Reference no: EM133194453 , Length: Words Count:250

Assignment:

1 ) After you complete the lesson and related readings, including the viewing/reading of an expert who shares your passion, come up with YOUR definition of civic engagement. Your definition can be general or specific to your area of passion. So for (1) Create and submit a personal working definition of civic engagement. The definition must be yours alone and not copied from another or a source. Customize the definition to make it yours.

2) Conduct an action of civic engagement through the use of social media or in person. For (2) if you opt for in person, you'll share an image of you being civically engaged related to your definition above. For example, if my definition relates to a passion for being engaged in democracy, I might be looking to get a petition signed or go vote early. I'll snap a selfie of me & the petition or voting sticker and upload it here for (2) with a caption. Alternatively, for (2) if you opt for electronic or social media instead of in person, you will submit the screenshot of this effort in the Civic Engagement submission along with your definition.

So, if you are passionate about a topic, you might opt to use Twitter and a trending hashtag to jump in on offering a summary of what you learned and a fact-checked link from a reliable sourcefor those that want to learn more. Maybe you will post an image on Instagram that communicates what you are learning with a caption that says the same. You can also send a letter to a representative or senator regarding an issue about which you are passionate. Screenshot that email/letter/fax and submit that here.

Definitions Excerpts from Civic Responsibility and Higher Education, edited by Thomas Ehrlich, published by Oryx Press, 2000:"Civic engagement means working to make a difference in the civic life of our communities and developing the combination of knowledge, skills, values and motivation to make that difference. It means promoting the quality of life in a community, through both political and non-political processes.- Preface, page viA morally and civically responsible individual recognizes himself or herself as a member of a larger social fabric and therefore considers social problems to be at least partly his or her own; such an individual is willing to see the moral and civic dimensions of issues, to make and justify informed moral and civic judgments, and to take action when appropriate.

- Introduction

Text in image above alt text: Civic engagement: working to make a difference in the civic life of one's community.Four constructs of civic engagement: civic action, civic commitment or duty, civic skills, social cohesion Civic Action, or participation in activities such as volunterring or service-learning to help better the community (Bobek, Zaff, Li, & Lerner, 2009) Civic Commitment or Duty, or the willingness to make positive contributions to society Civic Skills, or the ability to be involved in civil society, politics, and democracy Social Cohesion, or a sense of reciprocity, trust, and bonding to othersRequired) Select one of the readings below to explore this concept of civic engagement in more depth as it relates to your interests:Note: you may select a different reading to explore the concept more deeply, but please email me if you plan to do so. I also welcome suggestions to add to the reading list below.

The New Work of Building Civic Practice - Rohd writes from a theater arts perspective. Quote from article: "Arts organizations do not have to engage with non-arts partners solely through a lens of project-based needs. Public libraries as platforms for civic engagementQuote: "libraries do universally provide part of the social fabric that makes people feel involved and connected with their culture. A sense of culture and belonging is needed for civic engagement to succeed and inspire people to improve their communities."Skim all, but focus in on 1.1, 1.2, 3.2, & 3.3 Social media and civic engagement : history, theory, and practice - a text that focuses on political civic engagement through social media Quote: "Booten (2016) described how several political hashtags in Tumblr, originally focused on a specific event or individual, came to be used in more contexts over time. He found that this was not just a community-level phenomenon, but also that individual users of the social media tool also exhibited hashtag drift, suggesting that they were expanding their own sense of what a set of hashtags meant and appropriating them for their own expressive purposes.

"Skim all and hone in on sections interesting to Civic Engagement through Afterschool Programs Quote: "Cross-sector efforts should involve the afterschool field, as these programs promote students' civic dispositions, bring lessons of democracy to life, and empower youth to enact change. Civic Socialization Practices and Children's Civic Engagement Quote: "Overall, we found that teachers' implementation of civic learning activities in the classroom which included service learning experiences, keeping up with current events, meeting people who work to make society better, and learning about things in society that need to be changed mattered for children's civic engagement in the upper elementary grades

Examining the rhetoric of civic engagement in government Digital Service design: Case study of the Federal Source Code Policy's use of GitHub in a public comment period

Quote: "the response to the OMB's use of GitHub by nonprofit advocates for open government has been positive, but "if we stayed still and did it exactly the same next time they would be a little less impressed." By focusing on how innovative platforms, tools, and practices from outside of government can best be used to challenge and transform internal policies within the federal government, digital service experts with OMB were able to innovate on the traditional model of public comment.