Description
The working group on Service & Activism in the Digital Age brought together a group of scholars and practitioners from the fields of new media, service learning, and community-based youth organizing during the 2010-2011 academic year.

The group:

1. examined how new media is currently being incorporated into programs that engage youth in service or community activism
2. reviewed existing research literature on the effects of varying approaches to this incorporation of new media
3. identifed common understandings and areas of needed future research on the role of new media in youth service and activism.

The group has recently completed a White Paper reflecting the group's work (see link below).

Updates
Members of the working group presetned in a joint symposium at AERA titled "New Media as a Tool for Transforming Civic Learning Contexts" on April 15th in Vancouver. See Education Weekly blog about the session: Digital Media and Civic Ed: Amplifiation or Transformation?

Barry Joseph and Global Kids, Inc. received funding to design a Civic Geocaching Game. Antero Garcia will lead research to examine the impact of the game on youth civic development.|

Working Group Members
Dara Byrne, John Jay College for Criminal Justice
Jerusha Conner, Villanova University
David Donohue, Mills College School of Education
Chris Evans, Civic Engagement Research Group, Mills College
Jeff Fino, Nuvana
Diana Hess, University of Wisconsin-Madison
Antero Garcia, UCLA
Barry Joseph, Global Kids
Glynda Hull, UC Berkeley Graduate School of Education
Ben Kirshner, Colorado Univerisy - Boulder
Joseph Kahne, Mills College School of Education
Ravi Lau, Lick Wilmerding High School
Joseph Kwong, Nuvana
Ted McConnell, Campaign for the Civic Mission of Schools
Ellen Middaugh, Civic Engagement Research Center, Mills College
Peter Levine, CIRCLE
Emily Ozer, UC Berkeley
Daria Ng, Global Kids
Brian Stanley, San Francisco Education Fund
John Rogers, UCLA - IDEA
James Youniss, The Catholic University of America
Joel Westheimer, Universtiy of Ottawa

Funding
Funded by The Digital Media Learning & Research Hub.

Reports
Service & Activism in the Digital Age Supporting Youth Engagement in Public Life. January, 2012.

Ellen Middaugh, Ph.D., Civic Engagement Research Group, Mills College

With contributions from: Jerusha Conner, Villanova University; David Donahue, Mills College; Antero Garcia, UCLA; Joseph Kahne, Mills College; Ben Kirshner, University of Colorado Boulder; Peter Levine, CIRCLE

Related Links
The Digital Media Learning & Research Hub (DML)