About

I started the Teaching & Learning in Social Blog back in 2013 as a way to share my teaching practices and to improve my writing.  At the time, I was working at a public, liberal arts college in Alabama as the Director of a small, undergraduate Social Work Educational Program.  I wanted to share what I was doing in the classroom because I knew how hard it was for other faculty teaching in undergraduate social work programs around the United States – always moving from one class to the next and hustling to bring the best quality resources to students.  My goals were modest, and I quickly learned to partner with colleagues who were also doing great work in the classroom by inviting them to write guest educators posts.  Later, I realized this blog was also a great space  to share information from my conference presentations such as slides and handouts.  Today, the purpose of this blog is to write about my work with social work students students, creating a record of different pedagogical approaches, success stories (and failures) and new ideas.  I frequently publish about how digital and social technologies can be leveraged for good in social work education.  You can review previous blog posts in the following ways:

About Me

I’m an Associate Professor and the Baccalaureate Social Work (BSW) Program Director in the Department of Social Work at the University of Alabama at Birmingham.  From 1998 – 2004, my time in social work practice was spent working with, supervising and training case managers and  social workers.   I am licensed clinical social worker, and hold degrees in psychology, public health, and social work. 

As a social work educator, I work with undergraduate social works students and believe in the value and contribution of generalist trained social workers to our communities and social service agencies. 

My scholarly interests include social work education (interprofessional education and other high-impact pedagogies such as service learning, simulation and study abroad), technology and social work, social welfare history and public health social work.  Here is a link to my Google Scholar profile. You can connect with me on Twitter and LinkedIn. 

All opinions and thoughts expressed here are my own and do not reflect opinions held by the University at Alabama at Birmingham.

Here is a more detailed bio: 

Dr. Laurel Iverson Hitchcock is an Associate Professor of Social Work and the BSW Program Director at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. She completed her PhD in Social Work at the University of Alabama in 2009, and has a Masters in Public Health from the University of Alabama at Birmingham (’96), and a Masters in Social Work from the University of Alabama (’98). She has been a Licensed Independent Clinical Social Worker (LICSW) in Alabama since 2000. Dr. Hitchcock has over ten years of experience as a social worker in the areas of health care and community mental health. Prior to her career in social work, Dr. Hitchcock served as a Peace Corp Volunteer in Senegal, West Africa (’91-’93), and as an AmeriCorps Volunteer with the Jefferson County Department of Public Health’s Healthy Start Program in Birmingham, AL (’94-’95).   Her research and pedagogical interests include social work education, technology and social media, social welfare history and public health social work. Her current research projects include an examination of simulation in social work education; the effectiveness of technology-infused assignments in social work courses; and the role of technology in social work education.  In 2012, Dr. Hitchcock received the SAGE/CSWE Award for Innovative Teaching for her work incorporating social media into social work pedagogy.  She is the co-director for the Institute for Healthy Engagement and Resilience with Technology  (iHeartTech) at the University at Buffalo’s School of Social Work.