Mary Chayko, Ph. D.
Professor of Sociology
College of Saint Elizabeth
mchayko@cse.edu
Twitter: @MaryChayko
Portable Community
and the Superconnected Student
My longstanding interest in
media/communication
 Undergraduate communication and psychology major; worked at
Seton Hall’s radio station WSOU
 Spent seven years in the radio industry full-time as newscaster,
copywriter, disc jockey, and producer (WCTC/WMGQ/New
Brunswick, WDHA/WMTR/Dover, WNEW/New York)

Noticed and was fascinated by what seemed like strong and definite
bonds developing between listeners and broadcasters, especially DJs
 Attended grad school part-time (Rutgers) during this period studying
psychosocial effects of media use
 Became so interested in topic I decided to pursue Ph.D. full time;
remained in radio/voice-over announcing part-time thereafter
My early work in the
sociology of communication
 Dissertation research (Rutgers Department of Sociology): Can we form
genuine social bonds and communities with people we have never
met face-to-face, and if so, how?
 What is the nature of these bonds and communities and people’s
experiences within them?
 Conducted qualitative research: interviewed 50 people face-to-face,
half computer-savvy, half much less so – and integrated findings
within an extensive interdisciplinary review of literature
 Last-minute addition to methodology: 143 short online surveys with
internet users in online groups
 Methodology illustrative of concepts, not widely generalizable (“a
piece of the puzzle”)
Findings (“Connecting”/2002)
 Connections and groupings can form without any face-to-face contact
whatsoever and be experienced as absolutely genuine
 People often describe such groupings as “communities” and such
connections as “bonds” or “friendships”
 The experience is laden with intimacy and emotionality
 These “sociomental” connections are often experienced as
bidirectional, supportive, consequential, central to people’s everyday
lives
 Those who go online to make such connections reported particularly
high levels of intimacy, emotionality, supportiveness, bond strength
 Direct challenge to assumption that such communities are “pseudo”
(Beniger 1987); findings more in line with Rheingold, Wellman, Baym
Beniger, James R. Personalization of mass media and the growth of pseudo-community. Communication Research, Vol
14(3), Jun 1987, 352-371.
As my interviewees put it:
“How can it be personal?...It feels like it is. If people
said, “Oh gee, do you know so and so?” I would say
yes.” (p.86)
“I will read a particular passage and think to myself, I
know what he or she was feeling when they wrote
that. I know what precipitated that.” (p. 69)
“It feels like an invisible bond that nothing can
destroy.” (p. 54)
The rise of technological
portability, mobility and
social networking
 In 2004, 28% of American adults owned laptops w/wireless
and/or cell phones.(1) In early 2012, 89% of adults and 95% of
those aged 18-29 used cell phones; 66% of adults aged 18-34
used a smartphone.(2)
 In 2005, about 7% of American adults engaged in social
networking.(2) As of late 2012 this number had risen to 67% of
all adults and 83% of those aged 18-29.(3)
(1)
(2)
(3)
Horrigan, John. 28% of Americans are Wireless Ready. Pew Internet and American Life Project. May 12, 2004.
Rainie, Lee. Networked Learners. Pew Internet and American Life Project. August 22, 2012
Duggan, Maeve and Joanna Brenner. The Demographics of Social Media Users – 2012. Pew Internet and American Life
Project. February 14, 2013
Portable Communities (2008)
 An examination of how technological portability and mobility
influenced the nature of the bonds and communities that people form
online, and the social dynamics of these groupings
 Conducted 87 in-depth multi-step electronic interviews via email
(again, qualitative and not representative or generalizable – but
subjects skewed female, white, under 30); synthesized very
wide/deep interdisciplinary literature
 Social networking via social media grew in importance during the
period of research and became a focus of interviews
 Also looked at listservs, discussion boards, chat rooms, virtual worlds
like Second Life, gaming worlds, “gathering places”
 Coined “portable community” to describe environment/experience of
such gatherings – interviewees used term “community” first
 Book of the Year Runner-up, Association for Humanist Sociology, and
#6 on end-of-2009 Social Sciences Best-seller List, Library Journal
Findings
 Emotionality and intimacy are still central to the online experience --
perhaps more so in mobile environments as people feel freer to open
up and experience the “rush” of human engagement any time of the
day or night, as desired and needed
 Interpersonal relating is often playful, flirtatious, witty, a bit daring,
and takes place in unstructured “third spaces”
 Digital environments are rich in stimuli, information, and
connectivity, populated by accessible others anytime, anywhere
 Mobile devices, with us wherever we go, become indispensable part
of our worlds, our experience – a part of us
 Constant contact and diminished privacy is a concern, yet people feel
drawn in, “plugged in,” regardless
 Many digital media users not cognizant of the risks and dangers
As my interviewees put it:
“It’s exciting to find others halfway around the world who hold
the same thoughts and interests as you do.” (p. 27)
“Sometimes when I get back to my room I just move the mouse
and go to my favorite site and check my profile, and it’s like
someone has left me gold or something!” (p. 62)
“It is a cool thing and a cool feeling.” (p. 104)
“It gives me a rush I can’t explain.” (p. 77)
…See me discuss this research in depth at www.marychayko.com/talks; full
video of my April 2012 keynote for Media and History conference at St. Peter’s
College (and other video)
Educational implications
 People are now surrounded with information that “swirls” through
their social networks and communities and digital environments
 Social media provides an efficient and enticing means to create
information and give feedback to others, encouraging us to
become thought “prosumers” – often near-simultaneously
producing and consuming information
 Mobile technology allows all this to happen on the go, anywhere
and anytime at all, at the touch of a button or a vocal signal
 The intimacy, emotionality, strength and authenticity of the
connections we form along the way imbue this process with “the
rush of human engagement” and help ensure its continuation
 We are creating, consuming, connecting, and yes, learning, in
new ways, at a rapid, accelerating pace
The “superconnected student”…
Does not experience the online and offline as separate and
distinct but as an enmeshed “augmented” reality

Is predisposed to join, contribute to, learn within social
networks

Is likely to be comfortable with collaboration and “learning by
doing”
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Is fairly reliant on feedback
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Feels strong draw toward connectivity, media, devices
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Is easily distracted in nonmediated settings
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Has an attention span that may be compromised – gives
“continuous partial attention” to several things at once
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Is comfortable creating, not merely receiving, knowledge
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Is likely not fully cognizant of risks and dangers of online activity
How much of this is also true of ourselves? (We are all students!)

Rainie, Lee. Networked Learners. Pew Internet and American Life Project. August 22, 2012 and
Rainie, Lee. The Rise of Networked Information. Pew Information and American Life Project. May 31, 2012.
Role of the instructor,
program, school, university
 Explore creative course formats (online, hybrid, “flipped
classrooms,” etc.)
 Increase the use of social networks and social media in even
traditionally formatted classes to increase social engagement and
community
 Stress professionalism, safety, maturity, implications of media use
 Encourage collaborative, peer-to-peer, and active learning (within
and among students, faculty, administration) in and out of the
classroom
 Create avenues for knowledge to be integrative, interdisciplinary,
interactive – at the classroom, program, and institutional levels
 Embrace “techno-dexterity” at each level (Lojeski, 2009): the
understanding of relative affordances of, and most effective uses of,
relevant organizational technologies (including email,
videoconferencing and Skype, social media, blogging)
Lojeski, Karen Sobel. 2009. Leading the Virtual Workforce (Wiley).
Innovate and experiment
with social networks/media
 Be careful, thoughtful and creative
 I developed very specific, strict classroom social media
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policies in conjunction with RU Athletics, and distribute and
review with students frequently
Students can always opt out of social media use and are
encouraged to use pseudonyms
Internal course blogs, social media use and Twitter course
hashtags create community
On Twitter, students interact with course authors, me, one
another easily, conveniently, efficiently, portably
Time/space/personnel boundaries of the classroom start to
fall away
“Live-tweeting” occasionally in class can address attention
span and attachment-to-device issues
Students describe high levels of course satisfaction,
engagement, learning, professional development
My use of Twitter in the
classroom: an example
 A course author (Nathan Jurgenson) joined us a “guest speaker
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tweeter” in Mediated Communication in Society last semester
Conversation began on the hashtag the weekend beforehand
In the classroom (but with the guest speaker at his home), students
questioned him on his work individually, and in interactive follow-ups,
according to rules/structure
I had expected room to be quiet throughout, but a soft, respectful
face-to-face “backchannel” emerged –- comments, laughter
In my mind, the class coalesced as a true, bonded community at that
moment and acted as one from that point forward
Students then reflected on the experience, what they learned in
terms of content AND form regarding the digital
environment/experience -- on Twitter afterward, on the internal
course blog a week or so later, and face-to-face in class
This is what my superconnected
classroom looked like during this
exercise:
C:\Documents and
Settings\mchayko\Desktop\Coll
ages\mediated com class 9b.jpg
Reflections on the experience
as tweeted by students
“ Interacting with Jurgenson via live-tweeting was a quick yet efficient
way to pick his brain due to the limited character space #com432”
“It was way easier for me to concentrate on the live tweeting than if it
was a guest lecture. super informative and i learned a lot! #com432”
“it was crazy how Nathan was able to respond to all of our tweets and
generate so many different ways of thinking in that short time
#com432”
“Personally, I felt more engaged in our discussion then I have when
special guests join a class in person. Thoughts?”
(From a student who was unable to attend due to illness that day)
“ Its amazing how connected I felt during the session considering I wasn't
in class, I still felt a part of the session#com432”
(And a student’s response to him)
“I feel like twitter is creating that sort of space for us to be actively
engaging in conversations...#com432”
Reflections on learning as
tweeted by students
“ The live tweet session was not only educating and fun but it was a
different way to explore learning about media through
media!#com432”
“ Live-tweeting was a great way of having a class conversation. I believe
it's something we will start seeing more often in education#com432”
“live tweeting was a great way to interact and learn...maybe this can be
the start of a new way of teaching #com432”
Then, I wrote about it for a
tech blog called Cyborgology
 …at http://thesocietypages.org/cyborgology/2012/11/30/live-
tweeting-in-the-classroom-with-a-guest-speaker-tweeter/ (or just
google “Cyborgology Chayko” and it’ll come up)
 It’s also cross-posted on my website www.marychayko.com
 I wanted to model sharing and learning by doing for students, so I
wrote the story on what we did, how we did it and what we learned -and it was published -- while the semester was still ongoing
 I requested and received consent from students to include their
tweets, observations, and a photo
 They LOVED this -- to this day they call themselves members of the
“legendary,” “famous” class “com432”
 I then presented on this exercise and experience at the Rutgers
Hybrid & Online Conference January 14, 2013
Caveats
 Students had all “opted in”; 100% were willing and eager to take part
in such an exercise – may not have done it otherwise
 This was a class ON mediated communication, which may have
accounted for some of the “buy-in” – but I do think Rutgers SC&I
students are extraordinarily interested, bright, not afraid of new
things or challenges or hard work
 Class was small (25) – would have done this asynchronously otherwise
 Students were thoroughly prepared during the weeks prior
 Guest “speaker-tweeter” was highly proficient (i.e. quick AND good)
 Subject matter was unusually fascinating and provocative
 While two students felt that the exercise was exceedingly fast-paced
and a bit overwhelming, they were game and “hung in” for the ride
(and reflected afterward on being very glad that they did)
Educational innovations are
constantly being shared
Some of my favorite Twitter chats (all dates/times subject to change):
 #fycchat – Wednesdays at 9pm
 #SaturdaySchool - Saturday mornings
 #engsschat – Mondays at 7pm
 #prodchat – Wednesdays at 8pm
 #literacies – every other Thursday at 8pm
 #edchat – Sunday mornings, Mondays at 7pm
 #edtech, #mlearning, #digped – ongoing (digitalpedagogy.com)
Also, most conferences are hashtagged now; some have live stream video
available and archived (see Theorizing the Web #TtW13 this Fri./Sat.)
In closing…
 Defunct educational model: “Learners receive knowledge”
 Current educational model: “Learners create knowledge” (1)
 Instructors, programs, schools and universities who are techno-
dextrous and take full advantage of tech affordances and
resources will be best situated to grow, meet outcomes, and
thrive in an “information intensive” society
 Understanding our networked lives, our portable communities
and the digital environments in which they are situated will
help us better understand and guide our superconnected
students (and ourselves!) so we can create highly interactive,
engaging, vibrant communities of learning
(1) Ratner, Shana. 1997. Emerging Issues in Learning Communities (Yellow Wood Associates), quoted in Rainie, Lee.
Networked Learners. Pew Internet and American Life Project. August 22, 2012
Thank you!
I’m very interested in
how any of this
may resonate with you –
questions/thoughts?