Social Networking Podcast

When I attended the TLT Symposium a few weeks ago,  we had the good fortune of being interviewed by the roaming podcast team.  They asked our opinions on how we liked it, what we thought about some speakers and what we were getting out of it. It was just posted online today so give it a listen if you get a chance.

Podcast here.

The power of “Community”

Today’s my post-TLT recovery day and I’m feeling like there’s so much I want to say about it, but I’m having trouble finding the words to express it.

The keynote from the event was delivered by Lawrence Lessig and was something I was really looking forward to. I did not come away disappointed as it was even more than I’d hoped it would be. The one thing that did surprise me, however, was how emotional his words were for me. I’ve found myself overcome with emotions at other times in my job.. typically when I’m trying to express something that I’m very passionate about, and I think my emotions at the keynote yesterday reflected those same things. I could hear and feel the passion in Lessig’s voice as he talked about creativity and expression and how desperately important it is that we truly *rethink* the way we look at things and create policy. I could feel the energy in the room as we all sat there, and I felt it carry through the day as we broke into our sessions and met, learned from and connected with people from all over our university.

If I had to pick one thing that I will take with me from this symposium, it’s the feeling that I now belong to a community that values the same things Lessig spoke about. People that are energized, connected, and wanting to make changes. Many of the people I connected with at the symposium were people I’d never met face-to-face, but had come to know on twitter in the weeks prior to yesterday’s event. Having met this group online, through a social networking tool added such amazing value to the symposium for me because I was immediately welcomed as part of that group when I arrived and I spent the whole day strengthening my ties with that group and connecting with others that I didn’t previously know.

In my first session, we talked about encouraging social networking for our students to allow them to make connections online, outside the classroom. As a social networks adviser, I obviously believe in the power of online connections and I have a little different perspective than a faculty member who’s considering using these tools in the classroom. There was a woman sitting in front of me who truly did not understand how using social networking in her classroom would benefit her students. She also felt that it was rude for us to sit there using twitter and text and chat to connect with others and share what was going on with our session while we were there. She felt it was more important for us to listen and pay attention to the speaker and not use these technologies during the session. It made for some very interesting discussion and that carried throughout the day. I met that same woman again in the afternoon, and she said “So if I were going to sign up for this twitter thing.. how would I go about doing that?”. I laughed, and several people around explained to her how to do that, and we all shared cupcakes and laughter and connected again. I love to think that after a day at TLT, seeing how all of the ‘twitter’ peeps were connected, conversing, and learning.. she felt that perhaps indeed there might be some value to using it. I truly hope to see her on twitter soon. I’d love to connect with her.

Online communities built through social networking are synergistic, powerful, amazing groups that have the power to change lives, policy, and perspectives. Sometimes we just have to build these communities one person at a time.. and that’s fine with me.

TLT Symposium

This Saturday I’ll be attending the TLT Symposium here at Penn State.  I’ll be presenting a poster on social networking and community building for online students and I’m psyched about meeting so many Penn State colleagues that are doing amazing and interesting things. This isn’t a symposium, it’s a party!

I can’t wait to attend, meet interesting people and learn!! Oh, and did I mention? Lessig’s the keynote!