Professional Collaboration Networks for Social Work Practice

Posted By Laurel Hitchcock on Aug 26, 2020

In this post, I am outlining previously published content from this blog about the concept and practice of a Professional Collaboration Network (PCN), which are technology-mediated user-centered relationship constellations designed to enhance or enrich connections, knowledge, and professional opportunities. Using PCNs in social work practice started as an idea at a Think Tank hosted by the University at Buffalo’s School of Social Work in June 2019.  The Think Tank’s goal was to brainstorm how to teach students in their new online Doctorate of Social Program (DSW) program to develop critical stakeholder networks using digital and social technologies.  You will find a summary of each of the five original blog posts, along with a link to the full post. 

Virtual Volunteering for Social Work Education during COVID19

Posted By Laurel Hitchcock on Jul 22, 2020

Each semester, I teach courses with service learning requirements in our BSW program.  As many of you know, service learning combines volunteer work with critical reflection so that students can make connections between real-life experiences and their academic course work.  It is consider a high-impact educational practice in higher education and the pedagogical constructs embedded within service learning are a natural fit for social work education.  Many undergraduate social work programs require volunteer hours for admission into their professional social work programs.  At the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB), our students volunteer for 20 hours as part of a semester-long, one-credit hour lab course, which is connected to a practice course.  While volunteering in community-based settings, our BSW students get experiences with different types of agencies, social problems, client populations, and activities that social workers do on a daily basis.  Then, they bring these experiences back into the classroom to deepen their understanding of generalist social work practice with individuals, groups and organizations.  Students take three service learning lab courses prior to their field semester, which gives them a grounding for what to expect during their field placement along with 60 hours of volunteer experience for their professional development and resume. 

In March 2020, the COVID19 pandemic disrupted our lives and how we teach our courses.  Within the span of a week, I had to shift over 100 students in our three service learning lab courses from doing in-person volunteering at five community locations in the Greater Birmingham area to doing virtual volunteer work. In this blog post, I want to share how I did this and offer resources for social work educators who also need virtual volunteer opportunities for their students. 

Tech-based Assignments for Remote Teaching & Learning in Social Work

Posted By Laurel Hitchcock on Mar 24, 2020

In social work education, we are all trying to figure out how to transition our students, instructors, field supervisors, and courses to remote learning (AKA online course delivery).  This is no small feat given that COVID-19 has affected all of us personally as well as professionally.  Myself, I have been working to create remote volunteering options for over 100 BSW students in three service learning courses (more on that later). 

Over the past few years, I have written about different types of technology-based assignments on this blog, and have asked several other social work educators to share their technology-based learning activities and experiences.  In this post, I am pulling together a list of technology-based assignments that you can use and adapt for your own needs during these strange times.

Being a Social Work Student in the times of COVID-19: One way to share, document & support

Posted By Laurel Hitchcock on Mar 20, 2020

The COVID-19 public emergency is unprecedented and affects our personal and professional lives.  From trying to find diapers and toilet paper to figuring out how to learn remotely as a social work, few of us were prepared for the speed with which this emergency changed our daily lives.  And we have yet to know and understand what things will look like in the next few weeks or months. 

Thus, we are trying to capture this moment in history by harnessing the power of technology for social good. Through short videos posted on Flipgrid (a social learning platform designed for video discussion forums), we are hoping to create community while also collecting stories from social work students.  We hope these stories can help us support and learn from each other during a time of social distancing as well as provide a source of information for future ways to prepare students and educators for these types of crises (i.e. what are the best ways to learn remotely as a social work student or how do I stay connected with my friends and peers from school).  We anticipate that these videos will provide a wealth of information for blogs posts or other scholarship that will inform how social work needs to adapt to complex social problems. This might include qualitative thematic analysis or quotes from posts. Any peer-reviewed content will be anonymized, but please remember that these posts are a form of public social media.

Social Work in the Times of COVID-19: One way to share, document & support

Posted By Laurel Hitchcock on Mar 20, 2020

The COVID-19 public emergency is unprecedented and affects our personal and professional lives.  From trying to find diapers and toilet paper to figuring out how to work remotely with students and colleagues, few of us were prepared for the speed of which this emergency changed our daily lives.  And we have yet to know and understand what things will look like in the next few weeks or months.  

Thus, we are trying to capture this moment in history by harnessing the power of technology for social good.  Through short videos posted on Flipgrid (a social learning platform designed for video discussion forums), we are hoping to create community while also collecting our stories as social workers (practitioners and educators).  We hope these stories can help us support and learn from each other during a time of social distancing as well as provide a source of information for future directions for the profession (i.e. what are the best ways to work remotely as a social worker or what are best practices for transitioning learning to online environments).  We anticipate that these videos will provide a wealth of information for blogs posts or other scholarship that will inform how social work needs to adapt to complex social problems. This might include qualitative thematic analysis or quotes from posts. Any peer-reviewed content will be anonymized, but please remember that these posts are a form of public social media.