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.
Twitter for your Professional Collaboration Network (PCN)
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
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):
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:
Review of Teaching & Learning in Social Work for 2019
It is that time of year again – the annual review of the Teaching & Learning in Social Work Blog. This will be my fourth year reflecting on the work of this blog; the first end of the year post was in 2016. This year, I am thinking more about my motivation for starting and maintaining this blog for the past seven years. As I think back on why I started Teaching & Learning in Social Work, I’d have to say I wanted to be a more confident writer. Academic writing is not easy. This blog helped me to find my academic voice while allowing me to experiment with writing. I try to be personable in the posts I write, using plain language and concise phrasing. While I can say I am more comfortable with my professional writing, the greatest benefit to this blog is having space to share my work and the work of others in a very non-traditional space. Publishing is a peer-reviewed journal is currency for academics, and it is a narrow, rigid, and polished way to share one’s work. By writing blog posts about my work early in the process, I can share with a wider audience including students, social work practitioners and professionals from other fields. I can also as publish work that may never find a home as a journal article, but is still of value to others. For example, I write frequently about my assignments and classroom activities on this blog. I also post information about my conference presentations here so others can easily reference the materials. Overall, I can say with confidence that writing and publishing Teaching & Learning in Social Work has truly be beneficial and motivating for my academic writing.
For 2019, I had three goals for improving the blog:
Teaching & Learning in Social Work by Laurel Iverson Hitchcock is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License
