Civic Engagement

Lyndsay Grant Profile Picture
By Lyndsay Grant 03/18/2011 - 8:25am Comments
Times of crisis are times of change and provide an opportunity to imagine alternative educational futures. Following the UK’s winter of protests about cuts to education budgets and rising tuition fees, students and staff are raising questions...
Hacking Higher Education Blog Image
Barry Joseph Profile Picture
By Barry Joseph 12/29/2011 - 10:45am Comments
Professor of urban planning, Amy Hillier, recently spoke at TEDxPhilly to talk about how data visualization technology can map a city’s emotions and memories. Geographic Information System (G.I.S.) technology has become more commonplace and...
Recommended Resources: Mobile Learning, Multitasking, Civic
Liz Losh  Profile Picture
By Liz Losh 12/01/2010 - 9:50am Comments
At November’s University of California Institute for Research in the Arts conference, the emphasis was on college courses that couldn’t be planned out according to set syllabi and fixed course objectives, because students were expected to be co...
Student-Created Curriculum: Demanding, Digital, Compelling Blog Image
Lyndsay Grant Profile Picture
By Lyndsay Grant 01/10/2011 - 8:45am Comments
The stereotypical characterization of young people as politically apathetic, interested only in using digital media for socializing and gaming, has been punctured by recent events in the UK. University and high school students took to the...
UK Student Protests: Democratic Participation in the Digital Age Blog Image
Liz Losh  Profile Picture
By Liz Losh 06/23/2011 - 2:20pm Comments
As revolution and revolt spreads across the Arab world, Americans often see social networking sites and online video as playing a starring role. Whether it is testimony about police brutality or jubilation in the squares, examples of so-called...
Digital Learning and the Arab Spring Blog Image
Ethan Zuckerman Profile Picture
By Ethan Zuckerman 06/27/2011 - 10:30am Comments
The civic media field is often better defined by example than in abstractions. The field is so nascent and fluid that any comprehensive, conceptual definition will likely miss key aspects of the field. For those of us who believe civic media –...
Four Questions about Civic Media Blog Image
Ethan Zuckerman Profile Picture
By Ethan Zuckerman 12/21/2011 - 11:40am Comments
Media activists Marisa Jahn and Julian Rubinstein recently joined us at the Center for Civic Media for our weekly Civic Media Lunch series. Marisa is the new director of the People’s Production House, a New York based project that works with...
Basta! Telling Stories About Occupy Wall Street Blog Image
Liz Losh  Profile Picture
By Liz Losh 11/10/2009 - 10:15am Comments
The relationship between digital media and democracy is complicated, because it is difficult for researchers to draw causal connections between adopting new social computing technologies and promoting what Joseph Kahne, Mills College professor...
Digital Media and Democracy: Early Returns Blog Image
Liz Losh  Profile Picture
By Liz Losh 12/08/2009 - 3:50pm Comments
As the new year rolls around, like many political science professors, Kareem Crayton is thinking about the possible repercussions of next year’s 2010 census and what he calls the “opening skirmishes” of the partisan fight over “who’s going to...
On Gaming, Politics and Civics Reform Blog Image
Raquel Recuero Profile Picture
By Raquel Recuero 01/11/2010 - 11:30am Comments
Translation of the Tweet: "People with more than one thousand followers: RT (Retweet) is a good way to contribute with #projetoenchentes (flood relief in Brazil)." Access to the Internet as well as social networking sites has been growing...
Online Social Networks and Social Mobilization in Latin America  Blog Image
Liz Losh  Profile Picture
By Liz Losh 02/01/2010 - 11:00am Comments
With the first year of the Obama administration officially coming to a close, educators have been thinking about how the president’s online presence could be used for both civic education and media literacy purposes.  Obama came into...
Teaching with Obama Blog Image
Liz Losh  Profile Picture
By Liz Losh 12/01/2010 - 9:50am Comments
At November’s University of California Institute for Research in the Arts conference, the emphasis was on college courses that couldn’t be planned out according to set syllabi and fixed course objectives, because students were expected to be co...
Student-Created Curriculum: Demanding, Digital, Compelling Blog Image
Lyndsay Grant Profile Picture
By Lyndsay Grant 01/10/2011 - 8:45am Comments
The stereotypical characterization of young people as politically apathetic, interested only in using digital media for socializing and gaming, has been punctured by recent events in the UK. University and high school students took to the...
UK Student Protests: Democratic Participation in the Digital Age Blog Image
Barry Joseph Profile Picture
By Barry Joseph 01/13/2011 - 9:55am Comments
Paleontologist from American Museum of Natural History shows I Dig Brazil kids images of ancient animals. Editor's note: Global Kids does a great job each month pointing us to excellent new resources. Digital and Media Literacy: A Plan for...
Media Literacy, Social Learning and Recommended Resources Blog Image
Joseph Kahne Profile Picture
By Joseph Kahne 03/10/2011 - 10:00am Comments
In a cartoon depicting the evolution of Good Samaritanism in the digital age, a man walks by a homeless person lying on the street and does nothing. In the next frame, he is at his computer -- "What's this?!! Sally needs a bag of fertilizer for...
Is the Virtual World Good for the 'Real' One? Blog Image
Lyndsay Grant Profile Picture
By Lyndsay Grant 03/18/2011 - 8:25am Comments
Times of crisis are times of change and provide an opportunity to imagine alternative educational futures. Following the UK’s winter of protests about cuts to education budgets and rising tuition fees, students and staff are raising questions...
Hacking Higher Education Blog Image
S. Craig Watkins Profile Picture
By S. Craig Watkins 04/25/2011 - 4:10pm Comments
Retired Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor and her iCivics team recently convened a thought provoking conference, Educating for Democracy in the Digital Age. In partnership with the Aspen Institute, Georgetown Law, and the MacArthur...
What Should Civic Learning Look Like in an Age of Technological Change?
Howard Rheingold  Profile Picture
By Howard Rheingold 05/26/2011 - 10:01am Comments
There’s a lot of conversation about young people’s use of digital media and how it impacts their engagement -- or lack of engagement -- in civic affairs and politics, but not a great deal of empirical work has been done. Until now. Joseph Kahne...
How  Impact Youth Political and Civic Engagement?
Liz Losh  Profile Picture
By Liz Losh 06/23/2011 - 2:20pm Comments
As revolution and revolt spreads across the Arab world, Americans often see social networking sites and online video as playing a starring role. Whether it is testimony about police brutality or jubilation in the squares, examples of so-called...
Digital Learning and the Arab Spring Blog Image
Ethan Zuckerman Profile Picture
By Ethan Zuckerman 06/27/2011 - 10:30am Comments
The civic media field is often better defined by example than in abstractions. The field is so nascent and fluid that any comprehensive, conceptual definition will likely miss key aspects of the field. For those of us who believe civic media –...
Four Questions about Civic Media Blog Image