Review of Teaching & Learning in Social Work for 2019
It is that time of year again – the annual review of the Teaching & Learning in Social Work Blog. This will be my fourth year reflecting on the work of this blog; the first end of the year post was in 2016. This year, I am thinking more about my motivation for starting and maintaining this blog for the past seven years. As I think back on why I started Teaching & Learning in Social Work, I’d have to say I wanted to be a more confident writer. Academic writing is not easy. This blog helped me to find my academic voice while allowing me to experiment with writing. I try to be personable in the posts I write, using plain language and concise phrasing. While I can say I am more comfortable with my professional writing, the greatest benefit to this blog is having space to share my work and the work of others in a very non-traditional space. Publishing is a peer-reviewed journal is currency for academics, and it is a narrow, rigid, and polished way to share one’s work. By writing blog posts about my work early in the process, I can share with a wider audience including students, social work practitioners and professionals from other fields. I can also as publish work that may never find a home as a journal article, but is still of value to others. For example, I write frequently about my assignments and classroom activities on this blog. I also post information about my conference presentations here so others can easily reference the materials. Overall, I can say with confidence that writing and publishing Teaching & Learning in Social Work has truly be beneficial and motivating for my academic writing.
For 2019, I had three goals for improving the blog:
#1 – Write or publish 30 blog posts (Publish 10 guest educators/students blog posts and write at least 12 blog posts about topics other than conference presentations). Twenty-eight blog posts were written or published in 2019 (93% completed). Of these posts, 12 were written by guest educators/students (100% completed). I wrote 17 blog posts this year with 9 of them focusing on topics other than conference presentations (100% and 75% completed respectively).
#2 – Enhance the reach of the blog (Increase number of blog subscribers and share the posts more widely such as on Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, BPD Listserv, etc.). By the end of 2018, I had just over 100 subscribers (110) and as of the writing of this blog post, there are 169 subscribers. This is an increase of 59 readers (54% increase). In terms of sharing the posts more widely, I did share every blog post on Twitter and LinkedIn. I did not share all the posts on FaceBook (this is still more of a personal digital space for me) nor with the BPD Listserv. I have mixed thoughts about sharing these posts on the BPD Listserv as it seems too self-serving, but I really should have shared all of the guest educator posts there. Note to self for 2020!
#3 – Create a culture of engagement and feedback for the blog-Increase the number of comments on blog posts (Write or publish on at least three topics based on feedback). There were 21 total comments on blog posts in 2019, which is a huge success as I have no idea what my baseline is from 2018. For writing or publishing on feedback, there were several posts about grading in 2019 and I wrote about #SWTech Community based on feedback from peers. As I look back over these goals, I am feeling pretty good about the progress. I didn’t quite meet everything, but I did significantly better than 2018. Here is a list of all the blog posts written in 2019:
My blog posts:
- Changing my grading practices in 2019: Tips for #SocWorkEd (1/11/19)
- #SWTech: The Beginnings of an Online Community (3/31/19)
- Reviewing my 2019 grading practices for #SocWorkEd – Part 2 (5/27/19)
- #SWTech – An Introduction and History of the Online Group (8/15/19) with Melanie Sage, Jonathan Singer & Nancy J. Smyth
- Three Ways to Model Good Boundaries with Technology in Social Work Ed (9/2/19)
- Teaching Social Work with Digital Technology Book Group (9/23/19) with Melanie Sage & Nancy Smyth
- Reflections from the Summer 2019 Institute on Pedagogy and Technology for Online Courses (11/19/19)
- What is a Professional Collaboration Network (PCN) & why do you need one? (12/17/19)
Guest Educator/Student Posts:
- List of Podcasts for Social Work (1/30/19) by Melanie Sage
- Using Rubrics to provide Strength-based Feedback for Social Work Assignments (2/4/19) by Kristen Samuels
- Becoming an awesome adjunct professor in social work (4/23/19) by Patricia (Trish) Desrosiers
- ‘App’- lying the digital in social work… Or why we should not be teaching the same way for 20 years (6/4/19) by Denise Turner
- Consciously Connecting and Proactively Collaborating: The CoActEd Learner Mapping Tool in #SocWorkEd (6/11/19) by Amanda Taylor-Beswick
- Sharing power with students by seeking their input on a grading rubric (6/19/19) by Matthea Marquart & Elise Verdooner
- Your Devices are Welcome!: How to Handle Technology in the Social Work Classroom (6/26/19) by Stephanie Hamm
- Preparing social work students for the licensure exam: An online intervention (7/24/19) by Stephen Cummings
- 360-degree immersive video apps: Why you should create meaningful research-based digital resources to engage learners (7/31/19) by Tarsem Singh Cooner
- Digital Advocacy in the Social Work Classroom: Students speaking out online (8/7/19) by Julia Kleinschmit and Breanne Benson
- Tips for New Online Social Work Educators (8/21/19) by Melissa Thompson & Nathalie P. Jones.
- #APM19 The Flip(grid) Classroom: Utilizing the Microsoft app Flipgrid to promote student learning (10/21/19) by Katie MaClain-Meeder, Michael Lynch, Todd Sage and Margie Quartley
Conference Presentations:
- #SWDE2019 – Incorporating Technology into Social Justice Assignments for Social Work Education (4/10/19) with Melanie Sage & Nancy J. Smyth
- #SWDE2019 – A Toolkit for Social and Digital Media Policies in Field Education (4/11/19) with Allison Curington, Mary Jacque Carroll & Robyn Snider
- #SWDE 2019 – Imagining Social Work Education into the Future: Skills for Social Justice in a Technology-Mediated World (4/13/19) with Melanie Sage & Ellen Belluomini
- #SWDE2019 Keynote – What role will Social Workers choose in shaping the digital future? (4/13/19) with Melanie Sage & Nancy J. Smyth
- Conference Presentation: Developing a Professional & Ethical Online Presence for Social Work Practice (10/2/19) with Allison Curington
- #APM19 – Building Capacity for International Field Placements: A Program Development Checklist (10/24/19) with Colleen Fisher, Mary Jacque Carroll & Stacy Moak
- #APM19 – Evolving the Signature Pedagogy with the Social Media Toolkit for Field Educators (10/22/19) with Allison Curington, Mary Jacque Carroll & Robyn Snider
- #APM19 – Changing Teaching Practices for Technology: Using the SAMR Model for Technology Integration (10/22/19) with Melanie Sage & Nancy Smyth
After a little reflection, here are my 2020 goals for the Teaching and Learning in Social Work Blog:
1. Write or publish 30 blog posts (Publish 10 guest educator/student blog posts and write at least 12 blog posts about topics other than conference presentations)
2. Enhance the reach of the blog (Increase number of blog subscribers and track the analytics for the blog – number of visitors, most visited page, etc.)
3. Build a culture of engagement and feedback for the blog (Increase the number of comments on blog posts and write or publish on at least three topics based on feedback)
4. Publish content from the blog in other venues (Incorporate content from blog post into at least one work published in a peer-reviewed journal and write or publish from this blog to at least two other social work blogs)
Any thoughts on these goals? Please send me a tweet (@laurelhitchcock) or submit a comment this post if you have an idea for future blog posts. Happy New Year!
How to cite this post:
Hitchcock, L. I. (2019, December 26). Review of Teaching & Learning in Social Work Blog Posts for 2019 [Blog Post]. Retrieved from Teaching & Learning in Social Work Blog: https://laureliversonhitchcock.org/2019/12/26/review-of-teaching-learning-in-social-work-for-2019/
