#SWDE2019 – A Toolkit for Social and Digital Media Policies in Field Education
It is the second day of the 2019 Social Work Distance Education Conference and at 10 AM, I’ll be in the Peraux Room of the St. Anthony Hotel to share our poster about the Social Media Toolkit for Field Educators. This is a project I have been working on with Allison Curington (University of Alabama), Mary Jacque Carroll (University of Alabama at Birmingham),and Robin Snider (Jacksonville State University). The poster will provide both information and tools that field directors can use to guide curricular development of learning approaches and assessment strategies to achieve practice outcomes. Participants will learn how to access the Social Media Toolkit for Field Educators, a free resource with educator’s guide and a PowerPoint slide deck.
If you can’t make it to the poster, I am included all the important details in this blog post.
First, you can access your own free copy of the Social Media Toolkit for Field Educators here:
https://laureliversonhitchcock.org/2018/11/05/revised-social-media-toolkit/
Second, here is a copy of the poster:
Finally, here is our conference proposal including all the references:
While social media are a topic of conversation in many educational and practice arenas, social work professionals are often not engaged in the social media conversation loop and unclear about the influence of social media in the lives of 21st century employees and organizations. There are several reasons why social work educators and professionals are not having these conversations or engaging with social and digital technologies. These include generational differences, lack of technology resources, lack of training with technology (technological competency), lack of best practice guidelines or organizational/institution policy and ethical concerns (Brady, McLeod, & Young, 2015; Goldkind & Wolf, 2015; Kimball & Kim, 2013).
Field Directors are in a precarious position when it comes to navigating discourse on social and digital media. The traditional role of Field Directors/field office is to liaison between the educational institution and the practice world. While this role has always been tenuous in balancing the competing demands of entities, best practice and slow changing systems have been the foundation for field directors. Most difficult for field educators is the lack of best practice clarity and the rapidly changing context of social and digital media (Sage & Sage, 2015). In addition, field directors are being faced with many ethical challenges presented by student’s use of social media in field. Further, the social work literature and professional social work organizations have been slow to provide updated guidance in the form of best practice and standards to help navigate (Berzin Singer & Chan, 2015; Hitchcock & Battista, 2012; NASW & ASWB, 2005).
Field Directors have an opportunity to begin to shape the professional landscape of social and digital media in social work and higher education. The role as liaison between the educational and practice realm places field directors in a position of influence in both policy development and practice. In order to maximize their role, field directors must first grapple with their own understanding of social media as it relates to ethics and social work practice. Field Directors also have an opportunity to develop best practice or policy for their institution, program or field office.
This poster will provide both information and tools that field directors can use to help them begin to develop address the ethical and practical issues related to the use of social and digital media in field education. Specifically, the presenters will review how a field director can develop their own professional social media policy, and how to help with students and field supervisors on developing their own policies. Additionally, the presenters will share examples of course and field activities that can be implemented with students to increase understanding of the professional and ethical use of social and digital media in social work practice, and provide participants to access with the Social Media Toolkit for Field Educators, a free resource with educator’s guide and a PowerPoint slide deck.
References:
Berzin, S. C., Singer, J. B., & Chan, C. (2015). Practice Innovation through Technology in the Digital Age: A Grand Challenge (Grand Challenges for Social Work Initiative, No. Working Paper No. 12). Cleveland, OH: American Academy of Social Work & Social Welfare. Retrieved from: http://aaswsw.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/WP11-with-cover.pdf
Brady, S. R., McLeod, D. A., & Young, J. A. (2015). Developing Ethical Guidelines for Creating Social Media Technology Policy in Social Work Classrooms. Advances in Social Work, 16(1), 43–54.
Goldkind, L., & Wolf, L. (2015). A digital environment approach: Four technologies that will disrupt social work practice. Social Work, 60(1), 85–87.
Hitchcock, L. I., & Battista, A. (2013). Social Media for Professional Practice: Integrating Twitter with Social Work Pedagogy. Journal of Baccalaureate Social Work, 18, 33–45.
Kimball, E., & Kim, J. (2013). Virtual Boundaries: Ethical Considerations for Use of Social Media in Social Work. Social Work, 58(2), 185–188.
National Association of Social Workers (2017). Standards for Technology and Social Work Practice. Retrieved from https://www.socialworkers.org/practice/standards/naswtechnologystandards.pdf
Sage, M., & Sage, T. (2015). Social media and E-professionalism in child welfare: Policy and practice. Journal of Public Child Welfare, 1–17.
How to Cite this Blog Post: Hitchcock, L.I. (2019, April 11). #SWDE2019 – A Toolkit for Social and Digital Media Policies in Field Education [Blog Post]. Retrieved from:
https://laureliversonhitchcock.org/2019/04/11/swde2019-a-toolkit-for-social-and-digital-media-policies-in-field-education/
