Engaged Youth » Open Thread for the Civic Learning Online Research Presentation

Open Thread for the Civic Learning Online Research Presentation

October 3rd, 2008 at 10:33am jonhickey Permalink

This is an open thread for the civic learning online research presentation taking place at the Civic Learning Online Workshop at the University of Washington. Feel free to leave comments below to join in conversation.

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13 Comments Add your own

1. David Keyes | October 3rd, 2008 at 10:58 am

In addition to the 5 general areas of civic learning you’ve identified (Knowledge, expression, joining publics, taking action, developing orientations),
I would add Problem Solving.

This is both knowing how to facilitate and working to develop solutions together. This is before you take action to make yours or others solutions a reality…and gets revisited as you learn about power hierarchies, negotiation and how to dog and track an issue.
2. jonhickey | October 3rd, 2008 at 11:01 am

Applying the traditional categories of learning that Lances proposes (knowlege, expression, joining, and action) to the web is interesting. Lance points out that in a classroom setting, knowledge is most common, followed by expression, and down the line to action.

When applying this online, it seems like knowledge is still the most likely to occur, but I wonder if expression is less likely to occur than joining. Joining online networks is simple. Clicking a button, reading, and sharing information found elsewhere is easy. However, from personal experience, expression can be difficult online. With so many people posting content, it can be intimidating to put your voice out there. There is always someone that will write harsh words about your opinion, and there is always someone more knowledgeable in large online communities.

Does anyone agree with this? The web has been hyped for the ease of expression, but I think there are barriers for many that should be taken into account.
3. Eszter Hargittai | October 3rd, 2008 at 2:15 pm

Jon, I think you’re absolutely right. I co-authored a paper with Gina Walejko on the Participation Divide where we show that there are systematic differences in who is most likely to share writing, photos, music and videos online. We found that young women (we looked at first-year college students) were less likely to post than young men, controlling for all sorts of other factors. However, once we also controlled for skill (see this paper for more on how we measured that), there is no longer a relationship between gender and tendency to post.

Inspired by these findings, I’ve started doing additional work on this question with a group of students. We’ve conducted 30 interviews so far and have found that concern about how the material they post is perceived is definitely a deterrent for several students in being more active online.
4. Adriana Gil Miner | October 3rd, 2008 at 3:14 pm

Re: Mark’s comment form YouthNoise that not all users are the same so it’s important to have many different points of entries. This is a design principle (and good to consider when measuring success) that seems to be universal to digital environments. I blogged about this, reflecting on Charlene Li’s Groundswell book at http://digitalecologist.com/ui-for-different-user-types/
5. Savannah Peterson | October 3rd, 2008 at 4:53 pm

Relating to the desire to incorporate in-depth material with user-generated content: I agree with what Lance was saying, that Puget Sound Off is progressing much faster as a networking site than as one of education; however, I think that in the long run this will even out. The number one complaint that we’ve received from youth was that the site was ‘nerdy’ and the youth often referenced the ‘nerd factor’ of PSO. This ‘nerd factor’ is a bit of a deterrent when it comes to youth involvement. I enjoyed Mark’s point about not being obsessed with what is cool, and his suggestion that the slightly older members of PSO’s target demographic create the standard from cool; however, if the site is too civic centric, our experience has shown many students are turned off. This has been and continues to be one the greatest challenges of the PSO project. Hopefully both the scope and depth of content on PSO will continue to grow as the site ages.

I encourage everyone to check out the site: http://www.pugetsoundoff.org and take a look at what our initial users are talking about. There is also a nice rant by user naominel3 titled “bumbershoot publicity!” regarding the necessity of marketing PSO virally (she asks for a commitment to PSO). Conceptually, it’s inspiring.
6. David Keyes | October 4th, 2008 at 10:01 am

Reelgrrls.org is the program Sami is part of.
http://www.youtube.com/profile_videos?user=reelgrrls to see what they have posted there.
7. David Keyes | October 4th, 2008 at 11:33 am

I’ve posted the Puget Sound Off logic model as a pdf at Logic model

(Hopefully I got the code right
If not: http://seattle.gov/tech/youth/Puget_Sound_Off_Logic_Model.pdf
8. Peter Levine | October 4th, 2008 at 11:41 am

Here are some possible objectives for a program like Puget Sound Off. Which ones are reasonable? What counts as success?

1. Diversifying the available news and political media in King County by involving perhaps 200-300 youth at any given time in creating high-quality media that competes with or complements the newspaper, radio, and TV.

2. Influencing schools by exemplifying a different form of active citizenship than what is presented in textbooks.

3. Expanding the proportion of young Seattle residents who follow news and social issues, by providing them with a more interactive and youth-friendly platform. (The target might be to reach half of all youth periodically.)

4. Enhancing the knowledge, perspectives, and even the “wisdom” of the 200-300 youth who are directly involved, and/or the other 200,000 Seattle teenagers.

5. Having a significant impact on social problems in Seattle. For instance, the high school droupout rate falls because kids feel more engaged in school, or because PSO kids develop ideas for school reform that are implemented. Or Seattle police prevent more crime and reduce racial profiling because they interact better with teenagers. Or…?

6. Creating a model that is borrowed by other Seattle community-based organizations, so that one day there are (say) 30 different but interlinked sites like PSO in Seattle.

7. Creating a model that is borrowed and adapted in other communities.

8. Promoting public policies that support youth media or civic media.
9. Eszter Hargittai | October 5th, 2008 at 7:38 pm

Thank you for a great meeting!

As I was clicking around on Puget Sound Off, I noticed several users from a town in Russia. I was wondering how this came about. It made me think about the local aspect of the site and I wondered: how important is it that users are Seattle-based?
10. Lance Bennett | October 7th, 2008 at 4:25 am

These Russian postings resulted from a delegation of scholars and practitioners from various cities in Russia who visited the Center for Communication and Civic Engagement to look at our programs, They liked PSO, and began using it from afar. I think that sustaining this link would have required more local involvement with them.
11. spidinuepeado | December 2nd, 2008 at 12:41 am

I am here at a forum newcomer. Until I read and deal with the forum.
Let’s learn!
12. DokDouttswels | December 17th, 2008 at 4:58 pm

Goodday I’m new here
And it looks like a great forum, so just wanted to say hello! :):):)
And looking forward to participating.
Going on vacation for a few days, so i’ll be back
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