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This conceptual exploration inquires, what is scholarship reconsidered in the age of social media? How ought we to conceptualize social scholarship—a new set of practices being discussed in various disciplines? The paper offers a critical examination of the practical and policy implications of reconsidering scholarship in light of social media's affordances toward a conceptualization of social scholarship. For each dimension of Boyer's original framework, we explain its epistemologies and practices. Next, we take a critical approach to inquiring how each dimension, reconsidered through the lens of social scholarship values and social media affordances, might be envisioned today. This exploration provides concrete examples of how scholars might enact social scholarship with what benefits and challenges.

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Recent events suggest that social media, also called web 2.0, can support mass social change. Although some critics have lamented how social media are eroding people’s ability to communicate, others have argued that social media may allow individuals to leverage their individual voices against authoritarian leaders. This article seeks to understand the ways in which individuals can use a particular social media platform, the microblog Twitter, to learn about the Occupy Wall Street movement. This article uses a mixed-methods approach, incorporating descriptive statistics, content analysis, and a case study of the author’s learning process to examine the existence of informal learning about the Occupy Wall Street movement. Scholars have proposed that informal learning about a social movement is associated with participation in the movement. This study suggests that Twitter supports multiple opportunities for participation in the Occupy movement—from creating, tagging, and sharing content to reading, watching, and following a hashtag—which may facilitate learners becoming more informed, engaged citizens. To help ground this discussion, an overview of the particular social and technical features of Twitter is provided. Second, several key learning theories that seem particularly synergistic with the affordances outlined and a review of the current state of research on learning within Twitter are described. Third, research questions, methods, and findings are presented, and a discussion that describes the implications for civic engagement in the democratic process is included.

Blended learning, which combines online and face-to-face pedagogy, is a fast-growing mode of instruction as universities strive for equitable and alternative pathways to course enrollment, retention, and educational attainment. However, challenges to successfully implementing blended instruction are that social presence, or students' ability to project their personal characteristics into the learning space, is reduced with potential negative effects on student engagement, persistence, and academic achievement. Instructors are experimenting with robotmediated communication (RMC) to address these challenges. Results from a study of RMC at a large public university suggest that it offers advantages over traditionally used videoconferencing, including affordances for fostering students' embodiment in the classroom, their feelings of belonging and trust, and their ability to contribute ideas in authentic ways.