BPD Technology Committee’s Technology Assessment Checklist for Social Work Practice
Editor’s Note: This blog post was written by myself and my colleague, Dr. Nathalie P. Jones. We have been the co-chairs of the BPD Technology Committee for the past two-years (2017-2019) and served as editors for the Technology Assessment Checklist described and shared in this post.
In response to the growing influence of technology in the lives of individuals and families, the Technology Committee for the Association of Baccalaureate Social Work Program Directors (BPD) has created the Technology Assessment Checklist for Social Work Practice. This tool is designed to help social workers assess clients’ relationships and comfort with technology, including strengths, needs, risks, and challenges. This blog post describes the process used by the BPD Technology Committee to create this list as well as providing a description.
History of the BPD Technology Assessment Checklist
At the 2016 Annual Conference in Dallas, TX, the BPD Technology Committee embarked on a project to help create an assessment tool for social work practitioners and educators related to digital and social technologies. The goal was for the committee members, and others who were interested in the project, to work collaboratively to develop questions that could be used with individuals and families for the purposes of assessing clients’ use and relationships with digital and social technology. After the meeting, a call was put out on the BPD Listserv and a group of ten social workers agreed to assist with creating a technology-based assessment.
Screenshot of map for Technology Assessment Checklist for Social Work Practice
Early on the group modeled the use of technology to create this product. First, brainstorming occurred using the web-based mapping tool, MindMeister. All five of the traditional client systems were added to the map, and then work group started to populate the map. After six months of populating the map, a draft list was compiled and reviewed by work group. It was during this stage in development that the group made the decision to focus just on an assessment tool for individuals and families because the technology strengths and needs of task groups, communities, and organizations were so different. The first list was presented at BPD’s 2017 Annual Conference during the Technology Committee’s Board Sponsored Session in New Orleans. Over 40 people attended the session and provided feedback on the checklist.
Here is the 2017 version of the checklist:
The next step was to revise the checklist. During 2017 and 2018, we used an online collaborative process, using Google Docs, to crowd source the next round of revisions to the Technology Assessment List. The list was uploaded to a Google Doc and access to the digital word document was shared with the group members as well as new individuals who volunteered to help. For this second round of revisions, individuals made direct edits and comments to the checklist to help expand the content areas and standardize the formatting. A sample of the second version was shared at BPD’s 2018 Annual Conference in Atlanta, GA during the Technology Committee’s Board-Sponsored Session. Attendees reviewed the document for feedback, and the BPD Tech Committee Co-Chairs for 2017-2019, Laurel Iverson Hitchcock and Nathalie P. Jones, completed the final editing and formatting for the checklist, which was emailed to the entire BPD listserv on October 5, 2018.
Here is the 2018 version of the Technology Assessment Checklist:
Here is a list of everyone who worked on the BPD Technology Assessment Checklist:
- Becky Anthony, Salisbury University
- Michael Berghoef, Ferris State University
- Ellen Belluomini, Brandman University
- Elise Johnson, California State University, Dominguez Hills and UCLA
- Nathalie P. Jones, Tarleton State University
- Marshelia Harris, Indiana University Northwest
- Laurel Iverson Hitchcock, University of Alabama at Birmingham
- Shelagh Larkin, Xavier University
- Felicia Law Murray, Tarleton State University
- Carlene A. Quinn, Indiana University Bloomington
- Elizabeth M. Rembold, Briar Cliff University
- Melanie Sage, The University at Buffalo
- Todd Sage, The University at Buffalo
- Nancy J. Smyth, The University at Buffalo
- Janet Vizina-Roubal, Ferris State University
Directions for the Checklist
Historically, social workers have been taught to assess the psychosocial well-being of clients in the context of their environment, including relationships with family members, peers, neighbors, and coworkers. With the increasing use of technology in society, it is important for social workers to also consider clients’ relationships and comfort with technology. Such assessments could include client strengths, such as access to particular forms of technology and the ability to use technology for family, work, school, social, recreational, and other purposes. In addition, social workers should consider relevant needs, risks, and challenges, such as clients’ reluctance to use technology; difficulty affording technology; limited computer knowledge or fluency with technology; and the risk of cyberbullying, electronic identity theft, and other behaviors regarding the use of technology.
This assessment checklist also addresses Standard 2.05 of the NASW Technology Standards for Social Work Practice: Assessing Clients’ Relationships with Technology, which reads “When conducting psychosocial assessments with clients, social workers shall consider clients’ views about technology and the ways in which they use technology, including strengths, needs, risks, and challenges.” The goal of this assessment is to help social workers and other practitioners focus on practical issues of technology use across client systems and life span issues. There are seven sections of this assessment checklist:
- Section I: Access to Social & Digital Technology
- Section II: Digital literacy and Comfort of client to use technology
- Section III: Developmentally-based Considerations for Individuals
- Section IV: Intergenerational/Cultural issues
- Section V: Special Populations
- Section VI: Families
- Section VII: Social Worker Technology Self-Assessment
This checklist is not meant to be comprehensive, and a social worker can you use any or all of these questions, in whatever order works best, when conducting an assessment on the use of technology. When using the questions on this checklist, please consider the following:
- Assess for strengths and needs as well as risks and challenges.
- Not every client will have or be aware of the available technology so you may want ask if they use a type of technology before asking about details (i.e. ask if they use email before asking for an email address).
- Although much research about technology use points to associations between mental distress and technology use, (a) the studies are typically correlational; (b) the effect of the correlation is often weak; and (c) the correlation typically occurs with very high rates of screen time, 5 or more non-work/school related hours.
How to cite the checklist:
Hitchcock, L.I. & Jones, N.P (Eds.) (2018). Technology Assessment Checklist for Social Work Practice (Version 2). Washington, DC: BPD Technology Committee, The Association of Baccalaureate Social Work Program Directors.
How to cite this blog post:
Hitchcock, L.I. & Jones, N.P. (2018, October 30). BPD Technology Committee’s Technology Assessment Checklist for Social Work Practice [Blog Post]. Retrieved from: https://laureliversonhitchcock.org/2018/10/30/bpd-technology-committees-technology-assessment-checklist-for-social-work-practice/
