ITS Forum 2008: Connecting Communities

Engaging our Communities
Cole W. Camplese
Director, Education Technology Services
cole@psu.edu

http://www.personal.psu.edu/cwc5/blogs/updates

en gage
cause someone to become involved in
(a conversation or discussion)

com mu ni ty
a feeling of fellowship with others, as a result of
sharing common attitudes, interests, and goals

con ver sa tion
the informal exchange of ideas

Our Communities

3 Groups

http://www.ﬂickr.com/photos/f-r-a-n-k/515745060/

Student Challenges

“Technology is only technology to those born before
technology.”
--Alan Kay

This Changes Everything

• How they access information
• How they connect with media
• How they control media
• How they create media

Search is research


40% of our students
watch TV on their
• How they accessinformation computer



DVR/TiVo is the way to

• How they connect with media consume



• How they connect with media at PSU create media
32%

23% spend more than 5 hours a
week in online social spaces

So we know they’ll engage given
the right set of opportunities.

Faculty

• More than ever, faculty are expecting new
opportunities to engage students
• As soon as we embraced a more open
culture, they started coming to us
• Our focus has been on the ﬁrst two thirds
of the curve

Systematic Approach to Faculty Engagement

 All
sorts of ways to make our audiences
aware of opportunities:
 Hot Teams
 Engagement Initiative
 Face-to-face
 Online
 Podcasts

 Smallteams dedicated to exploring a
single technology or approach for use in
teaching and learning
 Short time cycles – about 5 weeks
 Deliverablesinclude white papers,
presentations, and recommendations on
further investigation

 Outcomes are shared with interested
faculty
 We work alongside them to provide:
 Guidance
 Support
 Assessment
 Equipment/Funding
 Welearn so much more by watching
them

 Readone of our Hot Team white papers
on podcasting
 Thought she’d be interested in trying it
out
 Proposal
asked for a handful of iPod
Nanos with voice recorders

 Newspaper story
pointed us to her
blog
 Therewe came
across links to
podcasts … cool
enough

They produced
enhanced podcasts
& interactive tours
of each entry

She took her
students to D.C.
for the Solar
Decathlon
Students investigated
every house and
plotted them in
Google Earth

New ideas + Faculty Engagement = New Learning Environments

Who?
• People just like all of us working to
enhance teaching and learning with
technology
• Getting out in front has given us the
potential to excite new parts of our
community
• Open invitations encourage participation

(in)Formal Opportunities

• Tweet Meet
• BS Breakfasts
• BS Bookclub
• ETS Talk Podcast

By the community

• Tweet Meet
• BS Breakfasts
• BS Bookclub


Every Friday at 9
• Tweet Meet AM at Irving’s

• BS Breakfasts
• BS Bookclub


• Tweet Meet Wiki Decisions
• BS Breakfasts and Discussions
• BS Bookclub


• Tweet Meet
• BS Breakfasts Recorded and
• BS Bookclub Shared in an Hour


Do you remember the ﬁrst Internet?

Web 1.0
• The ﬁrst time around the
web was:

• Very static

• Hard to create for

Photo Credit: Gregory Williams via Flickr

Web 1.0
• The ﬁrst time around the
web was:

• Very static

• Hard to create for

• A one way platform
(except for commerce)

Originally built to allow scientists and
researchers to share and collaborate at a Photo Credit: Gregory Williams via Flickr

distance.

Web 2.0

“architecture of participation”
--Tim O’Reilly

Web 2.0
• For our conversation, Web 2.0 is:
• Easy

• Available

• Collaborative

• Web 2.0 is participation

• Web 2.0 is people

So, why not tap into this
space?

How ETS is Taking
Advantage of Web 2.0
A few examples

Social Spaces

• Environments that enable:
• Proﬁle creation

• FOAF opportunities

• Ad hoc group formation

• Connections and collaboration

FaceBook
• Nationally 75-85% of College students are in the
FaceBook

• 83% of PSU students are in the FB 8% are starting
in High School ... today

• 60% log in daily and 80% update their proﬁles
several times a month!

“I just can’t be a college
student without Facebook”

What other brands
have this loyalty?

PSU Library FB
Application

• First day available nearly 900 students added
the application
• About 2,000 current users
• Dozens of searches a day out of the FB

Fresh Content
• Everyday a TLT Coffee Read is posted by
Jamie

Fresh Content
Jamie
• Every Friday Jamie posts the TLT BuzzLion

Fresh Content
Jamie
• Fresh content everyday ﬁlls up subscribers
RSS readers and powers google results

Love to say we’re number
one, but I’ll take second place in
a crowded space!
#2 out of 64,400,000 results

Fresh Content
Jamie
• Fresh content everyday ﬁlls up subscribers
RSS readers and powers google results
• Twitter takes over from there

Followers
• People that follow you see
all your updates
• Can send direct (private)
messages
• Can send a public message
using @username

Connected communities are
changing the speed in which
conversations are shared.

Internet users watched 10 billion
videos online in December 2007.

http://www.comscore.com/press/release.asp?press=2051

Mashed up over 2,000
times.

33% of PSU faculty use YouTube
as a classroom technology.

Maybe the notion of
Web 2.0 is important

The Community Hub

• Each major initiative is supported by an
online Community Hub space
• Every member of the Penn State
community is free to access and create
content
• Open access for anyone to read

ANGEL Community Hub
http://ets.tlt.psu.edu/angel

Opportunities to Engage

ANGEL Community Hub

Podcasts Videocasts

Town Hall
ANGEL Shorts
Meetings

Opportunities to Engage
ELSS Program TLA Program

ANGEL Community Hub

Some First Year Stats

ANGEL Community Hub

Over 1500 Over 200
members unique posts

Over 1500 Some First Year Stats Over 150
RSS subscribers unique
comments

ANGEL Community Hub

Connect Community Hub
http://meeting.psu.edu

Recent Milestones


Nearly
Launched on 10,000
April 1, 2007 registered users

Over Recent Milestones Multiple posts
10,000 reads a
per day
month


Educational Gaming Community Hub
http://gaming.psu.edu/

Learning Design Community Hub
http://ets.tlt.psu.edu/learningdesign

Digital Commons
http://digitalcommons.psu.edu

Podcasting Community Hub
http://podcasts.psu.edu

Blogging Community Hub
http://blogger.psu.edu

Symposium Community Hub
http://sympsoium.tlt.psu.edu/

Community Aggregator
http://ets.tlt.psu.edu/communities

Learning Design
Summer Camp
• Two day event at UP bringing together over
100 members of the learning design
community
• Open design with huge contribution by the
community
• Wiki planning, registration, organizing,
marketing, and everything in between

TLT Symposium
• Viewed as a ﬂagship event

• We are working on driving
attendance for next year

• Blogging, photo sharing,
podcasts, and so much more
used to extend the event
across PSU

ITS Forum 2008: Connecting Communities

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