The Power of Lighting in a Virtual Classroom: Tips on Improving Webcam Lighting for Online Educators
Editor’s Note: Agata Dera, MSW, is an Associate and Live Support Specialist with the Columbia School of Social Work’s (CSSW) Online Campus, where she works with social work faculty and students in online courses to optimize the digital learning environment. In this post, she provides insight on how online educators can put their best foot forward during live sessions through lighting. I first met Agata when I participated in CSSW’s Institute on Pedagogy and Technology for Online Courses last summer. You can read more about my experiences with the Institute in this post. In full disclosure, Agata did review and assess my ability to use lighting in a virtual classroom. All I can say is that I passed.
My primary responsibility is to provide technical support to the Columbia School of Social Work’s (CSSW) online community. My goal is to ensure that technology is considered as a tool rather than a barrier in online education. Also, as an alumni of this program, I am so proud to be a part of a virtual campus that is so committed to the quality of online learning by utilizing technological advancements.
One of the ways in which we ensure that our program is at the highest quality is by educating our community about the importance of great lighting when presenting on a webcam. Good lighting is one of the core elements of a successful on-camera performance for any online educator. It is part of our ongoing effort to create engaging, enlightening and innovative online courses in the most effective way possible.
Using Twitter at a Professional Conference
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 the use of Twitter at professional conferences as a way to share your insights and extend the reach of the conference sessions.
This is the fourth blog post in a series on using Twitter to create Professional Collaboration Networks (PNCs). Previous posts included:
- What is a Professional Collaboration Network (PCN) & why do you need one?
- Twitter for your Professional Collaboration Network (PCN)
- How do you do relational Twitter?: Developing your Professional Collaboration Network
In this blog post, we discuss how Twitter can be used at a professional social work conference. There are at least two important reasons why tweeting at conferences is a valuable practice. First, attending conferences requires resources and time. Not everyone has the ability to attend all conferences, and one person certainly cannot attend all of the conferences that interest them. By tweeting from a conference, participants can share what they learned in sessions with anyone who is interested. Not only does this extend the reach of the knowledge shared at a conference, it makes content accessible to individuals and groups who might not be able to attend. Curating all the tweets from a conference can create an informal transcript of the happenings at a conference from multiple points of view. Second, tweeting at a conference allows an individual another way to network and meet people. Creating a public list of individuals and groups on Twitter who are attending the conference can supplement a stack of business cards and allow you to engage with more people during and after the conference. Alternatively, if you can’t attend a conference, you can follow the tweets of users who are at the conference and reply with your questions. There are even some conferences that occur only on Twitter (check out @Biotweeps).Third, it can increase your visibility in a particular subject area. For example, if you are presenting at the conference, you have the opportunity to share a photo and information from your session. The suggestions in this post come from the real life experiences of the authors as well as recommendations gleaned from articles written about conference tweeting.
How do you do relational Twitter?: Developing your Professional Collaboration Network
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
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:
Teaching & Learning in Social Work by Laurel Iverson Hitchcock is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License
