Week Four: Slacktivism, Social Media, and Marketing

Last week we finished the initial stages of the Activist/Advocacy blog assignment. Essentially, the groundwork for the project has been completed, and now you'll begin working to cohesively elaborate on how you'll respond using the blogging genre to the exigency you've defined. You'll continue to develop posts for your blog that deliver value to your audience, but we're going to complicate things a little bit starting this week.

Tonight I uploaded the assignment sheet for Project 2: Social Media Bundle. Broadly speaking, the goal for this project is to develop knowledge and literacies with building publicity. Specifically, you're aim is to develop a social media presence for your blog. Of course the assignment sheet details this information in more detail, however, I figured I'd contextualize what will follow in this post before I move toward my goals herein. As I mentioned in classes last week, this is the first time we've used this assignment, so it should be exciting to work through this learning opportunity! Here are some initial ideas I have about this assignment:

Utilize Lynda and the Production Lab: There are many tutorials on Lynda. Tutorials that are useful not only for learning how to use web authoring software, tools, and websites, but also for learning how you can use technology in a more purposeful manner. For this assignment, you will be using Facebook and Twitter, and each of you will have the option to supplement your "Social Media Bundle" using at least two supplemental options of your choice. So, I would suggest that each of you begin by watching Anne-Marie Concepcion's "Social Media Marketing with Facebook and Twitter". It's a great resource because it will help show you ways that you can use these two tools in a targeted and sensible way in order to respond to the assignment prompt.

Observe How Other Organizations/Individual Are Using Social Media for Activist/Advocacy Publicity: While I have no data to base this claim on, I'd argue that perhaps one of the greatest tools you have at your disposal for this assignment is to observe how others are using social media to create a digital presence. There are a number of ways you might accomplish this, but one way might be to identify a number of social activism/advocacy groups that are related to the topic you picked for Project 1. One way to identify strong organizations/individuals might be to explore the list of nominees for the Shorty Awards for best Activism in Social Media. If, for instance, your writing about ocean conservancy and stewardship, perhaps, you would want to learn more about what types of social media platforms organizations such as the Surfrider Foundation or Ocean Conservancy use in order to build publicity for the issues they are concerned about.

Learn a Little about Public Relations and Social Networking: I imagine that there are probably a number of a social media marketing agencies, but one example of an organization that seems to  resemble the organization you'll be "working" for on this assignment is Medianeedle. I don't know a whole lot about the group, but I do know that Medianeedle maintains a blog that you might turn to for insight into specific questions you encounter as you build your media presence. In particular, two posts from Medianeedle might be useful as a starting place for understanding the broader landscape of social networking: Consider reading "Which Platform Do I Get On? Part 1 and Part 2" These posts will help you think about the different affordances of specific social media platforms, before you begin deciding what platforms you'll use to supplement your Facebook and Twitter presence.

Critically Evaluate your own Assumptions about Social Media: One criticism with using social networking as a tool for activism and advocacy is that it doesn't do a whole lot. That those who enagage in this type of slacktivist  activity aren't engaging in 'real' acts of citizenship. At least, that is what some would lead us to believe. However, there are counterarguments. Last Spring, David Carr's "Hashtag Activism, and Its Limits" appeared in The New York Times. If you are so inclined, I'd suggest reading not only the brief news story, but also the comments that readers added. It provides a useful glimpse into understanding the ways people are currently (dis)/valuing digital citizenship, activism, and advocacy efforts. Do you think that digital citizenship is effective? Why and how so? What are the limitations of this type of citizenship? What are the benefits? Reflecting on your beliefs about social media might help you to better organize the aims and expectations you might have for your Activist Blogs and Social Media Bundles.

Week Three: Activism, Advocacy, Civic Participation

Last week we spent a significant portion of the class discussing rhetorical concepts like exigency, purpose, audience, context, genre, media and multimodality. Reflecting on those conversations as an instructor, I notice at least two specific goals as to why those discussions are so important.

First, I think a background in rhetoric is helpful tool for improving the quality of daily communicative acts. We don't necessarily need to be aware of all the rhetorical aspects that operate when we communicate in order to communicate--indeed, we often communicate without thinking about aspects of the rhetorical situation like who our audience is and what their needs as decoders/listeners may be--but it is useful and it does help improve the quality of our communications. We even go so far as to suggest that miscommunications, confusion, and misunderstanding often arise because folks have not engaged in or properly understood one or more aspects of a rhetorical situation.

Second, as we work through the design and creation of content that will take the shape of an "activist blog," it is useful for us to realize that "writing" means making effective and proper rhetorical choices. Writing isn't simply picking up a pen or a keyboard. Nope: writing means working to understand the exigency that is calling us to respond to the world. It means knowing why we are writing in the first place. It means trying to figure out who does and doesn't care about specific issues, as well as why and how they care about issues in unique ways. It also means discovering the appropriate ways we can meet our goals by making choices about what media we communicate with, and how we invent elements of texts that are related to the genre we are composing.

Most importantly, however, it means understanding the ethos we are cultivating and how that is associated with our material and digital identity. For Project 1, you have been asked to assume the identity of a citizen--not just any citizen, though. You are someone who wants to improve the conditions associated with an issue that has a consequence for a community that you are part of and that you care about--and, you're going to do that citizenship in a digital way. That in other words is the assignment exigency. But more importantly, there is broader exigency that surrounds this assignment. That exigency is the one that is associated with the larger goal of a liberal arts education--namely, to prepare students to act as responsible social agents, and to prepare them to participate as leaders and citizens of the world. I believe that too often that aim is lost. I believe that aim is not fully expressed to students.

Consider what Henry Rollins has to say on the matter:

Now consider what John Dewey famously stated:

The problem of education in it's relation to the direction of social change is all one with the problem of finding out what democracy means in its total range of concrete applications: domestic, international, religious, cultural, economic, and political.... The trouble...is that we have taken democracy for granted; we have thought and acted as if our forefathers have founded it once and for all. We have forgotten that it has to be enacted anew in every generation, in every year, in the living relations of person to person, in all social forms and institutions. Forgetting this...we have been negligent in creating a school that should be the constant nurse of democracy.

The question then becomes, however, how do we create such a school? How do we prepare students to engage in the democratic process? What do we ask of such courses? What would they look like? How would the assignments be constructed? Well, for me at least, that means helping students better understand a tool that helps them respond to the situations they face and to accomplish their aims. Rhetoric helps us do that because it enables us to know what is asked of us by whom, it also helps us make our own intentions clear to others.

Week Two: Planning and Inventing an Activist Blog

Based on my past experiences teaching this class, I'd like to offer some suggestions about successful strategies I've seen students engage to structure their work flow with this assignment.

• Reflection 1: Pace yourself. This project is an endurance race, so to speak. Unlike many college assignments where you have only a portion of the semester to "complete" the work for a project, for this assignment you have nearly the whole semester. This can be a good and a bad thing depending on how good you are at structuring your work flow to ensure, that come the final deadline for this project, you have created a well-organized, blog with at least 12 substantive posts, and genre elements that cohesively relate. There is a great deal to learn, and one could even say that the (1) about me statement, (2) the blog description, (3) the mission statement are in many ways microgenres that your readers will confront with expectations about what type of information they'll find in that location of the project. 

• Reflection 2: Plan ahead. Spending time on the brainstorming/invention component of this assignment will be an important exercise. The reason for this is if you have a good plan before you begin writing/creating the blog, and if you understand what the types of expectations there are for each part of the assignment, you're more likely to create content in an efficient manner. For example, if you wanted to write about environmentalism making careful choices about how to limit that topic might help you to write more focused, specific posts. Perhaps, authors will want to focus on fishing regulations, the effect plastics are having on the environment, or perhaps I want my readers to come to my blog to read about the newest developments in green technologies. Writing is at its best when it is focused, and specific. Avoid generalization. Discover ways to bring real content to your audiences. 

• Reflection 3: Be passionate. Pick a topic you care about. Chances are you already know a whole bunch about this topic, and that will help you construct a clear overall plan your blog. The most common complaint students have with this assignment is "I don't know what to write" about. Picking an issue you are passionate about will help make this assignment more fun and help you to complete the assignment. Still, you will need to find ways to write specifically and authoritatively about topics that relate to that issue every week. 

• Reflection 4: Share it. Many first time bloggers are leery about writing in public spaces and sharing their work, because they realize that writing has consequences--it is an important activity. However, I've found that the students who create a blog that they share on their Facebook page with friends and family motivates them to do better work. Why? Well they realize that they are writing for a real audience. They think about how real people they know might react to what they've written, And, it also motivates writers to do good work because, let's be honest they want the people they care about to value what they have to say. Still, if you are really nervous or you are writing about a topic that is very controversial, consider writing under a pseudonym. Or, even consider creating a whole new persona. Be creative with this. 

• Reflection 5: Use the interwebs. The greatest resource you have when blogging is already at your fingertips. Create a twitter account and try to find and follow people who are also invested in the topic you're following. For example, on my twitter accounts I follow people who are experts in web design, internet trends, technology, and computer based writing--you would be amazed at just how much cool information I learn every day just by clicking on the links they post. Also, most of these people are so far ahead of mainstream news outlets that you might learn something weeks before others will. Also, consider creating a news filter that searches news stories on the web about that topic. This will be a good way of finding information that you might want to write weekly posts about. Last, when you compose posts, remember to use the affordances of web-based authoring: hyperlinking, networking, and adding connectivity to your writing is what makes the web a unique and exciting place to write. 

Week One: Introductions, Overview, Getting Started

Welcome to writing in electronic environments. It is my hope that we have a productive learning experience this semester. I also hope that this course helps introduce you to the rhetorical dimensions of composing in digital, networked, electronic environments, including thinking about the critical aspects of using technologies. Last week we discussed the course syllabus, the schedule, assignments, as well as my expectations for each of you as individuals of a larger learning community. We also began reading and writing assignments. 

Essentially, we hit the ground running and I realize that this class might seem a little daunting at first. Indeed, some assignments this semester will be concurrent. Indeed, you are independently responsible for learning how to make the technologies function. Indeed, there will be times when an assignment is frustrating or a technology is functioning in a way we do not understand. 

Learning should be challenging. In fact, it must be. These are realistic complications representative of the challenges workers and citizens face in a digital world. Allow me to briefly expand on that last point. A digital world impacts the shape of 21st Century literacies which relatedly impacts daily work flows and structures for citizenship. 

Higher education, at it's best, is not only for preparing you for a future career. It is consequential work--not just to you, but to society at a larger level.  Indeed, the aim of a university is to prepare citizens for the future challenges that face societies. There are a myriad of reasons and explanations for this, but I assure you that if you trust those who are trying to teach you with good faith--if you truly listen to what they say--you will grow and you will be a better person because of it. As former U.S. Senator and Presidential Candidate Robert F. Kennedy argued, education is an opportunity to enrich the civic quality of life for others:

In the world and at home, you have the opportunity and the responsibility to help make the choices which will determine the greatness of this nation. You live in the most privileged nation on earth. You are the most privileged citizen of that privileged nation; for you have been given the opportunity to study and learn. You can use you enormous privilege  and opportunity to seek purely private pleasure and gain. But history will judge you, and as the years pass, you will ultimately judge yourself, on the extent to which you have used your gifts to lighten and enrich the lives of your fellow man. In your hands, not with presidents of leaders, is the future of your world and the fulfillment of the best qualities of your own.

We must acknowledge that historically speaking, computers have shaken the very fabric of how we do education and how educational content is delivered, including changes to the spaces where learning is occurs.  Learning with computers is a new way of learning, and together we are students on this adventure exploring what it means to do our jobs. More importantly, though, computers have changed what it means to participate in life, to be a citizen, and to be a member of a community. 

It is my aim that each of you succeed, but more importantly I hope that we, as a class, cultivate the type of trust that is necessary for a learning community to succeed. It is each of our responsibility to bring the attributes of creativity, dedication, respect, and patience to the classroom each day. We must come to class motivated to learn, and to be willing to learn from one another, listen to different perspectives, and to hold one another accountable as participants a members of a larger group.  

My argument is that these challenges are what make learning fun: they enable us opportunities to develop confidence and build effective strategies for responding to realistic problems. This blog will be a place where I write reflections of the learning opportunities that I see emerging. It will be a place where I share reflections on the pieces of information that I have learned from working in a classroom with each of you. Learning, as I understand it, is a collaborative activity that is co-extensive. Indeed, I am responsible for facilitating and evaluating learning, but I learn from the work you do and the conversations we have. You, as a student, will not only learn from the activities that are presented to you, but will also be  responsible for helping facilitate learning and evaluating your own work as well as that of your peers.  I look forward to working and learning with and from each of you this semester. Happy writing, designing, and learning.