Disembodied citizens and communities: - PowerPoint Presentation

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Disembodied citizens and communities: How new technologies are changing how students learn, collaborate and construct civic identities

Hans Ibold, Indiana University

Jenna McWilliams, Indiana University

Facilitators: Mary F. Price, IUPUI and Daniel T. Hickey, Indiana UniversitySlide2

Civic Learning in Action?Slide3

Planting Seeds…How does one measure civic learning in a virtual context?

How is social media and other information & communication technologies shaping & materializing shifts in how we define and act as citizens and community members?

What do these cultural and generations shifts mean for the practice of and research on service learning (and civic learning more broadly)?Slide4

Planting Seeds…What are the knowledge, skills, capacities associated with civic engagement online—are they the same as F2F CE/SL experiences?In what ways is the developing movement in Digital Civic Engagement align with the direction and goals of SL?

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Shifts in Civic “Styles”Slide6

The “Dutiful” Citizen (Bennett 2008)Sense of obligation to participate in government-centered activities

Voting as the core democratic act

, supported by surrounding knowledge and contact with government

Mass media news informs about issues and government

Joins civil society organizations

and/or expresses interests through political parties or interest groups that typically employ one-way conventional communication to mobilize supporters Slide7

The “Actualizing” Citizen (Bennett 2008)Diminished sense of government obligation—higher sense of individual purpose

Voting

is less meaningful

than other, more personally defined acts such as consumerism, community volunteering, or transnational activism

Mistrust of media and politicians

is reinforced by negative mass media environment.

Favors loose networks of community action

—often established or sustained through friendships and peer relations and thin social ties maintained by interactive information technologies Slide8

Possibilities for Crossing BoundariesSlide9

Collaboration, Yes---but across perceived difference?Slide10

It’s a Flat World ---really???Slide11

Some Key Questions for Investigation:What are the strategies that

SL/CE educators

can employ

to:

Foster the development of

virtual

spaces for students to create and engage in 'authentic' civic

dialogue?

AND

focus their attention to key issues, realities, and knowledge areas that lay outside of Gen Y, Z preferences but which may be essential to their civic development?Slide12

Some Key Questions-con’t:What do we (practitioner-scholars)

need to learn in order to be a partner with students in this process?

Where do community residents and partners fit into these spaces? Slide13
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Styles of Citizenship (Lance Bennett 2008)Dutiful

Actualizing

Sense of obligation

to participate in government-centered activities

Voting

as the core

democratic act, supported by surrounding knowledge and contact with government

Mass media news informs about issues and government

Joins

civil society organizations and/or expresses interests through political parties or interest groups that typically employ one-way conventional communication to mobilize supporters

Diminished sense of government obligation—higher sense of individual purpose

Voting is less meaningful than other, more personally defined acts such as consumerism, community volunteering, or transnational activism

Mistrust of media and politicians is reinforced by negative mass media environment.

Favors loose networks of community action—often established or sustained through friendships and peer relations and thin social ties maintained by interactive information technologies Slide15

http://www.engagedyouth.org/research/reports/