateo, CA. This events feature five exciting keynotes, one full-day and four ½-day pre-conference workshops, post-conference strategy sessions and a one-day executive summit. Social Media Club members receive a $100 discount when using “smcCOMM”.

Worthy causes/initiatives for you to check out:

• Social Health 2010: March 11, 2010 in Austin, TX. SXSH is a day-long international social health un-conference encompassing all aspects of healthcare. The objectives of this unconference are threefold: To bring together an international group of stakeholders in pharma and healthcare (patients, providers, professionals, and industry) within an unconference format, To encourage the interaction and discussion among these stakeholders in this open forum. To expose this traditionally “insular” group of stakeholders to the true culture of social media (i.e. it’s not just about the tech) at SXSW.
• TWESTIVAL GLOBAL 2010: March 25, 2010 in various cities. We are rallying around Concern Worldwide to bring attention to the fact that 72 million children in the world don’t get the opportunity to go to school. One day, one cause and this year is gearing up to be unmissable. Twestival is focusing on global education through fundraising for Concern Worldwide (@concern), a phenomenal organization who have been working to support the world’s poorest people with their innovative and compassionate approach for over 40 years. Nelson Mandela is quoted as saying “Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.” This has never been more true than now; with Haiti losing over 4,000 schools in the earthquake and other regions of the world where children are forced to work on the streets or struggle with hunger and water issues which prevent them from attending. The Social Media Club members around the world have enthusiastically embraced Twestival and made an undeniable impact on their local communities along with other volunteers. We invite you to spread the word and join Moscow, Seoul, Hong Kong, San Francisco, Buenos Aires, London and Cape Town by hosting an event in your area on March 25th. The event can be as big or as small as you wish, the idea is to come together for a night of fun and fundraising to put your city or school on the map. So get out to a Twestival event near you http://twestival.com / and follow @twestival for updates. Better still, become an organizer of a local event and show the world the caliber of leadership within Social Media Club and prove to the world the power of social media for social good!

——————–

Well, it’s a slightly long newsletter a long time in the making, but well worth it. We are really looking forward to taking the wraps off the new site next week and ushering in the next phase of growth for Social Media Club. In the meantime, be well and make great media!

Cheers,
Chris Heuer & Kristie Wells
Founders, Social Media Club Global

Website – http://www.socialmediaclub.org
Twitter – http://twitter.com/SocialMediaClub
Facebook – http://www.facebook.com/SocialMediaClub

#SMCEDU is a part of Social Media Club, a nonprofit organization that is working to promote media literacy and connect people to share what they are learning about social media.

Monday’s #SMCEDU chat topic centered around the myth of digital natives, the idea that younger generations are naturally gifted at using online resources.

I found this blog post that presented the argument that while younger people “blog, game, and network on a variety of platforms, often multi-tasking,” the idea that this sort of digital literacy is natural and ubiquitous is false. The post also linked to a series of papers that explore this idea, I found it interesting.

What did our community think of this? Here are the main points from our discussion:

• While younger generations are more comfortable using technology, they are not necessarily more capable
• Younger generations don’t have greater technical “know-how” because schools, especially at lower grade levels and into high school, aren’t teaching them
• Learning should be a lifelong experience, and one that will help individuals stay competitive in the work world

During the chat, many of our participants shared links to various resources; we ALWAYS appreciate the extra information!

Younger Generations More Comfortable with Technology, Not More Capable

While it’s true that devices like laptops and smartphones are ubiquitous among young students, that doesn’t automatically translate to digital mastery. In fact, instructors may may make assumptions about their students’ technical capability that aren’t always true. And while some students feel confident that they “get it,” the truth is that many don’t understand the full potential of the tools they use daily, and as a result, are almost as blind to potential and reach of technology as older generations that aren’t as immersed.

This isn’t to say that young people won’t learn faster, but the reason why has nothing to do with age-associated ability, but with their willingness to “play around” rather than look for a manual.

What this translates to is that personal needs are being met, but they’re missing both communication skills and business savvy. This, of course, is subject to change once they are given the lessons appropriate to the modern, digital culture in which they live.

Why Younger Generations Don’t Fully Grasp the Potential of the Technologies They Use

This is a subject that produced some insight from our educators: it seems there’s a sense of frustration that new college students will enter a classroom without basic skills…in some cases, really basic skills.

But how can students live in a digital world while blind to so many aspects of that world?

I asked this question, and it seems that our K-12 levels (especially high schools) are lacking when it come to teaching these skills. It’s not completely fair to blame educators, as students also have a responsibility to learn. But there are some issues that must be overcome, especially regarding changes to policy. Still, the most important factor is educating the educators, and would probably be the most beneficial way to tackle this problem.

If you’re an educator, check out both PROpen Mic and The Educator’s PLN (Personal Learning Network) on Ning for resources, networking, and other help. And of course, Social Media Club Education Connection is dedicated to improving social media in higher education.

Lifelong Learning

We’re people that are deeply involved in the business of education, and I believe that most of us would agree that learning doesn’t end with graduation. To stay competitive in a world that has seen so much change in the last two decades requires a sense of urgency, a need to stay relevant.

The motivation might come from looking over your shoulder to see who’s behind you, or it could come from knowing that whatever skills you acquire will not only benefit your current understanding, but inspire and enhance learning more in the future. Learning material is plentiful on the Web, the trick is knowing how to find it and what to do with it that will determine success.

While critical thinking skills might take time to develop, we can also re-think critical thinking and how it’s taught in such a way that our students arrive at the college level with both a firm technical foundation and grasp of how they, as individuals, learn and apply new information.

Join Us Again!

The issues we discuss each week always get me thinking, and I learn so much from all the input and feedback. During some chats (like this one), I find myself immersed in additional information that strongly supports our goal of improving social media in education. Keep spreading the word, the more participation we have, the more knowledge is shared.

Thanks again to all who participated for a great chat, we hope to see you next Monday at 12:30pm EST!

Links to resources mentioned during today’s chat

• From Robert French (@rdfrench): Pew PowerPoint presentation on the difference between digital natives and immigrants
• From All of E (@allofe_he): Blog post on digital natives and digital immigrants by Marc Prensky
• From All of E @allofe_he): Blog post on the digital natives/immigrants vs. digital residents/visitors
• From Michele Lorito-Chase (@ghostexecutive): Resources from SWFL Junior Camp, a BarCamp for elementary-high school students
• From Robert French (@rdfrench): PROpenMic
• From Robert French (@rdfrench): A project used to teach social media in the classroom at Auburn University
• From Robert French (@rdfrench): Another student project using social media at Auburn University
• From M Zayfert (@mzayfert): Teaching and learning with the Net Generation
• From Terry Eberhart (@digin4ed): The Educator’s PLN (Personal Learning Network) on Ning

You see, I do, and I do this regularly – I am an academic by trade, nature, mistake, chance, purpose. I’ve never actually gotten in to ethnography in a meaningful studied way, though I regularly research, quantify, dig deep for the answers, I’m one of life’s observers I guess. I’ve always been skilled at looking at the big picture, taking a step back and casting my inquisitive eye over the whole, or as much as the whole as one can see at any point, again depending on social conditioning, expectations, experiences and various other influential conditions.

So why am I starting this Blog post with such reflection, why am I asking you to join me in my reverie?

Well, I’m currently in the development cycle for our second Social Media in Business Conference, and one of the things we are experiencing is, and I have to be careful how I phrase this, an apparent timidity in UK women when speaking opportunities come along. That is way too generalised of me, on many levels, naturally it could just be my own social circle (funny how we use that phrase commonly now) that is lacking, perhaps my circle is male dominated? – I know it is not though.

Just by way of example, we ran a Social Media Mafia MediaCamp, as part of Social Media Week, in NYC last month, and all but one of the sessions that day were held by women. Of course this is a crude comparison as there are far too many variables to draw any proper scientific outcomes, though the “feeling” I got, and of course “feelings” are a large part of social media it seems, was that women in USA (or is it just NYC?) are all over social media like a rash, – sorry bad term! But the women I know in USA adopting social media, really are enthused and very very active and ambitious.

I asked Twitter and Facebook this morning to get some feedback from my friends:

Joanne Jacobs is an Australian living in London, she’s fairly active in some of the London social media niches.

So I asked her: “So what makes an Aussie girl different from an English girl? I’m keen to get to the bottom of this.”

See this is great insight, as that is certainly not the case in UK, to my knowledge.

Anna Hill, from UK, suggested that perhaps schooling, or the differences between boys and girls approaches to the sciences and technical subjects could be the cause of this apparent timidity. I must admit it, having worked in sound engineering for a long time, that industry is heavily weighted with men, it simply doesn’t attract the girls, in general. That could include all sorts of peripheral reasons like a bad career choice for such things as a desire to have a family, sound engineering is not particularly “social” hours, and certainly not a nine to five. I do know many more women that are not interested in the sciences than are, though So.Me is a kind of blend of technology, a new medium, but at its core it’s just people talking – a very naturally female trait, no?

Kerry made a great point, which got me thinking:

And then we have Mitzi Szereto’s comment which oozes studied psychology:

The conversation in Facebook really start picking up some traction.

Jo Jordan made a great comment.

A good comment, though of course no distinction between USA and UK women. Still, an interesting view point, but is that even gender specific?

Some of the big take-away’s following my very non-scientific research:

• Generally speaking women in UK compared to USA are less inclined to put themselves forward for speaking opportunities
• Differences in background and social conditioning have an obvious influence
• UK schooling does not encourage the questioning of authority
• Women in general find speaking a low priority compared to other activities (though this does not concur with my experience of USA)

But what about you, I’d love to hear your views?

Last week’s San Francisco / Silicon Valley chapter event drew a packed audience and featured Forbes “Web Celeb” Violet Blue (@violetblue), Cisco’s social media enthusiast LaSandra Brill (@lasandrabrill), social media coach and author Janet Fouts (@jfouts) and Realty World’s social media expert Erin Robbins (@texasgirlerin) on a panel led by A-List Podcaster Jennifer Lindsay (@jennifered).

The panel discussed the hesitancy that many companies still have with getting involved in the social web, and used the adult industry as a prime example of an entire business segment of companies that are reluctant to “go social.”

Not all industries have been so reluctant of course, so the panel looked at examples of companies that are doing well with embracing the potential of the social web, including the Red Cross and Southwest Airlines. In the adult industry specifically, Kink.com and Suicide Girls have done well with integrating social into their promotions, but even they fear user-to-user sharing–the lifeblood of the social media world–due to the potential of lost revenues.

Another issue that has recently come into the spotlight is the balance between personal brands and professional brands, such as the decision by Forrester Research to have all of their analysts blog on Forrester-controlled channels. Employees need to decide if their relationship with their employer is going to be symbiotic or parasitic, because there are benefits to working with your company to build both brands. At the same time, companies need to be willing to embrace the brands that their employees are creating for themselves, because if they’re used properly, they can be beneficial to both. Watch the video clip of this part of the discussion on Michael Brito’s blog, britopian.com

Privacy was another key topic for the panel and audience, and one that companies and content creators are increasingly aware of thanks to sites like PleaseRobMe.com. With the recent increase in geo-location services and the constantly changing privacy landscape, users are having a difficult time managing exactly what content is getting out into the social world, who will see that content, and what the implications of that information sharing will be.

Lastly, the panel looked at how the social web allows companies to create a personality for themselves, and how that personality gives customers something that they can relate to. This will be especially beneficial to the customer service side of businesses, which have struggled to humanize their efforts while providing their services in an economically feasible way. For companies, one of the issues that they need to consider is where they choose to participate, since your channels dictate who consumes you, and how you’re consumed.

Big thanks to our video crew Rich Reader and Arnie Clomera. See a video clip and read more about the event on Rich’s blog

Special thanks to our sponsors for the February event: Spigit, Automattic and Stag’s Leap.

Save the date!  Next month’s chapter meeting will be March 23rd in Santa Clara. More details coming soon.

#SMCEDU is a part of Social Media Club, a nonprofit organization that is working to promote media literacy and connect people to share what they are learning about social media.

I’ve had the opportunity to listen in on several events that cover social media in education, including two recent ones that I’ve attended (Social Media U in Richmond, VA and Friday’s Social Media event at Georgetown University). Recently, Melinda Gates wrote about the need for educational reform, and I listened as Daniel Pink (@danielpink, author of “Free Agent Nation” and “A Whole New Mind”) was interviewed about his new book on the new motivation required for today’s workforce.

The lessons I’ve collected from these resources bring two points to mind: the call for change in higher education institutions, and the potential to create it.

I felt that as long as we’re considering change, why not tackle one of the more frustrating aspects of the educational process: grading.

For as long as the need to determine students’ comprehension has existed, the current grading system (or one similar) has been used to assess students’ “success” or “failure.” While the current evaluation process may prove helpful in determining short-term comprehension, does it really give an accurate determination of a student’s aptitude to learn?

We opened Monday’s #SMCEDU chat with this question. While the subject of grading is a hefty topic, the opinions were plentiful and ideas were flowing among our participants.

There were a great many attitudes toward grading from both students and educators. Not all educators are fully supportive of the current grading system. Take for example this opinion from NY educator Terry Eberhart (@digin4ed), this reluctant acceptance from Purdue University professor Dr. V (@mihaela_v), and this observation from Marquette professor Gee Ekachai (@fvrythingpr).

Outside of educators and students, business professionals like Joshua Cyr (@jcyr) and technology-in-education advocates All of E (@allofe_he) agreed that grades shouldn’t be the primary focus of students.

But consider teaching how to use social media in the classroom. Where would you even start when it comes to evaluating?

Booz Allen Hamilton social media lead Steve Radick (@sradick) brought up this point about one of the challenges.

You’d have to set standards, and even those metrics are up for debate. You could start here, as Queens University of Charlotte professor John McArthur (@jamcarthur) suggested, or here, as suggested by Media Studies professor Danielle Stern (@daniellestern).

Like “the real world,” students should have an idea of what they want to accomplish using social media noted journalism student Evan Strange (@evanstrange).

I still think that studying social media (that is, how to use it), while valuable, doesn’t focus on its true impact on education. I mean, what’s the point of taking a class? Preparation for getting a job is a huge part of it, but that seems to extinguish a greater desire to learn that can go beyond professional training.

It’s true that many students focus solely on grades, but to be fair, many have a wider perspective.

And while some need the guidelines provided by a traditional grading structure, the joy of independent learning and the effort resulting from it should be rewarded equally.

What are some of the ways to recognize that?

Justin Herman of Tech Adventure DC (@justinherman) brought up alternative grading criteria, but what about a truely different approach?

Grades always felt to me like a cart-before-the-horse emphasis. I believe that if a student finds a subject or method for learning that really sticks, the grades will follow. Social media (the connections made through using it, not the technology itself) can be the stimulus that inspires learning without focusing so much on report cards.

This isn’t an easy argument, to be sure, and it’s not the first time it’s been suggested. But we now have the means to carry the discussion further, with a wider group of people, in a more convenient setting, than ever before.

I feel like we’re setting the table right now. Education is slow to change, and integration of new tools and practices will not happen overnight. But we’ve got an idea of what it could take to create improvements in education, and the right people to do it.

Our chat concluded without a final answer on whether or not social media can lead the way to a better system for interpeting student success. It doesn’t look like people were looking for an alternative to As and Bs, but rather, another form of curriculum that’s not based on lectures, tests, and quizzes.

Maybe grades won’t go away, but the connections made and the resulting action that’s facilitated by using social media will help shift the emphasis back to learning…the grades will follow.

We welcome the new participants to #SMCEDU chat, and as Jenna Langer (@jennalanger) tweeted, it’s a good place to exchange ideas. We hope you can join us next Monday at 12:30pm EST!

The event featured three esteemed speakers, each deeply involved in social media on their respective campuses:

• Gerry McCartney, Vice President for Information Technology and CIO and Oesterle Professor of Information Technology, Purdue University
• Ulises Mejias, Assistant Professor of New Media in the Communication Studies Department at the State University of New York at Oswego
• Edward Maloney, Director of Research and Learning Technologies at the Center for New Designs in Learning and Scholarship and Visiting Assistant Professor in the Department of English, Georgetown University

The full video of the event will be offered on iTunes U — Georgetown University within the next few weeks.

Quick highlights:

The first speaker, Dr. McCartney of Purdue University, described two technologies being used at his school:

• Signals is a system used in large classrooms to identify students academically at risk . According to Dr. McCartney, the students that have the highest risk of not succeeding in their first year are students that are used to performing well at high schools with lower standards. Upon entering a competitive classroom environment that demands higher performance, these students often perform poorly in their first exposure to university-level curriculum. Signals uses data mined from Blackboard Vista to place each student in a “risk group.” They are then given a stoplight rating that represents their performance and potential to succeed in the class.

  The feedback is real-time and given to students on their Blackboard homepage. Along with the rating system, instructor-written intervention emails and suggestions for study resources are given to provide the student with an early warning and aid to improve performance.

• Hotseat Collaboration is a technology that attempts to engage the student in the classroom using the methods and devices that students are already familiar with. This mobile Web application promotes “micro-discussion,” allowing students in a large class to interact by posting messages during class using their Facebook or Twitter accounts, sending text messages, or using the Hotseat Web site. The instructor will start a session by posing a question for discussion, and students respond to the question. In addition to these responses, students can vote on which topics and questions they’d like to see addressed.
  
  

The next speaker, Dr. Edward Maloney of Georgetown, spoke at length about two important questions:

• 1. What does it mean to take seriously the impact of social media on learning?
  Dr. Maloney brought up a concept that we’re trying to grasp with SMCEDU: learning environments can change, they don’t have to remain static.
  
  He related Web 1.0 (the static Web) as corresponding with traditional teaching practices; that is, delivering information through a central source to a wide audience. Web 2.0, he said, corresponds well to our real world practices outside of the classroom.
  
  As learning happens outside of the classroom (everywhere, really), social technologies encourage the ideas of community, collaboration, exploration, exchange, and communication. Further, it promotes learning in informal, real, participatory, dynamic, and ongoing ways…in other words, learning in a non-traditional sense. What does it ultimately mean to think about social media for learning? To put it succinctly, teaching and learning in a new way.

• 2. What is at stake in this question and the answers we may provide?
  This is a question that never ceases to fascinate. What’s at stake, in my mind, is how we distribute education. From expanding classrooms to empowering students with a new enthusiasm and means to learn, the true scope of what social technologies can do for learning is exciting to speculate, and beyond anyone’s current ability to realize.

Dr. Maloney described informal writing and blogging exercises that helped his students plainly express their understanding of the class. It also gave the instructor a constant evaluator of how each student was doing, along with providing a collaborative, ongoing document that could be used for reference by each student.

The final speaker of the day, Dr. Ulises Mejias, brought some interesting perspectives to social media, and the overall effectiveness of using social technologies.

He offered the network as episteme. As networks are not just metaphors, we use them to form templates and models of social orgnanization; indeed, we use them to shape social realities. But, he asked, what are the limits of networks as templates? What do they include and exclude, make possible or impossible?

Dr. Mejias shared some of the concepts presented in his class:

• Nodocentrism: The distance between a node and something outside the network. For all practical purposes, if something is not a node, it cannot be rendered in the network as a node can only see other nodes.

  I took this to mean that if a person is not included in the network, they don’t “exist” within the network, and the data gathered from network participants should take this into consideration.

• Paranodality: The outside of the network is not empty but inhabited by multitudes that do not conform to the organizing logic of the network. He described this as, “that which cannot be Googled.”

  When considering who/what is excluded from a network, one can view social media as a sort of social slavery: who decides what’s included/excluded?

  Another consideration is that social media tools are largely controlled by private companies. As such, they might not always be in the best interest of learners despite being convenient and cheap. As services such as Youtube (the go-to service to upload videos) or Twitter (the go-to service for micro-blogging) strenghthen their positions, participation among users is increased, but so is the inequality among competing services. As everyone knows, competition is a crucial component in the success of an open market.

  As it stands now, using the popular social media services is easy and cheap, but the relationship between these companies and its users is not equal. The shift may not be from a one-to-many paradigm to a many-to-many paradigm as popularly touted; rather, it’s a shift from one-to-many to many-to-one.

  Dr. Mejias’s final point was one that struck home with Social Media Club Education Connection: What is the universities’ role in social media?

  It’s possible, and perhaps suitable, for the university to develop alternative social media tools that encompass a variety of services (blogging, micro-blogging, wikis, social networking, etc.) and release them as public goods. They could be promoted through their use in projects both within and outside the university, becoming refined and standardized as they evolve. There is a possibility (currently refuted) that Facebook won’t always be free; similarly, the guarantee of free doesn’t exist for other sites/services. Why not have universities work conjointly to offer an alternative?

We won’t be publishing the calendar of livestreams from the club house or event dates just yet, but I can tell you its not a bloggers lounge, and its not a place where a lot of people will be hanging out.  We will be dropping by the TechSet Bloggers Lounge for that ourselves, so we will hopefully see you there (and hopefully in my Core Conversation with John Biehler on Friday March 12 at 330 called “Do the Cool Kids Leave When the Suits Arrive?” </plug>.

The idea behind the club house is still the same as when we did it in Las Vegas in 2007. There are a lot of folks in our community who go to the same conferences and we wanted a place where we many of us could stay together, make media and have a shared experience of it with each other. This creates opportunities to get to know each other, to learn, to see more of the conference through each others eyes, to be social and to create content.

After resurrecting the idea in Paris, France just a few months ago with the Social Media Club House at Le Web 2009, we are doing it even bigger and better down in Austin, TX.  Inspired by Real World, Forbes and our own experiences, the Social Media Club House is a mashup of epic proportions (just enough to match the grandeur of SxSW itself I think so we are psyched to kick it off here).

Its one part group housing, one part live stream studio.  It’s where Social Media Club will be reporting on SxSW and sharing our observations with our global community members. Its where we will be hosting some serious conversations like the Synaptic Web Summit and the Engagement Summit. It’s where we will host some special and intimate musical performances.  It’s where Social Media Club will host its local leadership celebration for SMC organizers from around the world with a big BBQ from Salt Lick on Friday  March 12 from 12-2pm. And it’s where Social Media Club and TechZulu will produce its daily recap livestream of what is happening in Austin throughout SxSW in conjunction with Justin.tv, Hootsuite and other media partners still to be announced.

And this blog post is your chance to join us in person as a resident of the Club House! It’s also a ’save the URL’ for Social Media Club members to tune into the reporting and live streaming we will be doing during SxSW from http://socialmediaclubhouse.com/, (new site and schedule coming early next week).

The Contest.

Starting today, we are looking to find one or possibly two Resident VJ’s for the Club House (yes video jockey’s, to call it a blog jockey would be NSFW). The chosen VJ will join myself and the other residents and reporters. In exchange for producing content on the Social Media Club House blog each day and contributing some video to our live stream and hopefully a bit more, we provide a sweet place to stay with a bunch of cool people and an experience to remember for a life time. It’s also a chance to break through and show you have mad skills, so be creative, this is your moment to shine.  It’s not quite American Idol, but it will put you in a position to meet a lot of cool people and put your talent on display. More details on the terms of the contest are below.

When I was originally thinking of the contest, it was going to be open to paying Social Media Club members only, as a membership benefit. But after tweeting with Eric Berto I realized we should make it open to anyone over 21 who is willing to agree to our Club House terms below. I don’t want to be the guy saying pay 100 bucks so you can enter the contest and then maybe not win – that’s not the sort of membership experience anyone should have. In the future though, we will have some things open to only members (ie, this same opportunity). But that will only be after we can show you the value we will provide in our new members web site and we complete our upcoming reorganization (or initial organization as some of you may be thinking – ha).

Look, this contest is really simple, we want to have you producing great media with us each day out of the Club House. For that, you get to stay there with us and some other really cool people who will be announced very soon.

How to enter.

Shoot a video that is under 3 minutes (bonus for being awesome and doing it under 1 minute) telling us why you would be a great Resident VJ in the Social Media Club House. Send us an email to socialmediaclub at gmail dot com with your name, social url’s, phone number, the dates you are going to be in Austin, a link to your video entry online (please also tag it #SMCH) and a link to some blog posts you wrote from another conference you attended (whether live blogging it, summarizing a session, summarizing the experience, writing about the party scene, whatever it might be that you think would be relevant.)

DO THIS BEFORE 23:59 EST ON WEDNESDAY 24 FEBRUARY 2010

If you want to, you can also tweet at us with a link to your video and we will retweet it for others to see from the @socialmediaclub account.

The winner be chosen at the sole discretion of the Club House producers, a full list which will be published on this blog in the coming week but right now it includes me.

What we are offering is a chance to be our roomie for SxSW for either interactive, music, or possibly both.  What we are asking for is that you serve as the resident club house VJ, reporting everyday on whats happening in Austin.

It’s gonna be fun.

Here is a simple statement of the general terms:

We provide you a bed in Austin, TX with a roof over it between March 11th-21st in this really cool house (ok, its a mansion, really) we rented on Lake Austin. There will be about a dozen or so other people staying there, maybe a couple more on some nights as a place of last resort for our friends and misplaced celebrities. Chances are several of the meals will be covered like the BBQ we are hosting for our Social Media Club chapter leaders, but you should be prepared to spend a little money here and there for food, transport and having fun. You cover your own travel (unless we get a last minute travel sponsor) to and from the Club House from wherever you are in the world. Winner must be 21 years of age or older so please don’t submit an entry if you are not. We are planning to have some transportation to and from the convention center daily as the house is 15 minutes away, but we can not guarantee it to be on call and it will not be available around the clock.

The bottom line is we think it would be cool to make some content together and we wanted to do a talent search to find someone to do it with us. Perhaps that is you…

Please Note: We would love to be more open with the Summits and other things we are doing in the Club House, but there are just some physical constraints that don’t allow for us to open it up to a big group. It’s intended to be more like a private studio then an event venue.  The other thing is, the house is in a residential neighborhood, so out of respect for the house’s owner we just can’t do any public events here.  So instead, the summits are essentially invited guests in an executive round table format to discuss the topic and stream it to the world.  We are still seeking sponsors to offset the huge costs though, which is another way to participate.

#SMCEDU is a part of Social Media Club, a nonprofit organization that is working to promote media literacy and connect people to share what they are learning about social media.

We’re seeing new participants every week during our #SMCEDU chats, and as we continue to grow (which is so exciting to see), I want to make sure our participants and listeners receive value from each of our conversations. After all, it’s not every day that we have the privilege of joining leading social media educators and concerned/active students in one dialogue, so it’s important to make the most of it.

With that said, I make the (sheepish) acknowledgement that this week’s topic wasn’t completely clear…for that, I’m regretful because it was an issue which I think is crucial to the development of social media as both skill and study. In the future, I’ll post a brief pre-chat blog that will explain the question before we get started.

What caught my attention last week were two posts: a video from Stanford and University of California at Berkeley professor Howard Rheingold (@hrheingold) on the new media literacies, the other from USC professor and Provost Emeritus Dr. Lloyd Armstrong (@changehighered) on the societal obligations of higher education.

I was curious if our participants thought that colleges and universities are adequately preparing students for today’s work environment in terms of both technical savvy and critical thinking ability.

Learning Media Literacy & Critical Thinking — Are Students on Their Own?

Howard Rheingold talked about the five media literacies (essential skills in the online community), and Dr. Armstrong brought up the need for colleges and universities to survey their effectiveness in preparing students to compete in a global economy with an emphasis on communication and critical thinking.

These experts say these skills are crucial; do students and educators feel that our schools are doing enough to teach them?

Justin Herman (@justinherman) of Social Media Club New Hampshire felt the answer was a resounding no.

University of Orgeon journalism professor Kelli Matthews (@kmatthews) told us about how her school is adjusting to the new digital landscape. It’s an adjustment that many schools might consider, and Professor Matthews pointed us to her class blog for updates on how it’s going.

Lauren Daniels (@miamilauren) of Miami felt that students are on their own to learn these skills.

M Zayfert of New York (@mzayfert) tweeted about the inexperience among some teachers when it comes to using social media in the classroom, another indication that the need for learning communication in the digital age is not being met.

Kendall Morris (@kendallmorris) of SMCEDU-RVA and Fahrenheit Technology proposed that students are learning these lessons outside of the classroom. She added that while changes are slow, students have a say in their education.

This sentiment was echoed by Social Media Club president and co-founder Kristie Wells (@kristiewells).

Eastern Michigan University professor Tonja Deegan (@tvdeegan) illustrated why one of Mr. Rheingold’s media literacies is crucial to students’ success.

More Takeaways

Tonja Deegan (@tvdeegan) also shared this link to a great post on the cultural shift of social learning. Worth reading!
• Virginia Commonwealth University professor Jeff Nugent (@jeffnugent) lead a workshop on social media in education on Monday in Virginia. His link to the resources from the event is a valuable store of videos, RSS feeds, and other assets. All material is related to social media in education, and I’m sure it will be valuable to many teachers and students.
• There was an interesting question from Deb Rexon of Mt. Laurel, NJ (@dkrex) that asked if there’s a starting point for emergency medical service personnel to become more social media savvy. The question shed light on both a growing interest among emergency workers and a need to meet it. Booz Allen Hamilton social media lead Steve Radick (@sradick) provided a study into social media’s role in crisis communication in response to the question…shared learning in action.

I think our community has been wonderful in not only sharing their thoughts and experiences, but also in welcoming new participants. The spirit of sharing and collaboration is evident, and I hope all can join in again next week!

#SMCEDU is a part of Social Media Club, a nonprofit organization that is working to promote media literacy and connect people to share what they are learning about social media.

Every Monday at 12:30pm EST, Social Media Club hosts #SMCEDU chat, a live Twitter conversation that explores issues in social media as it relates to higher education.

We started #SMCEDU chat as a way to keep our network of educators, students, and professionals actively involved with our effort, and to tap into their experience and knowledge so their lessons could be shared in a public format.

Our participants include educators, students, and business professionals. Many of the educators have years of experience both teaching and using social media in the classroom, and are at the forefront in advancing social media as both an academic discipline and learning methodology.

A question/topic will be proposed at the beginning of each session, although participants are welcome to bring up their own concerns and inquiries. Recaps are posted shortly after each chat with highlighted main points and insight.

If you have a stake in using and/or learning social media as either an educator or student, or have a business interest that would benefit from employing a media literate workforce, we welcome you to join us!

With San Francisco and Silicon Valley leading the world in web innovation and many considering our area the epicenter of all things social media, why are Bay Area companies still so reluctant – as much as those in the Midwest – to engage in the social web? And what about the original internet success story: the porn industry? It’s not thriving as much as you may think. So are companies that are reluctant to ‘go social’ making the right decision?

We’ve assembled a clever and varied panel for a provocative discussion from several different perspectives: big business, non-profits, small to medium size business, and a very specific alternative industry.

The event will be moderated by The A-List podcaster, Jennifer Lindsay @jennifered.
Panelists:

• Violet Blue @violetblue
• LaSandra Brill @LaSandraBrill
• Janet Fouts @jfouts
• Erin Robbins @texasgirlerin

Seating is limited–don’t wait!

Learn more about the speakers and the event and get your tickets on Eventbrite.

Gold Sponsor: Spigit is the leading provider of goal-driven innovation software for companies, connecting employees, customers and business partners for idea management and innovation discovery.

Venue Sponsor: Automattic, makers of WordPress.com

Wine provided by Stag’s Leap Wine Cellars 

In short, for being an idea, staffed by a hard working but part time intern (big thanks to Yong C Lee for making this possible), SMCEDU is an early success. But there is much harder work to be done and there is a real need in the overall academic community for the type of support we are seeking to provide.

So today I am writing to seek your help in finding a volunteer grant writer and some foundations to get funding that will take this SMCEDU initiative to another level and help us hire Yong C Lee as a full time program manager. We need $250,000 so we can hire Yong, a “curriculum curator” and another part time program manager to work on developing specific initiatives with our teachers and administrators from around the world. We can start with something as small as $50,000 so we can at least hire Yong full time but we need to go for more so we can expand our efforts and do it right.

So that the vision is a bit more clear, here is a current draft of what I have set out for the program goals

• Develop a set of resources and links to resources that reside elsewhere which professors can use to help them get social media related classes approved in their schools and offer the best social media focused education possible – ie, case studies, syllabus, courses, suggestions for getting past no, etc…
• Build the most comprehensive directory of teachers offering social media globally and become the source for schools looking to see what people are offering. This requires building out additional resources on top of the Ning network, ie coding/programming
• Develop and encourage the development of Open Courseware programs that are Creative Commons licensed and available to other teachers to use and improve upon (using non-comercial share and share alike licenses)
• Create relationships between local Social Media Club chapters around the world and their local universities so that we can create a path to professionalism for those seeking to be a social media professional, or merely those seeking a chance to use social media as a part of their chosen career
• To encourage the on-campus development of Social Media Club chapters, empowering students to create their own local communities that can be connected and supported by our global network
• Offer internship and mentorship programs so as to develop real world professional experiences to supplement the classroom education
• Develop and offer training for those teachers seeking to offer Social Media classes at their school and/or using social media as part of teaching other subjects
• To identify and review other social media education offerings outside of our domain
• Support and increase awareness for other important initiatives of interest to social media professors including but not limited to Classroom 2.0 and Social Media Classroom. To expand this global web of support and partnerships so as to form a network of similarly oriented initiatives for mutual benefit and support.

My recollection from my very early youth is that an education is supposed to prepare you to enter the world and be a valuable contributing member to society. Is that still true? If it is, then the goal of SMCEDU is straight and true. My purpose for SMCEDU has never been more clear – it is to prepare students to be better critical thinkers when it comes to interacting with the world around them, especially focused on a broad set of skills I reference as media literacy. It is also focused on preparing them to enter the real world of work, to provide current workforce literacy which means an understanding of how to interact, create value and leverage social/web technology for the purpose of the organization as opposed to the individual. More broadly, I hope to imbue a sense of community in students so that they see the interconnectedness of the world around them and can take that education to make their world, and ours by extension, a better place.

We could really use your help in securing a grant (or grants) in order to fulfill this mission. Please let us know your thoughts and help us if you can.

SAVE THE DATE

• Feb 16th, Automattic Lounge in SF  “Everybody’s Doing It“
• Mar 23rd, TiE Conference Center in Santa Clara “So You Want to Start a Social Media Business?”
• April Happy Hour, location and date TBD
• April 20th, CBS Interactive (CNET) in SF, “Is Privacy Dead?”
• May 18th in Silicon Valley
• June 15th in San Francisco

Join our Facebook page to get the most recent updates and invites to our events.
Twitter: @smcsfsv and #smcsfsv

Sponsors: Want to be part of our events? Please contact partnership directors Brian Remmel at bremmel@gmail.com or Mandy Mladenoff at mmladenoff@shiftcomm.com to sponsor an event and get terrific exposure to our members and event attendees.

Volunteers & Board Members: Want to get involved? No need to be a social media rock star, just a desire to pitch in and help – and have some social media fun. Contact chapter president Alyce Lindquist at alyce@mac.com.

#SMCEDU is a part of Social Media Club, a nonprofit organization that is working to promote media literacy and connect people to share what they are learning about social media.

Last week, Social Media Week wrapped up in five different cities around the world. I wrote about a panel event held in New York on Friday that featured an interesting question from the audience, a question that lead off today’s #SMCEDU chat (you can hear the question in the second video here at the 35:10 mark).

First, to frame the question: A member of the audience (a professor) stated that it is the goal of teachers to educate, and the goal of students to hand in their assignments so they can receive a grade quickly. As a tenure-track professor, he also has the incentive to publish research, along with his other responsibilites.

The professor, who admittedly enjoys using technology, professed that he used wikis, blogs, Twitter, and Facebook in all his classes, only to be met by a mere 20% adoption rate and frustrated students. His question: “What is the incentive for both teachers and students to adopt these friction-reducing technologies?”

Our participants had their perspectives ready.

Incentive for Students to Use Social Media in the Classroom

The incentive for students to adopt these technologies in the classroom seems fairly obvious: it impacts their career perspectives. Not only are more professionals relying on social media to network within their industries and perform their jobs, but SM tools have helped many on the job hunt as well.

Here are a few other responses, followed by my own thoughts:

• Personal branding: It’s expected in the communication, journalism, public relations, and marketing fields, and more industries are Googling potential new hires to view their personal portrayals.
• Grade requirements: Although students can be “forced” into using SM tools, and could ultimately benefit from this course style, subject retention rarely comes without some level of personal interest
• Student/public recognition: As Virginia Commonwealth University’s Jeff Nugent imparted at Social Media U in Richmond, his students underwent a “transformative expereince” when they realized their comments and posts could be seen by others beyond their classmates.
• Teach not only how to make connections, but facilitate them as well: Many professional connections begin in school; cultivating your networking skills early will only bolster your pool of contacts.
• Greater engagement: When given a greater pool of students and teachers, more thoughts and ideas are brought together. Shared experiences can pave the way for new lessons.
• Learning new skills: The SM tools used in the classroom (wikis, blogs, etc.) are the same used in the “real world.” Sharpening skills in the classroom means you’re ready to use them before/after graduation.

Incentive for Teachers to Use Social Media in the Classroom

This seems to be where things get contentious. As educational institutions (at least, four-year schools) are slower than the business world to adopt to rapid transformations, changes to the traditional classroom paradigm are viewed with skepticism. In fact, there were more tweets about why teachers are unwilling to adopt social media in classrooms than suggestions for incentive. There are factors to consider when thinking about using SM in class, and the viewpoints of the participants are favorable to using technology. Here are some of of those views. Again, reasons followed by my thoughts:

• Sharing knowledge: As we learn, more content will (hopefully) be shared for greater benefit.
• Greater impact on students: This goes hand-in-hand with the issue of engagement, the lack of which is a common problem for students.
• Speaking of engagement… The main reason for teachers to use technology, or any teaching tools, is to educate students. There are as many methods as there are teachers, but expanding the classroom outside of a physical space has benefits…whether or not the benefits are worth the risk and work are up to each teacher.
• One of my favorite tweets.

Incentives for Both

• Exposure/Positioning when compared to other schools: The rest of the world is becoming more digitized; a school that emphasizes its willingness to accept that change and prepare students for it is a more attractive option.
• Greater personal fulfillment: This is one of my favorite reasons. Thinking beyond professional aspirations, media literacy and taking responsible, informed action are benchmarks of Social Media Club’s mission. What I don’t find mentioned often enough when hearing about reasons to continue education is curiosity. The Internet is a huge pool of both information and misinformation…learning to swim in it is vital.

Currently, the rallying cry to use social technologies to learn is coming from students. And while some teachers are reluctant to move away from the more traditional methods of education, there are many that are pushing for social media to improve learning and the educational experience.

Welcome to the many new voices in #SMCEDU chat, your thoughts and input are greatly valued! We hope you all can join us next Monday at 12:30pm EST for more discussion!

• Adam Ostrow Editor in Chief, Mashable.com

• Dr. Kathleen P. King Professor, Fordham University; Professor, Transformation Education, LLC

• Greg Verdino VP Strategy & Solutions, Powered; author of microMARKETING

• Mary Casey NYU Student and Founder of Jatched.com

• Vineet Madan VP Strategy & Business Development, McGraw-Hill Education

The panel was moderated by Yianni Garcia, a marketing specialist at GradeGuru.com. Tweets from the discussion can be found under #smwmcgraw.

Video 1

Video 2

The central topic of the discussion revolved around how how social media is affecting the classroom now, and how it will change the classroom of the future.

There is a growing recognition among universities to adopt social technologies to enrich the learning experience. Friday’s discussion revealed that educators and the tech community are acknowledging that concern, and George Washington University’s Andrea Genevieve gave a thoughtful perspective on the issue here.

Some of the points that really registered with me during Friday’s discussion:

• Two-year colleges are leading the way in advancing distance learning (in terms of both programs and adoption of new technology). This is due largely to the speed in which these schools can adapt to changes in demographic and economy, along with other student demands. Also, two-year institutions face fewer levels of bureaucracy than their four-year counterparts.
• Non-traditional students (students not in the 18-21 age group) are outnumbering traditional students. This is relevant to the growth of social media in education because the fastest growing demographic for popular social media tools (such as Facebook and Twitter) are part of the non-traditional set.
• There is a large debate over how to monetize the use of social media in academic institutions, just as in business. While many believe that intellectual property should be protected, others believe that in education, knowledge should be shared. This is a very high-level observation of the argument, but it’s obvious that copyright issues are a concern that will grow.
• One of the great things about social media is that it promotes engagement. Of all the students that enter a college or university today, only about half of them will earn a degree within six years. The biggest reason has nothing to do with the ability to do the coursework, but rather, lack of engagement in their studies. As panelist Veneet Madan stated, “Lack of engagment is one of the biggest problems we have in getting students through the college and university system…if we don’t tackle the engagement problem, collectively, we’re not going to get more people through the system. If we don’t get more people through the system, we’re not going to have a more educated workforce, we’re not going to have economic growth, then we have all the other problems and issues that ends up raising.” (17:00 min mark of the first video)
• The best question from the audience was the final one (at the 35:05 mark of the second video): “I keep hearing tech is the reduction of friction. How are we going to align the incentives of both the teachers AND students to adopt it?” I recommend you listen to the exchange, it was an enlightening piece.

The fact that more discussion is starting to take the tone of not only “What if we did take on these technologies,” and are leaning toward “Why haven’t we done it already?” speaks to a level of increasing acceptance and hopefully, realized potential.

I love seeing both students and educators discussing educational topics on equal footing. The professors involved in our weekly chats are gracious in not only sharing with their peers, but in answering the concerns of the students’ voice. It would have been especially gratifying to hear students chime in on today’s topic, so tell your classmates to voice their opinions!

A big thank you to all who participate in our weekly chats, your opinions and experiences are reaching a wider audience!

Today, we discussed the topic of student engagement. Namely, what gets students to participate and create good content?

Let’s first qualify “good” content. VCU’s Jeff Nugent describes it as content that helps others learn.

It’s obvious that there’s a lot of information out there, and the lessons that persist will be those that have the largest impact on students. Once students understand the scope of where their message can spread…well, that’s where the excitement of possibility/potential can ignite motivation.

But what makes students want to join in the conversation? What makes them want to actively participate in their own learning, laterally teaching others along the way?

Here are a few thoughts on how to engage students from our community today:

• Robert French, Auburn University

• Show students the benefit of creating a personal brand
• Give students leads to follow that will involve them in their future jobs
• Help students overcome the initial “deer in headlights” effect felt when publishing for the first time. Robert gives his students an “opt-out,” the option to keep content private

• Guide students through the principles and tools rather than a “trial by fire” approach that could leave some turned off to the experience

• Let students write what they are passionate about as good content comes when someone cares about what they are saying
• Create dashboards (RSS feeds) to related subjects
• Teach personal brand management as students, like many others, don’t realize that what they post is PUBLIC content

• Focus on social benefits and good rather than monetary gain (one of my personal favorites)

• Listen to your students. Learn how to connect with them!

• Let students choose their inspiration
• Allow students to help develop the curriculum, making everyone responsible for the teaching experience

• Find what interests the students, let them create and become more responsible

• Require students to create Personal Learning Networks (PNLs)…it will both showcase the benefits of networking and actively engage the student
• Corinne also shared this lesson in just how accessible our information is, a real eye-opener for both students and teachers

What I gathered from this conversation is that just as social media has given consumers a voice to articulate their thoughts and opinions, the old teaching paradigm of teacher lecturing to students should now include the feedback of the learners.

By creating courses that students help shape, their interest and involvement not only are encouraged, but required.

I’m sure educators have an opinion on this, and we’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments below.

I’d like to again thank those that make our weekly #SMCEDU chats so valuable, we welcome the new faces and hope all return to ponder again next Monday at 12:30pm EST!

Tuesday’s event, billed as an exploration of the “Fundamental Shift in Teaching, Learning, and Collaboration,” focused on the concerns of educators and the issues they face in incorporating social media into the classroom. Although education was at the center of the discussion, the audience was peppered with students and professionals seeking to grasp more understanding of social media as it affected both the academic and business worlds.

Before I relay some of the details, I’d like to first highlight the efforts of the SMCEDU-RVA team for their continued work and enthusiasm: Kendall Morris, Nhat Pham, Nathan Hughes, Tammy Berwanger, and Brittany Gordon all contributed in putting together an event that featured insightful speakers and engaging dialogue, and their continued push to advance the goals of SMCEDU are helping lead the way for other Social Media Club chapters and affiliate universities.

So thanks to their hard work, we were excited to have the following panel:

• Lon S. Safko
  • Author of “The Social Media Bible”
• Jonathan Becker, J.D., Ph. D
  • Assistant Professor at the Educational Leadership Department at Virginia Commonwealth University
• Jeff Nugent
  • Associate Director, The Center for Teaching Excellence
  • Over ten years experience in teaching at the college and secondary level

As I write this, I’m reflecting on a post from panelist Jeff Nugent. As he’s someone who has first-hand experience with the fundamental shifts occurring in the many areas that are touched by technological collaboration and social participation, I recommend you read his thoughtful analysis of Tuesday night’s Q&A.

There were so many points and opinions that illuminated the struggle in adopting social media practices in academic institutions that I feel remiss in not having video. We’re working on that, but for now, here are key points that caught my attention (the emphasis is my own):

Q: With trends coming and going so quickly, how do classes keep up?

• JN: Don’t focus on trends, focus on how the tools used in social media can enhance learning. What are these tools? What do you do with them? And what’s their value for teaching?
• JB: I’m more interested in helping educators understand the possibilities, helping them rethink entirely the institution of “school,” to rethink all the possibilities of learning that come from social media.
• JN: I would add that I’m more interested in things that persist…ideas like collaboration, interaction, exchange of information…the tools come in to play as a platform for participation. That’s what I’m interested in: how can we transform the ways students and learners can participate in the educational experience?
• LS: Social media is not a group of magic bullets…it’s just new technology we’re applying to traditional marketing. The rules of engagement have changed, but the reason why it works is never going to change. The thing to stress is that we’re not pushing the message anymore, we’re participating in a conversation.

Q: How is teaching with social media different than teaching traditionally?

• LS: The traditional means of pushing the message just don’t work anymore, it’s just not trusted. There’s a fundamental shift in power.
• JB: There’s a fundamental shift in power is absolutely right…a lot of professors need to understand that, too. We (professors) no longer need to be the solo expert in the classroom. (Speaking about an experiment where a class was broadcast on Ustream and others were invited to participate)…the walls of the classroom are broken down, and you can invite the whole world to learn with us at the same time. We need to rethink our notions of space, we need to rethink our notions of time…we have to rethink the aspects of teaching and learning that are based on the idea that information is scarce. Information is not scarce anymore, we no longer have to assign textbooks to our students because that is the sole source of information on a topic. It’s all out there, and we have to figure out how to arrange our set of tools to best access it.
• JN: It involves a change in practice. One of things we know about change in instructional practice is that it happens at a glacial pace. Jon is a unique case in that he’s willing to engage on the experimental fringe of what social media invites into the classroom, and not everybody is willing to do that…you have to give up control to the students so that they can be equal players in the co-creation of learning that occurs in that space. When you bring up these ideas (to the faculty), they become scared. (They) recognize the sense of potential and power, but aren’t sure what sense to make of it. However, the driver for this change is not the same in education as it is in business.

Q: How do you get students to produce good content (such as contributing to a wiki)?

• JB: We as professors used to be the sole determinants in what is good content, but one of the things social media allow us to do is have students judge what is good.
• JN: It (good content) becomes amplified. Good content is content that helps them, and others, learn. What gets them to produce good content? When they recognize that what they’re doing in the classroom extends beyond the classroom, and they generate stuff for an audience that’s much wider than the 25, 30 people that are in the course…that was transformative for my students.

Q: With the influence of social media, what is the classroom model of the future?

• JB: If we accept the position that social media allows learners to manage their own own learning, what are the conditions for that? For me, it’s getting people to be comfortable with sharing their ideas, and to understand that information is easily accessible…if we can get there, the possibilities are limitless. Are we going to see the dissolution of K-12 schools? Unlikely…it’s possible that we’re moving more toward a hybrid (online and lecture) model.
• JN: I can answer that question in two kinds of ways. One, in terms of trends that I see are coming together, that are combining and resulting in something that we don’t know what it is. The other is a kind of hope…I think some of the things we’re seeing with social media is creating a platform of participation…we have this kind of commenting culture that allows everyone to interact and exchange, and that has created a context for a really different kind of knowledge building and growth. Along with that, we have an emerging open education movement, where you have colleges and universities like the MIT Open Courseware Project, Yale open courses, Carnegie Melon open courses…producing this massive amount of sequenced, organized, high-quality learning content available to anyone, anywhere, anytime. What comes next? I think we have to wrestle with this, but there becomes a crisis of relevance for higher education. I don’t know, it’s anybody’s guess, but we have to come to terms with that somehow…but the “hope for piece” is that the power of social media will get students to connect in real space for action.
• JB: Learning institutions really need to think about how to maximize face time. If you’re in the business of delivering information, please don’t do that face-to-face anymore…it’s too easy to do that. I hold on to the concept that learning should be face-to-face, and educators need to figure out how to better use that time.
• LS: I don’t see it replacing K-12 classes. What social media does is enhance learning, it doesn’t replace the classroom. Look around at everyone in the room, they could be participating using Skype or GoToMeeting, but they’re not…there’s no replacement for face-to-face. One of the largest meetings I went to was a Social Media Club meeting. Social media tools are just tools to enhance the ability to communicate, especially within the classroom.

Q: How well are universities and colleges preparing students to enter the work force using social media tools?

• JB: I don’t teach undergrads, so it’s difficult for me to answer that. If there’s a problem we have in doing that is that we have too many silos and compartments so that the set of competencies gets pushed to different departments. I think universities need to think about what it means to all departments.
• JN: I would think that social media also needs to be understood in the context of a liberal education, and what does it mean to use these tools effectively for the social good? What does it mean to think critically in these types of environments? I see it not just as being pressed into the service of preparing students for a work force, but what does it mean to be a citizen in a digital age?

At this point, I’d like to suggest that it’s the type of insight gleaned from Tuesday night’s session, and from educators and thought leaders across the nation and the world that will shape the course of not only social media education, but the classroom dynamic itself. The vast scope of issues requires input from the many educators and students that grasp the potential for change and are willing to enact it.

We’ll continue to collect the lessons and examples that are being lived every day and share them with the SMCEDU community.

Thanks again to all the participants, panel, and organizers of Social Media U! The good people of SMCEDU-RVA are planning their next event for March 23, stay posted!

Big thanks to all the early participants who signed up on blind faith and to all the sponsors who are subsidizing our participation costs (especially for the lucky few who got one of the $5 tickets). We have been working hard to build a great single-track Social Media conference that will be the backbone of a strong ‘camp’. Each of the sessions below are designed to be 45 minutes with 15 minute breaks in between. Due to the layout of the building and proximity of the rooms to one another, we will be sticking to this schedule as best as possible.

In under a week, with the support of our Social Media Camp Gold Sponsors (Biz360, IDEA, SAP), social media leaders, community organizers, and many friends, I think we have something that  will be highly valuable – in fact, I would say its the equivalent of a much higher price conference, or better in some instances, but hey, I will let you decide for yourself. (there are only about 30 tickets left!)

8am – Registration, Breakfast, Networking

9am – Opening – Three 10 Minute Keynotes
Chris Heuer, Camp Director, will open the day and introduce what he believes are the most important things necessary for Social Media to continue to be relevant and to continue to grow.

• Keynote 1:  The Synaptic Web, Khris Loux, Echo
• Keynote 2: The Art of Tummeling, Kevin Marks, BT/Ribbit
• Keynote 3: Personal Voice, Personal Storytelling, Cathy Brooks

945am – Planning the Camp Sessions
F0r 30 minutes, participants will be able to offer up suggestions for an additional session that they will lead in one of the two other rooms we have set up. In total, we will have to collaboratively plan 10 sessions the day of the event.

1030am – Measuring What Matters: Social Media AND Metrics (Moraga/Main Room)

This discussion will be lead by Maria Ogneva from Biz360 and is geared towards social media professionals / marketers within their organizations, but is suitable for everyone working to prove the ROI of their investment in Social Media. The central premise is that we all need to better understand what matters most (and what doesn’t matter at all).

• Maria Ogneva, Biz360
• Rick Klau, Google
• Jaime Schiller
• Sudha Jamthe, PayPal (just added!)

1130am – Rethinking Communications: Social Media AND Marketing (Moraga/Main Room)

Tap into cutting edge thinking and insights from this group of experienced professionals. After their presentations, ample time will be provided for group discussions and a rigorous Q&A before heading to lunch.

• Kevin Barenblat, Context Optional
• Chris Heuer, AdHocnium

1215-130PM – LUNCH BREAK

Box lunches, with vegetarian options, will be served

130pm – Customer Service As Marketing

It’s been said that customer retention is the best form of customer acquisition. In this panel, we bring together people who know this first hand to discuss how and why customer support has transcended its traditional position as a cost to be minimized to become a valuable marketing investment.

• Chris Pitre, Idea
• Thor Muller, Get Satisfaction
• Kristie Wells, Ribbit/Social Media Club
• Bliss Dake, Mighty Leaf Tea

230pm – Rethinking Collaboration (a ‘fireside chat’)

I once heard an employee of a really big company say “you can have my email when you pry it from my cold dead fingers” referencing an initiative to bring Enterprise 2.0 tools into their company.  The fear of change often prevents people from adapting to new ways of working, making collaboration more of a human issue then a technical one.  As technologies, and our concepts of how we use them have changed in the face of ’streams’, what’s it going to take to not only rethink collaboration, but to make the new workflow a simple to use reality. As we move from static depositories of documents into work ’streams’ collaboration wont only be within one tool, but across many. What does that world look like and how will it come into being. [this is a deep, rich topic for us to explore, expect the conversation to move around a bit from this description]

• David Meyer, SAP
• Chris Heuer, AdHocnium

330pm – Facing the Reality of Real Time

Real Time is the new black. Its mentioned everywhere, and it seems straightforward enough, but what does it really mean. How are you supposed to manage a brand in the face of real time onslaught of customer complaints, market developments, events, news and everything else that is going on. In diving into the reality of real time, we will explore the topic from a technical, humanistic and organizational marketing perspective, with a lot of time devoted to group discussion with all participants.

• Jeremy Toeman, Stage Two Consulting
• Brian Zisk, Collecta
• Jolie O’Dell, Read/Write Web

430pm – Closing Remarks (15 minutes)

Chris Heuer will wrap up the day with a synthesis of the key themes and ideas presented across all of Social Media Camp and discuss his vision for future Social Media Camp’s that will be held across the country in 2010.  This is also a chance for all participants to share their big a-ha moments from the day and to discuss all the other great events happening during the rest of Social Media Week.

Some of the titles and speakers above may change slightly, but the focus is in place and we are confirming additional speakers each hour…

For those of you attending, who may see a topic that is just not interesting to you, remember, its not just a conference, its also a camp… soyou have a chance to help program 10 additional sessions that will be hosted throughout the day.  I will be writing a separate post on how we will run the camp shortly.

We have a great day planned out, with a ton of great people, in a nice venue.  While the Presidio Officer’s Club is not the Ritz Carlton or a Class A Conference Center, it suits our purposes of getting together, learning from each other and making valuable new connections. We have a great caterer bringing in a continental breakfast, an array of boxed lunch choices and sodas, waters, and coffee throughout the day.  We also have very limited WiFi it would seem in this building, so I have to ask you in advance to expect we will have some wifi problems – in fact, if anyone has some Mifi hotspots or something they could bring, that would probably help a little bit.  As a camp goes, this will be a great, high energy event with a ton of great speakers, ideas and insights.

So bring an open mind, tough questions and big challenges to Social Media Camp next Monday and help us kick off our first Social Media Week in San Francisco with this great unconference hybrid. If you haven’t registered yet, you can still do so now, but get it soon, there are only a few tickets left.

See you on Monday!

We covered a wide range of topics today, and finding a common thread proved to be challenging. Instead, I’ll cover the major topics.

Innovation

I’m writing this as I watch a video stream of Apple’s announcement of the iPad, and it’s a reminder of the level of attention that’s paid to anything related to technological advancements (especially from Cupertino).

We started the chat on Monday with an inquiry into innovation within the classroom. Although technology (in terms of hardware, software, and use) is advancing rapidly, we don’t want to miss the forest for the trees by focusing on the “what” rather than the “why” in regard to the communication channels we use. However, as we continue to look for and share examples of how social media is changing the classroom dynamic, we can’t leave out some of the tools that encourage the interaction that puts the “social” in social media. We heard some great suggestions, including this, this, this, and this.

Amid the talk of different tools, it became evident that we shouldn’t focus so much on which services to use, but form a better understanding of the tools themselves.

The Right Tool for the Right Job

As Dr. V of Purdue noted, the end dictates the means. With so many existing options, it becomes imperative for educators to have a strong foundational understanding of what to use. Dr. V succinctly stated the issue here and here.

But who has the time to ramp up on the best tools to use? This is another service I’d like to explore: educators, show us an example of what you’re using in your classroom (links would be great!), and we can all share the lessons in what worked and what could be tweaked. Not all educators have the same level of experience with different technologies, and developing a “User Guide” of sorts to help teachers navigate through the sea of services could prove useful to many…kind of like this one, but focusing more as a case study/user’s manual. Let me know your thoughts on that!

With different tools come different concerns, and we hit two of the main concerns on Monday.

FERPA

The privacy issue is one of the key arguments when discussing the open Web. It affects universities just as much as the rest of the online world, and Bill Handy of Oklahoma State brought up this relevant point. FERPA regulations seem to be a concern for many teachers that use social media within the classroom, and it doesn’t seem like the issue regarding the use of student content/information has been resolved yet. As we navigate these uncharted waters, it would be helpful to keep other educators informed of the rules and restrictions as they evolve.

Participation/Grading

There are different levels of participation in online communities, but in a classroom environment where each student needs to have a voice, how does an educator evaluate the variety of personalities?

One would think that online interaction might lend itself to the student less likely to speak up in class, but that may not always be the case. Should those that don’t choose to interact be graded negatively?

There are different opinions on why students wouldn’t participate, and it continues to perplex some (wouldn’t you want to take advantage of something like this in school?)

Encouraging students to participate and create quality content leads me back to one of the hopes for Social Media Club: to unite and build a community of good citizens that know how to connect and collaborate online and create positive change in the real world.

Next week, Social Media Club will host Social Media Week in San Francisco. Monday is the kickoff event, Social Media Camp, with an great list of speakers. If you’re in the Bay Area, swing through and meet others within the community! We’re branching out, and the SF/SV area is a target location!

Thanks to all who participated for your valuable input, we look forward to growing and learning more with you!

We will kick off Social Media Week in San Francisco with a full day conference called Social Media Camp on Monday February 1, 2010 from 9am-530pm. This will be the marquee event of the week locally, providing a great opportunity for leading Social Media professionals to come together as a community. With all the great ‘influencers’ and professionals living here in San Francisco, it’s also a great opportunity to showcase our region as a global leader in this space.

Social Media Camp is perfect for communications professionals, marketing executives, technology startups, social media consultants, journalists, bloggers and anyone else interested in learning how to apply Social Media to your organization.

Social Media Camp was originally envisioned as a Job Skills Retraining event for the underemployed and unemployed. While we will still serve this purpose by offering a great day of Social Media education at a great price, our vision for taking Social Media Camp around the country in 2010 is much bigger and we will be discussing this further at Social Media Camp on Monday February 1st.

What we are doing is a hybrid conference – one part traditional conference and one part barcamp. We are co-producing a series of panels, talks and keynotes with our sponsors, bringing in some of the smartest people we know on the most important topics such as Social Media and Metrics, Local Search, Community Management and more. In fact, we will start announcing the speakers and sessions on Monday. In the meantime, if you have been to a BarCamp, you know that you have an opportunity to offer up a session on the morning of the event, during the Social Media Camp kickoff, which will then be given a room and a time slot during the conference during which you can host a conversation about what matters most to you.

While we are offsetting some of the costs with the sponsorship dollars, we aren’t able to offer this event for free at this time. We can however offer it at the very reasonable price of $100, with pre-registration offered at a discount levels starting at $5. Yes, that’s right…$5!!! Get your ticket quick!

There is a lot more going on throughout the week, and we have more information to distribute, including formal thanks to Social Media Week San Francisco
local sponsors GoGrid and LinkedIn for being an early sponsor in this process with us. We will be announcing other sponsors over the weekend and into early next week.

Now that we have a contract, a plan, sponsor support and you reading this, lots of exciting things will start falling into place.

Get your ticket now!!

About Social Media Week San Francisco

Running from February 1 – February 5, 2010 (MON-FRI) we are expecting to host around a dozen events in and around San Francisco in support of the global efforts. The SFAMA, Citizen Space, Mashable, Context Optional, Stage Two Consulting, LiveWorld and Social Media Club already have events scheduled, with many more being published in the coming days. You can stay up to date via the main Web site at http://socialmediaweek.org/

We have received a large response in regards to our call for participation (sponsors/volunteers), and are still building the conference’s full schedule (several confirmed events are in there now). Here’s a quick overview of some of the week’s events:

• Social Media Breakfast (East Bay)
• The Future of Geo-location
• Unpresenting (use the code “b00tstrap” for $150 off!)
• Lunch 2.0
• Social Media Camp
• Innovation Through Real-Time Feedback Loops
• And more…

To register for events, simply visit the San Francisco website, select Schedule from the top navigation and RSVP for the events you wish to attend. We will be adding more events over the next couple of days, so please check back often for both edits and updates.

*PLEASE NOTE THAT YOU MUST RSVP FOR EVENTS INDIVIDUALLY.  REGISTERING THROUGH SCHED.ORG DOES NOT ADMIT ENTRY.*

BECOME A SPONSOR OF SOCIAL MEDIA WEEK!

In addition, there are a number of ways to become more involved with Social Media Week, including limited speaking opportunities available through the available sponsorships below. Contact Chris Heuer and Brett Petersel for more information.

$1,000

• Social Media Week sponsorship
• Mentions, links, blog posts, tweets and incl. in SMC newsletters, website(s), Tweets, Facebook

$2,000

• Gold Sponsor of Social Media Camp (kick-off event in SF on Monday, Feb. 1st)
• Incl. time slot for ‘your’ panel (no keynotes)
• Currently working w/ Mission Bay Conf. Center

$2,500

• Incl. the two above packages ($500 savings!)
  

$250

• Participating sponsor of Social Media Camp (a la BarCamp strategy)
• Participation with schwag table(s)

We appreciate everyone’s excitement and support in what is sure to be a great week of learning, mingling and entertainment.

Our chat this week revolved around case studies, but what caught my attention more than the need for examples of such was a late conversation that seemed to represent (at least in my mind) what’s happening in social media at the university level.

First, let me say this — one of our main goals this year is to open up coursework for educators looking to incorporate or teach social media. A main factor for those that are struggling with the “should” question is proof of efficacy, and case studies are a proven way to see examples. With that in mind, our chat participants struck gold with these suggestions:

• Corinne Weisgerber brought up this excellent point about finding industry-specific information by creating and maintaining networks related to your field. She also provided this link to a wiki of social media marketing case studies, which looks to be a valuable reference.
• If you’re a part of the pharmaceutical/healthcare industry, James Walker shared this link to a related wiki of social media case studies.
• Booz Allen Hamilton social media lead and SMCEDU-DC authority Steve Radick posted this link to the OpenGov wiki. This effort struck a chord with me as it is something I envision the Social Media Club Education Connection wiki could be — a living collection of lessons, information, and references available in an easily-navigated interface.

After seeing the OpenGov wiki, I’m inspired to spruce up our SMCEDU wiki, and I’ll start by pulling information from the suggested links above and any other suggestions you’d like to send my way. In the very near future, I hope to feature it again as a resource that makes SMCEDU valuable to the education community.

The sharing of different case studies was great, but things got interesting with this tweet from Rowena Briones of College Park, MD. It led the way to some opinions that represent a new approach to how to deal with social media in the classroom.

Nathan Hughes of SMCEDU-RVA summed up that “new approach” sentiment eloquently in less than 140 characters with this tweet. The spirit of the message, that in many ways we’re dealing with a lump of unmolded clay, was echoed through numerous re-tweets.

Chris Heuer, founder of Social Media Club, also started SMCEDU and maintains the same vision for the project as when it first started.

We’re certainly facing something new — the hesitancy among faculty members to adopt new technologies/methods, the degree of student participation and interaction (the “hands-on” lessons alluded to so often during today’s chats), and the many opinions of social media itself are evidence of that. We can’t ignore traditional tools like case studies, but we also can’t rely completely on traditional methods (textbooks, lectures) to encompass social media education. After all, participation and innovation are key components of whatever you want to call the merge of technology and social interaction.

Our chat was also covered today by Andrea Genevieve of George Washington University, stay posted for her writeup of today’s chat later this week on her blog.

We’re moving forward, and doing it quickly. SMCEDU-RVA is hosting an event next week that’s catering to educators, and I look forward to the reactions and reception from professors. We’re also re-booting our advisory board, more on that to come. Our wiki is my focus for this week, and as always, we’ll have another Twitter chat next Monday at 12:30pm EST.

Again, thanks for all the great input today, we look forward to it again next Monday!

So what advancements will 2010 bring? How will consumer expectations evolve? How will brands adapt to the changing needs of a market empowered by Social Media? Will we see the democratization of the net or the birth of more 800 pound gorrillas? Is it getting easier to use or will it be more challenging? What will suprize and delight? What will fizzle and fail? Will 2010 be the year of Social Media or will people be so overwhelmed by the amount of information that they tune out and turn off?

Join us as we take a journey into the future with some of the brightest minds in the valley for 2010: A Social Media Odyssey. Panel portions of the program will be moderated by Jennifer Lindsay of The A-List podcast. We will allow plenty of time for Q&A, so please come with questions!

• Beth Kanter – Beth writes Beth’s Blog: How Nonprofits Can Use Social Media (http://beth.typepad.com), one of the longest running and most popular blogs for nonprofits and co-author of The Networked Nonprofit, to be published by Wiley in June, 2010. In 2009, she was named by Fast Company Magazine as one of the most influential women in technology and visiting scholar for Social Media and Nonprofits for the Packard Foundation.
• Brian Solis – Brian is Principal of FutureWorks, an award-winning PR and New Media agency in Silicon Valley. He is globally recognized for his views and insights on the convergence of PR, Traditional Media and Social Media. Considered one of the original thought leaders who paved the way for Social Media and PR 2.0, Solis is co-founder of the Social Media Club and is an original member of the Media 2.0 Workgroup.
• Jennifer Leggio – Jennifer (@mediaphyter) is passionate about all things social media, especially enterprise, security, privacy and reputation issues, which is why she writes about these issues for ZDNet. Jennifer was profiled in Silicon Valley San Jose Business Journal’s 2009 “40 Under 40″ edition, as a rising star for 2009.
• Jeremiah Owyang – As a Web Strategist Jeremiah strives to define and deliver user and community needs, business goals, and web technology to craft and deliver long term successful web programs for companies. As an industry analyst, he does public speaking, is frequently quoted by the press, is a regular columnist for Forbes, and provide consulting for my clients at the Altimeter Group.
• Rafe Needleman – Rafe Needleman – Rafe has been covering technology and business since 1988, starting at InfoWorld as a reviews editor. He was editor- in-chief of Byte in 1995 and 1996. At Red Herring, in 1998 through 2001, he chronicled the first dot-com boom, writing the Catch of the Day column, emailed to over 150,000 subscribers every weekday. Rafe is currently editor-at-large at CNET, where he’s the editor of Webware.com, a site about Web 2.0 applications, and the voice of Reporters Roundtable, a weekly podcast about technology in depth. Outside of his work at CNET, he also writes the Pro PR Tips blog, an irreverent look at the tech PR industry.

Brian and Rafe will be signing copies of their books, Putting the Public Back in Public Relations: How Social Media Is Reinventing the Aging Business of PR and Pro PR Tips: Public Relations Advice from a Jaded Journalist.

Tickets are $10 in advance, $20 at the door. Social Media Club (card carrying) members may attend for free.

Event sponsored by Kulesa Faul.

Light food and drink will be provided.

Disclosure: Social Media Club is a nonprofit organization. The four key areas of our mission are to:
1.) Expand Media Literacy
2.) Share Lessons Learned Among Practitioners
3.) Encourage Adoption of Industry Standards
4.) Promote Ethical Practices through Discussion and Actions
For more information, please visit us here: http://www.socialmediaclub.org/projects/.

Tickets are available through Eventbrite.

The first segment focused on the technology of mobile video, featuring panelists Rishi Mallik from Qik, Justin Kan from Justin.tv, and Lacey Kemp from RealNetworks. Chris Heuer drove the conversation as moderator, prompting questions and answers from both the panelists and audience.

How do you want to access mobile video? How do you best engage an audience? What are real people using mobile video for? What would you like to see?

• Engagement
  Engaging in meaningful conversations when there is a large audience is a concern. This is acknowledged as a problem by technology providers, and one of the issues they are trying to address says Kan.
• Access
  Users want to have access to video content on the go, but they want a smooth, consistent experience. Spotty coverage from service providers, combined with small screens on mobile devices, make for less than ideal conditions. In a perfect world, live video conversations could take place on mobile devices seamlessly.
• Ease of Production
  “What video do you have on your mobile device right now?”

Heuer poses this question, point-blank, to various members of the audience. The answers are somewhat surprising. They all include user-generated content. Friends and family, car accidents, sales videos, awards presentations and product demonstrations.

JD Lasica mentions that recently, at Blogworld Expo, Leo Laporte declared that podcasting is dead. What does that mean for mobile video? It means that it needs to be simple for people to edit and share content, and it must be delivered in a way that makes it easy to consume in any format.

After a short break, Moderator Jennifer Lindsay shifted the focus to storytelling with mobile content, discussing an innovative user-generated video project with videographer Eddie Codel.

Codel, a pioneering vlogger and producer for Geek Entertainment TV, was one of five people chosen from around the world to work on an innovative film project with Spike Lee, entirely shot on mobile phone video cameras.

His advice for aspiring videographers?

• Use the best tools available. Align your goals with the quality of your equipment.
• Professional cameras are nice, but mobile devices are perfect for capturing real-action events.

Eddie shows a brief interview that they were able to do with Spike Lee. Lee confesses that the main advantage of going to film school, was to gain access to equipment. This equipment is available everywhere now, so his message is: “Just shoot.” Lee claims to be a fan of social media, but when asked about posting content on YouTube, he says that he wouldn’t put any ‘good ideas’ on the site.

As evidence of the power of video, there were over 1,000 viewers of the live video stream of tonight’s event on Justin.tv.

As I wrote in an earlier post, I’d like to focus on key challenges for social media education this year. One of the slippery questions we face is actually defining what a social media education encompasses. In a micro-text/minimum-contextual format such as Twitter, 140 characters just aren’t enough.

Despite that, we got great input from teachers, students, and professionals today.

I opened with a question that always gets different responses, and it deals with the challenges that face educators interested in social media.

I read this post recently regarding why social media marketing receives resistance, and I believe some of the same challenges are faced in the education world.

Anna West of VCU brought up this and this point, with the lack of a strategic approach being a complaint I’ve heard numerous times.

Ana Adi in Scotland brought up something that challenges many schools, deficiencies in infrastructure.

James Walker, an associate at APCO Worldwide and a student of social media, brought up the point that teaching social media may require a new educational paradigm. He cited his favorite professor as being someone who taught “off the cuff” and was able to adapt quickly to new changes.

Brett Petersel of Mashable and Susan Beebe of SMCEDU-Rochester, NY both mentioned the rapidly changing landscape of technology as hurdles in formalizing social media education.

At this point in the conversation, I became a bit flustered. You see, we HAVE the resources — the people, the technology — to overcome these obstacles. We CAN create a better social media education (which, in turn, can produce smarter people that understand the impact of sharing and spreading information).

Before I go on, let me tie in a few thoughts on one of the main objectives of smcedu: opening coursework development to all educators and creating a repository of social media curriculum.

This, I believe, is what needs to be done first in working toward that obective:

• From our collection of professors, define what they’re teaching as part of “Social Media Education.”
  • This includes an intro to what social media is, integration of social media into different disciplines, measurement of success, and any other touch points that are concerns
  • From there, create lessons on each

• From our collection of students, define what they want to learn as part of a “Social Media Education.”
  • Skills specific to different career paths
  • Lessons learned from those that have done it

• From our collection of business leaders, define what they want potential employees to know as part of a “Social Media Education.”

Despite the challenges of teaching social media, there are ways to integrate lessons into traditional programs.

I’ll work to gather this information from various professors, but would love to see a live collaboration between the educators that are currently teaching social media as a class or component. Any suggestions?

Thanks to all again for a great chat, please join us again next Monday at 12:30pm EST on Twitter…click on the button below for a reminder!

If you missed last year’s Ultimate Blogger Dinner, you don’t want to miss Lenovo’s Blogger Nights @ CES 2010. We have incredible food from one of the best restaurants in Las Vegas (according to last year’s reviews), and an open bar with premium wines, cocktails and beer.

Lenovo’s Blogger Nights is a chance to relax and unwind at the end of the day with your colleagues, to share stories and to create some new ones for your readers/viewers/listeners (and some that will stay in Vegas). This is one CES event you won’t want to miss.

Lenovo’s Blogger Nights is co-hosted by Social Media Club, gdgt and Social Media Jungle. During Blogger Nights, Mitch Ratcliffe will be live streaming each night, interviewing attendees to discuss the most interesting news from each day. If you would like to pre-schedule an interview, please email mitch@ratcliffe.com.

Be sure to check out Lenovo Social, a great portal to find recent news on Lenovo and things happening here at CES.