King of social media and information science professor Anthony Rotolo connected Syracuse University to the rest of the world.

He made SU a Facebook page, a Twitter account, established a Foursquare partnership and now he’s made himself a name — by being awarded Young Technologist of the Year by the Technology Alliance of Central New York.

The Technologist of the Year Award is given out to technologists under the age of 35 who display exceptional technological skills and work to expand technology use as much as possible. Founded in 1903, the award works to enhance and develop the growth of information and technological appreciation within the Central New York community, according to the alliance’s website.

Rotolo first began teaching at SU in 2006. His background allowed him to become SU’s first social media strategist, and in 2010, he developed a plan with a team of students and faculty from the School of Information Studies to put the university on everything from Facebook to Twitter to enhance student experience and reach out to alumni, he said.

‘SU went from having zero social media and zero social presence to being ranked second among national universities that use it, behind Stanford and ahead of Harvard,’ Rotolo said. ‘And by applying social media strategies in my class, we were able to make Syracuse a leader rather than a school that’s struggling.’

Rotolo, who teaches a course on social media and its influence on society, is most known for getting students involved in class through Twitter and blogging. He decided that Twitter specifically would be a good way to communicate with the class, and came up with the hashtag #rotoloclass, he said.

‘No matter what I’m doing, Twitter’s on my screen. If they tweet in my class it goes right on the screen,’ Rotolo said. ‘IPads, mobile phones, laptops, it doesn’t matter, whatever they want they can use.’

Alyssa Henry, a teaching assistant for the course, said that Twitter specifically increases student engagement in the course.

‘Outside of class, the use of Twitter and the hashtag allows students to continue communicating with each other,’ she said.

The hashtag for Rotolo’s class has expanded to people outside SU, such as practitioners of social media or companies talked about in class that want to chime into class discussion, Rotolo said.

‘We talk about GM, and people from GM started talking with us live, and that kind of thing doesn’t happen. Andy Carvin from NPR showed how he uses Twitter to report on the Arab spring,’ Rotolo said. ‘We Skyped them in, and that allows people to follow along with guest speakers, which is a cool aspect of the class.’

David Rosen, a graduate student at the iSchool, took Rotolo’s classes as an undergraduate. He said he still goes and visits the class to hear from Rotolo and guest speakers. He believes using Twitter in the classroom has several benefits.

‘Twitter enables every student to have his or her opinions heard, even if they are not willing to raise their hand to share verbally,’ he said. ‘It also enables others who are not in the class to still participate in discussions.’

Elizabeth Liddy, dean of the iSchool, said she goes to many of his classes because they are so popular and he brings in famous people, such as Andy Cohen.

‘It gets streamed out live, and thousands of people internationally watch his class,’ she said. ‘He’s been quoted in USA Today, The New York Times and ABC — people look at him to see what’s going on in social media.’

Liddy said she is proud of Rotolo and that he is very deserving of the Young Technologist of the Year Award.

‘We’re very pleased and very proud,’ Liddy said. ‘He’s a grad of our school who came back, is very inspirational to the students and very involved in what’s happening in the real world.’

Another one of Rotolo’s popular classes is his Star Trek course. While on Twitter, Rotolo said he saw that fewer than 30 professionals were complaining that some of their supervisors wouldn’t give them a chance to lead projects. Rotolo mentioned a similar scenario from ‘Star Trek: The Next Generation,’ in which a young person wasn’t able to lead a mission.

People on Twitter then reached out to Rotolo and said he should teach a course on Star Trek’s relation to life today. The class is geared toward any students as an elective and compares examples from Star Trek and clips from episodes to the technology and information age today. Students take part in unique projects and learn not only technical skills, but also leadership skills, Rotolo said.

‘Professor Rotolo’s class doesn’t just teach students how to use social media for themselves; it teaches them how to use it professionally for an organization,’ Henry said. ‘I think that’s one of the things that makes it unique, and those skills give students a huge advantage in their job and internship searches. It’s become a must-take class at SU because it’s fun and informative.’

Rotolo has been traveling across the country performing a ‘Social Media 101′ tour, in which he presents businesses and companies with new ways to advance and achieve their goals through social media. He no longer is the university’s social media director, allowing him to devote his time to teaching. SU has instead institutionalized its social media department and hired a new director, Kate Brodock, Rotolo said.

‘It was an honor to get the award,’ Rotolo said. ‘TACNY does a lot of great things for science technology, and for someone that teaches college students who stay the same age while I don’t, winning a ‘young award’ is great.’

meltagou@syr.edu

Published on September 28, 2011 at 12:00 pm

Contact Marwa: meltagou@syr.edu | @marwaeltagouri