Social media in social work education: devising a social media strategy Joanne Westwood Programme Director: Social Work Qualifying Programmes: School of Applied Social Science

What is social media?

Who uses social media? Young people: the trend in developing countries is upwards, despite the digital divide (Lafferty 2015). Smart device ownership is on the increase, over laptop and PC’s (GWI 2014) Democratising potential (Ali 2012) Campaigning and awareness raising: social justice and global human rights (Brady, Young and McLeod) Social work practice: MOMO (Fursland 2014) http://www.mindofmyown.org.uk/young-people-momo-improves-service/ Whose shoes (2015) http://nutshellcomms.co.uk/

Social media and social work: barriers, tensions and opportunities Establish: What type of user are you (White and Le Cornu 2011) Individual: concern about workload, always connected, information overload, boundaries, privacy, speed of exchanges and changes in social media platforms, (Bucher et al 2012) online/offline identity (Miller 2013) Organisational: managing the changes in how we communicate and interact with service users, confidentiality, data protection Cultural: Resistance, mistrust and reputation management are obstacles which affect development and growth of social media (BDO 2013) Driver: Students are sophisticated users of social media for their learning and development (Westwood, Taylor and McKendrick 2014)

Why should social work educators engage with social media? Campaigning and awareness raising Don't take social work training away from universities http://www.theguardian.com/social-care-network/social-life-blog/2015/jun/17/dont-take-social-work-training-away-from-universities?CMP=share_btn_tw Engaging beyond the classroom The Use of Book Groups in Social Work Education https://storify.com/AMLTaylor66/the-use-of-book-clubs-in-social-work-education Ethical dilemmas in practice The Social Work Social Media App https://sites.google.com/site/socialworksocialmedia/

Developing the strategy Engaging with academics Establishing a baseline of where we are in terms of using social media What type of users are students? Academics? (White and Le Cornu 2011) Developing approaches based on evidence Supporting individuals development and implementation of social media Integration in teaching and learning Enhancing the student experience Student employability

Social media in the School of Social Science 1 Collaboration Phase 1: Engaging with academics Funding (Teaching development fund) Survey of staff use of social media, digital technology and VLE Seminar: open to all staff and research students Social Media Surgery Research away day Report and publication/dissemination

Social media in the School of Social Science 2 Phase 2 Funding: SELF (Student Enhancement Leaning Fund) Developing online module (optional) for final year students Social Media profile: review and rational Engaging with employers Encouraging students to develop professional online profile

Key issues to consider when developing social media strategy for social work education Global, permanent Professional value base: Professional/personal boundaries

Questions

Bibliography Ali, A.H. (2012) The Power of Social Media in Developing Nations: New Tools for Closing the Global Digital Divide and Beyond. Harvard Human Rights Journal. Vol. 24 http://harvardhrj.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/09/185-220.pdf BASW (2012) Social Media Policy. http://cdn.basw.co.uk/upload/basw_34634-1.pdf BDO (2013) BDO (2013) Following the trends. Results from the 2013 BDO Local Government Social Media Survey – today’s trends and making the most of the medium http://www.bdo.co.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0009/186525/following_the_trends_2013.pdf Brady, S.R., Young, J., and McLeod, D.A. (2015) Utilizing digital advocacy in Community Organizing: Lessons learned from organizing in virtual spaces to promote worker rights and economic justice. Journal of Community Practice Volume 23, Issue 2, 255-273 Boyd, D. M., & Ellison, N. B. (2007). Social network sites: Definition, history and scholarship. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 13(1), 210-230. Bucher, E., Fieseler, C., & Suphan, A., (2013) The stress potential of social media in the workplace. Information, Communication & Society Vol. 16, No. 10, December 2013, pp. 1639–1667 GWI (2014) Global Device Summary Q3.Available at: URL https://www.globalwebindex.net/ Fursland (2014) The IT Crowd: How technology is helping children in care. Children and Young People Now- Special report Technology in Care. http://www.cypnow.co.uk/cyp/feature/1145511/crowd-technology-helping-children-care Lafferty, J. (2015) Social Times : Young People More Likely to Use Social Media in Developing Countries http://www.adweek.com/socialtimes/study-young-people-more-likely-to-use-social-media-in-developing-countries/617242

Bibiography Miller, D., (2013) Future Identities: Changing identities in the UK – the next 10 years: What is the relationship between identities that people construct, express and consume online and those offline? Government office for Science. https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/275750/13-504-relationship-between-identities-online-and-offline.pdf Singh Cooner, T. (2014) Using closed Facebook groups to teach social work skills, values and approaches for social media. In (ed) Westwood, J. (2014) Social Media in Social Work Education. Critical Publishing. Stevenson, D. (2014) Developing your social media presence: A guide to utilising social media tools for foster care recruitment. The Fostering Network. https://www.fostering.net/all-about-fostering/resources/developing-your-social-media-presence-guide-utilising-social-media#.VXRCitJVhBd White, D.A. and Le Cornu, A (2011) Visitors and Residents: A New Typology for online Engagement: First Monday 16 http://firstmonday.org/ojs/index.php/fm/article/view/3171 Westwood, J., (2014a) Social Media in Social Work Education. Critical Publishing. Westwood, J. Taylor, A. and Mckendrick, D. (2014) Student social workers use of social media: findings from a cross national survey. In (ed) Westwood, J., Social Media in Social Work Education. Critical Publishing. Whose Shoes? (2015) http://nutshellcomms.co.uk