1. 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

2. Joanne Westwood: NOPT presentation 9th July 2015

3. 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

4. Joanne Westwood: NOPT presentation 9th July 2015

5. 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?
Joanne Westwood: NOPT presentation 9th July 2015

6. Joanne Westwood: NOPT presentation 9th July 2015

7. 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

8. Who uses social media 2: social work practice
MOMO (Fursland 2014)
Developing Your Social Media Presence: A guide to utilising social media tools for use in foster carer recruitment
Whose shoes (2015)
Understanding Child Development for 0-6 years
Joanne Westwood: NOPT presentation 9th July 2015

9. 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 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

10. 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

11. 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

12. Why should social work educators engage with social media?
Campaigning and awareness raising
Don't take social work training away from universities
Engaging beyond the classroom
The Use of Book Groups in Social Work Education
Ethical dilemmas in practice
The Social Work Social Media App
Joanne Westwood: NOPT presentation 9th July 2015

13. 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

14. 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

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

16. Joanne Westwood: NOPT presentation 9th July 2015
Innovation : what ideas do you have for employing social media when working with students
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

17. Joanne Westwood: NOPT presentation 9th July 2015
Resources
Setting up a twitter account: Community care blog archive: Whose Shoes? Social Care : Curry club
Joanne Westwood: NOPT presentation 9th July 2015

18. 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 BASW (2012) Social Media Policy. BDO (2012) BDO (2012) From housing and litter to facebook and twitter 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, 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. GWI (2014) Global Device Summary Q3.Available at: URL HCPC (2012.) Focus on standards: Social Networking Sites Lafferty, J. (2015) Social Times : Young People More Likely to Use Social Media in Developing Countries 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. Singh Cooner (2012) Social Work Social Media App SSSC (2012) What is social media White, D.A. and Le Cornu, A (2011) Visitors and Residents: A New Typology for online Engagement: First Monday 16 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