Community Engagement: How
Disruptive Technologies Enabled
New Social Learning
Scott McDonald & Cole Camplese

“Wouldn’t it be cool if ...”

Curriculum and
Instruction 597C
Disruptive Technologies for Teaching and Learning

“This is a grand experiment ...”

Course Structure
• Several readings every week
• Weekly reflections in their blogs
• Peer review of reflections
• Weekly discussions
• Students in teams
• Team presentations

Design
• Three blocks
• Us, Together, Them
• Three themes
• Community, Identity, Design

Distributed Expertise
“What made my head hurt”
Technology
Time Technologists
Theorists

Distributed Expertise
“What made my head hurt”
Theory
Time Technologists
Theorists

Technologies
• PSU Blogs for all students • Facebook
• PSU Blog for course site • Wikis
• Pligg • Podcasts
• ANGEL • YouTube
• Del.icio.us • Flickr
• Twitter • Google Docs, Analytics,
Maps

Technologies
• PSU Blogs for all students • Facebook
• PSU Blog for course site • Wikis
• Pligg • Podcasts
• ANGEL • YouTube
• Del.icio.us • Flickr
• Twitter • Google Docs, Analytics,
Maps

Student Blogs

Pligg: Social Aggregation

Pligg: Social Aggregation

What Changed the Game

Technologies
• PSU Blogs for all students • Facebook
• PSU Blog for course site • Wikis
• Pligg • Podcasts
• ANGEL • YouTube
• Del.icio.us • Flickr
• Twitter • Google Docs, Analytics,
Maps

Technologies
• PSU Blogs for all students • Facebook
• PSU Blog for course site • Wikis
• Pligg • Podcasts
• ANGEL • YouTube
• Del.icio.us • Flickr
• Twitter • Google Docs, Analytics,
Maps

Technologies
• PSU Blogs for all students • Facebook
• PSU Blog for course site • Wikis
• Pligg • Podcasts
• ANGEL • YouTube
• Del.icio.us • Flickr
• Twitter • Google Docs, Analytics,
Maps

The Twitter Community

The Twitter Community
Extended Conversations Extended Community

The Twitter Community
Backchannel Conversations External participation
Extended Conversations Extended Community

The Twitter Community
Coalesced the Learning Community
Backchannel Conversations External participation
Extended Conversations Extended Community

The Twitter Community

The Twitter Community
“Yes, I feel I know you, Scott, and the
others more intimately than I do other
professors & cmates with whom I’ve spent
more time”

The Twitter Community
“Yes, I feel I know you, Scott, and the
others more intimately than I do other
professors & cmates with whom I’ve spent
more time”
“Your identity is defined by the
communities you participate in, so your
choices to participate are how you control
who you are”

The Twitter Community
“Just found out, thesis is due in 12 hours.
Anyone care to read it and give feedback?”

Evaluation
How do we quantify community engagement?

Predicting the unpredictable
Why Twitter and why not something else?

Lost in translation?
How does this work outside this course?

Discussion
cole@psu.edu & sum16@psu.edu