Review of Teaching & Learning in Social Work Blog Posts for 2016
The end of a year is a natural time for reflection, and this year I offer a review of all the posts that appeared on Teaching & Learning in Social Work Education during 2016. My goal for this blog is to write or publish at least two posts a month, which happened more months than not. I also recruited other social work educators to write about their own experiences in the classroom or with scholarship, and also write about about all of my presentations, either at conferences or as a part of a workshop. This year, I published a total of 25 blog posts, representing work with numerous collaborators and good colleagues. Below is a list of this year’s post grouped around the topics of assignments, projects, guest educator posts, and conference presentations.
Assignments: These blog posts provide information, how-to tips, and ideas about different types of technology-based assignments for the social work classroom:
– Job Shadowing on Twitter with Joy Jones on 1/8/16
– Tweet, Tweet!: Using Live Twitter Chats in Social Work on Education with Dr. Jimmy Young on 1/29/16
– Using #MacroSW in the Classroom with the @OfficialMacroSW Partners on 3/14/16
– Using Pinterest in Undergraduate Social Work Education – #BPDTX16 with Dr. Lisa Baker on 3/31/16
– Revised Technology-Based Learning Task List for Social Work Education with Drs. Melanie Sage and Nancy J. Smyth on 6/13/16
#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.
Teaching & Learning in Social Work by Laurel Iverson Hitchcock is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License
