We’d spend the first few weeks outlining the Social Media out there, but introduced through current events in which it was the critical viral factor to spread information.  We would highlight President Obamas’ use of social media to advocate from the White House, the UC-Berkeley movement and Penn States’ Daily Collegian posts and videos about the events taking place on campus, and further explore the Occupy Movements’ use of social media to spread ideas.  We’d look to pop culture and explore the climb of social media “stardom” and pull out the characteristics of effectively managed social “movements.”

Throughout this process, students would be asked to create a twitter account and begin following a number of topics, eventually narrowing in on a social issue and exploring how the conversation develops online.  Eventually students would be asked to share their own content related to the issue and attempt to make contact with local and national influencers on the topic.  Finally, students would come together on a topic to advocate for it on campus (ex campus voter turnout, social issue advocacy related to community, etc.), or something focused on a more national scale, such as through Change.Org or VisibleVote.us (haven’t flushed this part all the way out yet, and frankly it would be significantly influenced by the students I was working with).

I would love to frame this course through a lense of leadership development, providing the skills and understanding of the importance of advocating for change while also introducing the tools for doing so, and the information to make informed choices about their advocacy.

Students will be able to:

• Describe characteristics of their leadership style and how this influences how they work with others
• Describe current events impacted by the use of social media
• Articulate the importance of digital identity and citizenship as it relates to leadership
• Analyze contemporary aspects of social media use related to social movements
• Utilize characteristics of effective social media use in practice to increase awareness around a social “issue”

now we just need the content behind this stuff and a dialogue around our approach