#APM16 Day 3 -Incorporating Digital & Social Technologies into Social Work Education
This is Day 2 of CSWE’s 2016 Annual Program Meeting, and it will be a busy day. One of the highlights for me will be presenting as part of panel of other #swtech educators – Drs. Melanie Sage (University of North Dakota), Jonathan B. Singer (Loyola University & The Social Work Podcast) and Nancy J. Smyth (University at Buffalo, SUNY). Our panel discussion is about how to how to infuse social and digital technologies into social work courses and curricula. Topics will focus on digital literacy, using theory to inform the integration of technology into online courses, and creating assignments and learning activities for social work courses that incorporate technology.
Revised Technology-Based Learning Task List for Social Work Education
Back in April 2016, Melanie Sage, Nancy Smyth, and I first shared a list of technology-based learning activities that we developed based on Council on Social Work Education’s Social Work Competencies from the 2015 Educational Policy and Accreditation Standards (EPAS). The purpose of this list is to help social educators infuse learning about and with technology across the social work curriculum. We have updated our list to keep with the evolving understanding of how to apply CSWE’s 2015 EPAS. Here are the main features of the list:
– Over 100 different example assignments and learning tasks with brief directions that can be incorporated into social work courses across the curriculum.
– Assignments are designed to encourage students to share their work with a class/seminar or practicum field instructor.
– For assessment purposes, each assignment and learning task is grouped by competency and component behaviors, and then labelled with the relevant competency dimensions using the following key: K = Knowledge; V=Values; S= Skills; and CA = Cognitive and Affective Processes.
You can access the new version of the list here: Technology-Based Learning Task List for Social Work Education (Version 1.1 – 6/13/16)
#SWDE2016 Teaching & Learning Professional Social Work Skills w/ Twitter
On Day Two of the Social Work Distance Education Conference, I will be presenting a workshop about the work Jimmy Young and I have done with Twitter in the classroom. If you are at the conference today, please join me in the B& O Room at 3:45 PM for the workshop. Our work focuses on the growing awareness that Twitter, a micro-blogging social media platform, can be a valuable tool in social work education to help students develop and practice social work competencies. This workshop will inform participants about the development, implementation and assessment of different assignments using Twitter for teaching social welfare policy and macro social work practice. Sample assignments, practical tips and a demonstration of Twitter will be provided to participants. The learning objectives for the workshop include:
1.Understand how the social media platform Twitter can be incorporated into assignments for social work courses to advance learning of the profession’s competencies.
2. Demonstrate how social work educators can assess attainment of competency among students using a social media assignment paired with a rubric for evaluation of the assignment’s learning outcomes.
3. Appreciate the role of professional collaboration in the development, implementation and assessment of social media-based assignments.
Here are some of the resources from the workshop:
Prezi Slides – Teaching & Learning Professional Social Work Skills w/ Twitter Workshop
How to Participate in a Live Twitter Chat – Tips for Social Workers
#SWDE2016 Incorporating Digital & Social Technologies into Social Work Education
Today is the Day 1 of the Second Annual Social Work Distance Education Conference, and I am lucky enough to be presenting with Drs. Melanie Sage (University of North Dakota) and Nancy J. Smyth (University of Buffalo, SUNY) about how to incorporate digital and social technologies into social work education. Our workshop will inform participants about the mechanics as well as the advantages and disadvantages of incorporating digital and social technologies assignments into social work courses. Topics to be covered include the importance of digital literacy and how to use theory to inform the integration of technology into their online courses. Participants will learn about example assignments and learning activities for social work courses that incorporating digital and social media such as microblogging, designing infographics, and creating a video. By the end of the workshop, participants will:
1. Understand the importance of digital literacy in 21st century social work practice.
2. Demonstrate how digital and social technologies can be incorporated into assignments for social work courses.
3. Appreciate the role of theory to support the development and implementation of technology-based assignments.
Here is a link to the slides from the workshop: https://www.slideshare.net/secret/8jgUUNwPcTPt46.
We also shared the following handout: Technology-Based Learning Task List for Social Work Education.
Educational Outcomes for Live Tweeting with Students
My first article of 2016 is co-authored with my good colleague, Jimmy Young from California State University San Marcos, and is about using live tweeting with social work students. Here is a link to the article (with free access for the first 50 copies): Tweet, Tweet!: Using Live Twitter Chats in Social Work Education.
First, I want to thank my colleagues with #MacroSW Chat. Their support and willingness to collaborate helped to make this assignment and study possible.
We conducted a small pilot study to see what our students thought about using Twitter in the classroom. Jimmy and I have long supported the use of social media in social work education as a tool for professional development. When students know how to use social media as a professional social worker, they will have a better understanding of the role of social and digital media in the life of 21st Century social workers, including the benefits of creating professional learning networks and the pitfalls of potential ethical dilemmas.
Job Shadowing on Twitter
I’m always looking for a new way to incorporate Twitter into my social work courses. So I was pleased when my colleague Joy Jones with UAB’s Career and Professional Services suggested a new idea to me – a virtual job shadowing experience on Twitter. The event goes like this – a professional agrees to tweet about her job during a set date and time, students can follow along via Twitter, and then tweet back questions or comments to the professional. Similar to a live twitter chat, students can use a computer, tablet or mobile device from anywhere, offering flexibility and the opportunity to engage with others who are also following the job shadowing. Joy had all the details worked out for an event including the job shadowing candidate, logistics, and a hashtag. All I had to do was recruit the students. I offered it as an extra credit opportunity for students in my two classes last semester.
The event happened on 11/18/15 from 1 – 5 pm with Madison Darling from Blanket Fort Hope, a local non-profit agency in Alabama fighting child human trafficking. Madison agreed to tweet every 30 minutes about what she was doing that day and answer questions from students as frequently as possible. We had about fifteen participants total, along with myself and Joy. Questions ranged from “what is like working with children” to “how do I volunteer with your agency.” Madison and one of her colleagues did a great job answering questions and sharing about their agency and their job duties. Not only were my students able to network with professionals, a connection was created between my academic department, our campus career services and a community partner. Click here for a link to the transcript from the event, where you can read the tweets.
Joy and I will working on more of job shadowing events in the coming semester, and here are some suggestions I have for other social work faculty interested in hosting a similar event and/or incorporating this type of job shadowing into a learning activity:
Teaching & Learning in Social Work by Laurel Iverson Hitchcock is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License
Laurel Hitchcock
Photo Credit: Jared Bash
