I’m excited to share the following info from Connected Nation…

Online Vice Presidentnial Debate
October 11, 1 PM EST

‘Our Voice Our Future’ event to engage students nationally in upcoming VP debate at Centre College

Today, the Global Center for Connected Campuses (GC3) announced Harvard’s Institute of Politics (IOP) as a promotional partner and participant in the 2012 Vice Presidential Debate: Our Voice Our Future event. The interactive event will be held at Centre College, host of the only Vice Presidential debate, and will be broadcast live online in classrooms and on campuses across the country.

This one of a kind event gives teachers and students a front row seat to debate day activities and a forum to give reactions and discuss the general election. Students and teachers are encouraged to reserve their spots at http://www.2012vpdebate.com.

Harvard’s IOP Director and former Kentucky Secretary of State Trey Grayson will be participating from Boston and leveraging IOP’s network to engage students and associations nationally prior to the event.

“As the GC3 partnership was being formed, we anticipated that relationships heretofore unimagined might develop,” said John A. Roush, president of Centre College. “The opportunity to partner with Trey Grayson and Harvard’s Institute of Politics on our inaugural project realizes this hope. It will stand tall among other such relationships that will be formed over time, all of which will be profoundly good for students and faculty here at Centre, in the Commonwealth of Kentucky and across the nation.”

“We all know how important the 2012 elections are to our nation’s future, especially to students and Millennials who will become tomorrow’s leaders,” said Trey Grayson, director of Harvard’s Institute of Politics. “The ‘Our Voice Our Future’ project will help encourage students from across the country to engage in the political process this fall, and I am excited this effort will be initiated from my native state.”

The partnership with Harvard’s Institute of Politics adds further prestige to an event that continues to build momentum, said Connected Nation President and COO Tom Ferree. “Having Harvard’s Institute of Politics come on board with this effort further affirms that GC3 will make an impact on the way technology is used in the classroom,” Ferree said. “The Our Voice Our Future event will truly be a milestone effort bringing the debate experience to students across the country.”

Last week, Centre College, in Danville, Ky., along with Connected Nation and 10/20 Digital announced the GC3 partnership, which aims to integrate technology in the liberal arts campus setting. The Our Voice Our Future event will be the first expression of the partnership by giving students access to powerful political thought leaders and a direct channel for communication among peers about the general election via online technology.

Harvard’s Institute of Politics (IOP) was established in 1966 as a memorial to President Kennedy and aims to inspire undergraduates to consider careers in politics and public service. Centre College’s success hosting the 2000 debate between Dick Cheney and Joe Lieberman was hailed “as close to flawless as humanly possible” by the Associated Press. This year, Centre College is using technology and innovative social media strategies to give high school and post-secondary students from Kentucky and around the world a chance to experience the debate.

The 2012 debate will engage K-12 and post-secondary students from Kentucky and other states in technology-enabled debate focused activities, including:

• The creation of a debate-centered curriculum that can help guide classrooms in civics education lessons. These educational activities will prepare classrooms, teachers, and students to participate in live debate-day events, as well as other GC3-oriented debate opportunities, such as the GC3 debate webpage resources. These activities, along with a live debate-day event, will also assist GC3’S mission to highlight how technology can connect students, teachers, classrooms, and campuses to enhance and improve learning.
• GC3 plans a student-populated round table discussion on the afternoon before the debate takes place. This event will include students drawn from high schools, colleges, and universities participating live and on-line.

GC3 is exploring innovative, technology-driven ways to enhance education for students across the nation with partners 10/20 Digital, an independent broadband consulting firm and affiliate of national non-profit and GC3 partner Connected Nation, by:

• Hosting the Connected Campus Summit on the Centre College campus, which will provide a forum for national educational leaders and administrators to learn and explore leading practices with regard to technology use for effective higher education.
• Establishing a technology laboratory at Centre that will become the operational home of GC3 and where the education community can explore new technologies and applications, providing ample opportunities for technology partners to participate.

Minnesota has a long tradition of online debates. Minnesota E-Democracy was home to some of the first interactive online debates, which I think started in 1994. I know I started participated in 1996. Back then the cutting edge technology was email and email lists, but we got citizens to initiate questions and candidate to answer them and it felt like real-time, even if real-time meant over the course of a day. And it was one of the few times many of us felt that the world was flattening to the point where we could ask a question – and expect and answer.

In 2000, a team from Minnesota spearheaded much of the online outreach for the first online Presidential Debate: Web, White and Blue. In fact some of the curriculum we developed for that project is still available online.

More information added 10/2/2012 based on email from Connect MN:

I want to follow up with you regarding the “Our Voice Our Future- Interactive webcast for students to discuss the 2012 Vice Presidential Debate on October 11th” event for high school and post-secondary students and teachers taking place at 12 noon CST on October 11th via a live, interactive webcast.  This is a non-partisan event aimed at high school and post-secondary students and teachers that will be moderated by Kentucky Educational Television’s Renee Shaw and Kentucky Secretary of State Alison Lundergan Grimes in partnership with Centre College and the Harvard’s Institute of Politics.

Student participants from states across the U.S. will gather to discuss the 2012 Presidential race, the role of debates in American politics, how noteworthy debates have influenced past Presidential campaigns, and topical issues of public policy.  Our Voice Our Future will also showcase and discuss the many ways that technology and social media are helping evolve the way youth in America gather, digest, and share news about public policy and politics.  Students will have the opportunity to submit questions via Twitter and Facebook to a moderated panel and follow the discussion online in addition to the live feed.

The event will take place at 12 noon CST with a total running time of 2 hours, but participants will be able to join and leave within that window. Additionally, Centre College will provide discussion guide materials to help teachers and students prepare for participation in the event.

Centre College, Kentucky’s premier higher education institution, is hosting its second Vice-Presidential Debate in 2012. In 2012, Centre wishes to employ its newly created Global Center for Connected Campuses (GC3) in partnership with Connected Nation to engage high school and post-secondary students from across the nation in technology-enabled debate focused activities and discussion.

Teachers can register for the event online and will receive the discussion guide materials and webcast log-in instructions via a follow-up email.  The event is being offered at no cost to all students and schools regardless of the amount of students that would like to participate.  Additionally we are asking students and classrooms to submit video questions to be a part of the webcast.  Questions should be submitted by October 5th to LHightower@connectednation.org.  The video can be any type or quality and we recommend a short (less than 2 minute) submission using a tablet or smartphone.

Please see the attached flyer or visit http://www.2012vpdebate.com to register and access additional information about the event; and please feel free to share this information with anyone you believe would find it of interest.