AL Fall Child Welfare Conference 2014: Professional & Ethical Use of Social Media in Social Work Practice

Posted By Laurel Hitchcock on Aug 28, 2014

Today I am presenting today at the Thirteenth Annual Fall Social Work Conference sponsored by the University of Alabama’s School of Social Work and the State of Alabama Department of Human Resources in Birmingham, AL.  The purpose of this post is to provide supplemental information for today’s presentation. My session will focus on the need for social workers to be aware of and adept at using social media for professional practice, focusing on knowledge, and values.  The learning objectives for the participants include:

1.Explain why social workers need to understand social media and digital literacy
2.Discuss the knowledge, skills and values associated with professional use of social media
3.Reflect on own use social media in a professional context

Feedback from the summer on Remind, a free messaging service

Posted By Laurel Hitchcock on Aug 21, 2014

About two weeks ago, I finished up an online summer course where I used Remind, a free texting service, to keep students updated about the course. I have previously written about texting with students, and I think it’s a useful tool for social work educators.  I learned about how to use Remind from Dr. Natalie Jones who wrote a blog post for me about her experiences with the service in her online and face-to-face courses.  I was open to trying Remind myself because of research that suggests students who take online courses  highly value course announcements and reminders (Ausburn, 2004). While I frequently respond to students who text me, I was anxious to learn if students would want or appreciate the group text messages.