How do you do relational Twitter?: Developing your Professional Collaboration Network

Posted By Laurel Hitchcock on Feb 14, 2020

Editor’s Note: This post is one in a series about how technology can be used to develop and sustain one’s professional network.  The idea for this post came from a think tank hosted by the University at Buffalo’s School of Social Work in June 2019, looking for a way to teach students in their new online Doctorate of Social Program (DSW) program about how to develop key stakeholder networks in relation to a substantive topic area. In this series, we are exploring the concept of a Professional Collaboration Network (PCN), which are technology-mediated user-centered relationship constellations designed to enhance or enrich connections, knowledge, and professional opportunities.  This post covers how you can develop and nurture professional relationships with Twitter.

This is the third blog post in a series on using Twitter to create Professional Collaboration Networks (PNCs).  Previous posts defined PCNs and discussed the value of Twitter as a network and how it can benefit lifelong learning, and shared some best practices. There are many professional reasons for being on Twitter, including disseminating one’s own work, announcing happenings, seeking help, and learning from others. To be successful in most of these tasks, you need to be plugged into a social network of people who are motivated to share your work. This post addresses how one moves from using Twitter to follow others and announce your work to developing real relationships with the real people at the keyboards.

This post is built from real-life experience of the amazing professional experiences and friendships that can come from the effective use of PCNs.  About six years ago, I (Melanie, the first author of this post) connected with a small group of social workers who were using Twitter, which led me to connect with folks like Jonathan Singer (@socworkpodcast) who I went on to present and write book chapters with, and Laurel Hitchcock and Nancy Smyth, with whom I spent three years writing the book Teaching Social Work with Digital Technology. Beyond these meaningful work products, social work relationships on Twitter have evolved into sharing meals, spending time in each other’s homes, and splitting Airbnb’s at social work conferences across the nation. Not to mention people I can lean on, and am happy to support on good and hard days.

A Collection of Resources for New and Emerging Field Directors

Posted By Laurel Hitchcock on Feb 7, 2020

Editor’s Note: The idea for this blog post came from the listserv of the Association of Baccalaureate Social Work Program Directors.  With over a 1000 subscribers, this listserv gets a lot of action from social work educators, frequently asking for resources or best practices.  In January 2020, a discussion thread came up about resources for social workers who were new directors of field education. I reached out to Kristen Samuels, the Director of Field Education at the University of Phoenix, and who has written posts for this blog in the past.  She graciously agreed to pull together a list of her favorite resources for field education.

As I transitioned into being a Field Director a few years ago, I had a great deal of anxiety over performing the role well and meeting the expectations of what seemed like an endless list of stakeholders. Although I had experience across many roles in Social Work Field Education, including coordinator, liaison, field instructor, and field faculty, the role of Field Director came with a steep learning curve. I had so many questions about how to manage the complex and competing demands of the role (Buck, Bradley, Robb & Kirzner, 2012), and found comfort in a few particular resources. Below is a compilation of a few of the resources I found most helpful in easing my transition. If you are new to leading the Field Education component of a Social Work program, these are a few ideas on where to start learning more about the Field Director position beyond your immediate university setting. 

Training

One helpful resource was an online training series developed by the Council on Social Work Education (CSWE) called Managing a Field Education Program: A Training for New Field Directors. The training was developed by a group of industry leaders with helpful content about the primary roles and responsibilities of a Field Director. For the $150 registration fee, you receive: 

Twitter for your Professional Collaboration Network (PCN)

Posted By Laurel Hitchcock on Jan 31, 2020

Editor’s Note: This post is one in a series about how technology can be used to develop and sustain one’s professional network.  The idea for this post came from a think tank hosted by the University at Buffalo’s School of Social Work in June 2019, looking for a way to teach students in their new online Doctorate of Social Program (DSW) program about how to develop key stakeholder networks in relation to a substantive topic area. In this series, we are exploring the concept of a Professional Collaboration Network (PCN), which are technology-mediated user-centered relationship constellations designed to enhance or enrich connections, knowledge, and professional opportunities.  This post covers how you can use Twitter to create and support your PCN.

In light of our living in a time of rapid technological change and our professional mandate to keep up-to-date with the advances in our field, (Council on Social Work Education, 2015; National Association of Social Workers, 2018), social workers may benefit from building a professional collaboration network (PCN). We previously defined what a Professional Collaboration Network is this blog post: What is a professional collaboration network and why do you need one? 

In essence, a PCN is created by social workers who connect with other professionals online for the purpose of learning and exchanging information. Prior to the ubiquitous use of the internet, professionals would typically keep up with the latest developments in their field via networking with their peers at conferences and continuing education opportunities, as well as via printed newsletters, magazines and trade publications. Nowadays, there are many technological tools to facilitate interactions with individuals across different disciplines, states or the world. PCNs typically include various online communities such as Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, social bookmarking sites and more.   

Podcast Assignment for the Social Work Classroom

Posted By Laurel Hitchcock on Jan 15, 2020

Editor’s Note: This blog post shares information about a podcast assignment developed and implemented in multiple social work classrooms over the past year.  This assignment is a collaboration between myself and Melanie Sage, Todd Sage & Michael Lynch of the University at Buffalo’s School of Social Work.  We share a copy of the assignment and rubric along with information about why social work educators might want to try this assignment in their own classroom.

Podcasts are now a well-known part of social work education.  With so many different types of social work podcasts, it is easy for an educator to assign a podcast instead of an article, asking students to listen instead of reading.  Examples of podcasts designed specifically for social work include:

• The Social Work Podcast by Dr. Jonathan Singer

• inSocial Work Podcast Series by the University at Buffalo’s School of Social Work

For a more comprehensive list of podcasts, check out this blog post written by one of us (Melanie):

• List of Podcasts for Social Work

Briefly, a podcast is an audio file made available on the Internet for downloading to a portable media player, computer, or other device.  Podcasts are easy to create and do not require many technical skills which making the technology a good fit for student assignment and for faculty who do not have a lot of technology experience.  One of us (Laurel) has been using and writing about podcast assignments for several years.  Here are links to a series of posts she wrote back in 2014 when she first started using podcasts in her classroom:

What is a Professional Collaboration Network (PCN) & why do you need one?

Posted By Laurel Hitchcock on Dec 17, 2019

Editor’s Note: This is the first in a series of blog posts about how technology can be used to develop and sustain one’s professional network.  The idea for this post came from a think tank hosted by the University at Buffalo’s School of Social Work in June 2019, that I attended along with the other authors of this post. Our goal at this think tank was to brainstorm how to teach students in their new online Doctorate of Social Program (DSW) program about how to develop key stakeholder networks using digital and social technologies. In this series, we are exploring the concept of a Professional Collaboration Network (PCN), which are technology-mediated user-centered relationship constellations designed to enhance or enrich connections, knowledge, and professional opportunities. This post covers the “whys” and “whats” of a PCN.

Social media and other forms of digital technologies are ubiquitous tools for communication in the 21st century, including in the lives of clients and communities served by social workers. It is clear technological tools are being used to create and maintain relationships when a third of America’s marriages now start online (Cacioppo, Cacioppo, Gonzaga, Ogburn, & VanderWeele, 2013), and 69% of internet users utilize social media, 74% of those daily (Pew Research, 2018). Social work professionals need to understand how these tools work, and learn to use them for creating and maintaining professional relationships with colleagues, communities, and the vulnerable populations served by the profession, and disseminating information to communities of interest.