Social media in social work education and practice: responding to the challenges Dr. Joanne Westwood School of Applied Social Science University of Stirling 9TH July 2015

Joanne Westwood: NOPT presentation 9th July 2015

Joanne Westwood: NOPT presentation 9th July 2015 Workshop outline Context : the digital revolution? Trends in the use of social media Issues for social work Using social media in social work education and practice Innovation: using social media tools Group activities Joanne Westwood: NOPT presentation 9th July 2015

Joanne Westwood: NOPT presentation 9th July 2015

The digital revolution? “We are facing a digital revolution that is changing the way that people communicate, socialise, share information, work and even access goods and services” (BDO, 2012p. ) Social media use increase: Twitter 645,750,000 registered Twitter users, How many tweets are sent in one typical day? http://www.internetlivestats.com/twitter-statistics/ Joanne Westwood: NOPT presentation 9th July 2015

Joanne Westwood: NOPT presentation 9th July 2015

Joanne Westwood: NOPT presentation 9th July 2015 Who uses social media 1 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) Joanne Westwood: NOPT presentation 9th July 2015

Who uses social media 2: social work practice MOMO (Fursland 2014) http://www.mindofmyown.org.uk/young-people-momo-improves-service/ Developing Your Social Media Presence: A guide to utilising social media tools for use in foster carer recruitment https://www.fostering.net/all-about-fostering/resources/developing-your-social-media-presence-guide-utilising-social-media#.VZvmnRtVhHw Whose shoes (2015) http://nutshellcomms.co.uk/ Understanding Child Development for 0-6 years https://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/understanding-child-development/id721681546?mt=8 Joanne Westwood: NOPT presentation 9th July 2015

Professional conduct and social media “Social workers should ensure they maintain appropriate professional and personal boundaries and take responsibility for recognising ethical dilemmas presented by the use of different types of social media” (BASW 2012. p. 4) “Social Networking Sites are a part of registrants and students everyday life. We do not have any concerns about you using these sites, so long as you do so within the standards that we set”. HCPC (2012) The fastest growing subject of conduct referrals to the SSSC is online behaviour (SSSC 2012) Professional conduct and social media Joanne Westwood: NOPT presentation 9th July 2015

Joanne Westwood: NOPT presentation 9th July 2015 Social media in social work education: emerging issues for the training of social workers What type of users are students? Students are sophisticated users of social media for their learning and development and are able to bring their knowledge and skills into practice (Westwood, Taylor and McKendrick 2014) What about you? Digital resident or visitor? (White and Le Cornu 2011) Embrace and employ? Resist and reject? Task 1: How do you engage with social media as a practice educator Joanne Westwood: NOPT presentation 9th July 2015

Issues for using social media in social work practice education? 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) Cultural: Resistance, mistrust and reputation management are obstacles which affect development and growth of social media in LA’s (BDO 2013) Organisational: managing the changes in how we communicate and interact with service users, confidentiality, data protection, governance, transparency Joanne Westwood: NOPT presentation 9th July 2015

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/ Joanne Westwood: NOPT presentation 9th July 2015

Joanne Westwood: NOPT presentation 9th July 2015 Opportunities for using social media in social work: professional development CPD: engagement with research, debates and accessing information Online professional profile: All about you Practice and policy developments: Instant and speedy access to the latest resources about policy and practice issues Support networks for social work practitioners and practice educators Private/closed groups for training or development activities Being selective about knowledge Joanne Westwood: NOPT presentation 9th July 2015

Joanne Westwood: NOPT presentation 9th July 2015 Opportunities for using social media in social work: professional practice Updates for service users about services/changes (change of venue, delays, new services etc…) Virtual meetings with colleagues and multi agency forums; e.g. using Adobe Connect which audio records the meeting for later playback Generating new ideas: discussions leading to changes or developments in practice Enabling dialogue with social work practitioners, academics and service users!! Awareness raising about your service Helpful information for service users and stakeholders Recruiting social workers Joanne Westwood: NOPT presentation 9th July 2015

Alaine Shaw: The design for the service user App Joanne Westwood: NOPT presentation 9th July 2015

Joanne Westwood: NOPT presentation 9th July 2015 Innovation : what ideas do you have for employing social media when working with students https://www.flickr.com/photos/jackdorsey/182613360/ In small groups: Design an activity you carry out with students you are working with which would lend itself to using social media? What resources would you need to develop this activity? What skills would you need to develop to carry out this activity? What support would students need? Present your ideas to the main group Joanne Westwood: NOPT presentation 9th July 2015

Joanne Westwood: NOPT presentation 9th July 2015 Resources Setting up a twitter account: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=byH0VjnkCg4 Community care blog archive: http://www.communitycare.co.uk/community-care-blog-archive/ Whose Shoes? http://nutshellcomms.co.uk/ Social Care : Curry club https://socialcarecurryclub.wordpress.com/ Joanne Westwood: NOPT presentation 9th July 2015

Joanne Westwood: NOPT presentation 9th July 2015 References 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 (2012) BDO (2012) From housing and litter to facebook and twitter http://www.bdo.co.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0008/186524/BDO_Local_Government_Team_-_Updating_your_status_social_media_report.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 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 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 GWI (2014) Global Device Summary Q3.Available at: URL https://www.globalwebindex.net/ HCPC (2012.) Focus on standards: Social Networking Sites http://www.hcpc-uk.org/Assets/documents/100035B7Social_media_guidance.pdf 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 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 (2012) Social Work Social Media App https://sites.google.com/site/socialworksocialmedia/ SSSC (2012) What is social media http://workforcesolutions.sssc.uk.com/new/docs/What_is_Social_Media_-_transcript.pdf 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., (2014) 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. Joanne Westwood: NOPT presentation 9th July 2015