Being a Social Work Student in the times of COVID-19: One way to share, document & support

Posted By Laurel Hitchcock on Mar 20, 2020

The COVID-19 public emergency is unprecedented and affects our personal and professional lives.  From trying to find diapers and toilet paper to figuring out how to learn remotely as a social work, few of us were prepared for the speed with which this emergency changed our daily lives.  And we have yet to know and understand what things will look like in the next few weeks or months. 

Thus, we are trying to capture this moment in history by harnessing the power of technology for social good. Through short videos posted on Flipgrid (a social learning platform designed for video discussion forums), we are hoping to create community while also collecting stories from social work students.  We hope these stories can help us support and learn from each other during a time of social distancing as well as provide a source of information for future ways to prepare students and educators for these types of crises (i.e. what are the best ways to learn remotely as a social work student or how do I stay connected with my friends and peers from school).  We anticipate that these videos will provide a wealth of information for blogs posts or other scholarship that will inform how social work needs to adapt to complex social problems. This might include qualitative thematic analysis or quotes from posts. Any peer-reviewed content will be anonymized, but please remember that these posts are a form of public social media.

A Collection of Resources for New and Emerging Field Directors

Posted By Laurel Hitchcock on Feb 7, 2020

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: 

#APM19 – Building Capacity for International Field Placements: A Program Development Checklist

Posted By Laurel Hitchcock on Oct 24, 2019

Are you attending the Council on Social Work Education’s Annual Program Meeting in Denver this week?  Want to know more about how to do an international social work field placement? Do you need a session to attend on Friday, October 25th at 7:30 AM?  Well, then we have a session for you.  Please consider attending the panel discussion about the ongoing development for our international field placement checklist; which I am doing with my good colleagues from the Department of Social Work at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. Colleen Fisher, Mary Jacque Carroll, Stacy Moak and I will talk about how the key benefits, challenges, and social justice considerations of developing new international field placement, and review our checklist which is in the early stages of development.  Overall, our goals is to share our capacity building strategies for international placements through a practical checklist designed for social work.

For those of you who cannot make the presentation, we are including some details in this blog post. First, here are some screen shots of our checklist:

#APM19 – Evolving the Signature Pedagogy with the Social Media Toolkit for Field Educators

Posted By Laurel Hitchcock on Oct 22, 2019

On October 27, 2019 at 8:45 AM, during the Annual Program Meeting for the Council on Social Work Education in Denver CO, Mary Jacque Carroll, Allison M. Curington, Robyn V. Snider and I will be presenting on information and tools that field directors can use to guide curricular development and assessment strategies around interprofessional communication with digital and social technologies. If you are still in Denver, please come find us in Governor’s Square 11 – Plaza Building of the conference hotel. We’ll also be sharing how you can develop your own professional social media policies to support communication with students and field agencies as well as how to create activities for students in field to increase understanding of the ethical use of social and digital media in social work practice.

You’ll also learn how to access the Social Media Toolkit for Field Educators, a free resource with educator’s guide and a PowerPoint slide deck.

#APM19 The Flip(grid) Classroom: Utilizing the Microsoft app Flipgrid to promote student learning

Posted By Laurel Hitchcock on Oct 21, 2019

Editor’s Note: In this blog post, I have asked four colleagues from the University at Buffalo School of Social Work to share some information about their presentation at the 65th Annual Program Meeting for Council on Social Work Education next week in Denver, CO.  Katie McClain-Meeder, Michael Lynch, Todd Sage, and Margie Quartley will share about their experiences using Flipgrid, a video-based discussion forum, in the social work classroom. In full disclosure, they did ask me to record a video for their presentation, so I may be making a guest appearance during the presentation.  Also, you might be interested in reading Todd’s previous blog post about FlipGrid – Incorporating Flipgrid into the Social Work Classroom: Tips for #SocWorkEd.

On October 26, 2019 at 10:30 AM, we (Katie MaClain-Meeder, Michael Lynch, Todd Sage and Margie Quartley from the University at Buffalo School of Social Work) will be presenting an  interactive workshop titled The Flip(grid) Classroom: Utilizing the Microsoft app Flipgrid to promote student learning, at the Council on Social Work Education’s Annual Program Meeting.  We will be in the Governor’s Square 11 in the Plaza Building.

We know that students are increasingly expecting instructors to utilize new technology to enhance instruction beyond the traditional classroom lecture and content. It is imperative that instructors find meaningful and relevant opportunities to integrate tech into the classroom.  Our interactive workshop will introduce you to the video discussion app Flipgrid, which allows students and instructors to quickly and easily interact using short video responses that can be captured via computer or mobile technology. We will highlight case examples, including use for field education, new student orientation, and ways to add depth and breadth to in-person and online instruction.

By attending our workshop, you  will learn best practices for introducing and structuring Flipgrid for a variety of educational purposes as well as how to manage Flipgrid from the administrative side, including how to grade, respond and manage discussions. The workshop will also culminate with an opportunity for you to set up their own “grid” with support from us, the workshop instructors.

Conference Presentation: Developing a Professional & Ethical Online Presence for Social Work Practice

Posted By Laurel Hitchcock on Oct 2, 2019

On Thursday, October 3rd, I will be at the Alabama/Mississippi Social Work Education Conference presenting with Allison Curington, Field Director at the University of Alabama, about best practices for social workers in the use of social and digital media when working with clients and communities.  During this workshop, we will cover the basics of social and digital technologies as well lessons learned from experience with training students and social work practitioners.  Additionally, we will be sharing how to access the Social Media Toolkit for Field Educators, a free resource with educator’s guide and a PowerPoint slide deck.

If you won’t be at the conference, I am including all the important details about the presentation in this blog post.

First, you can access your own free copy of the Social Media Toolkit for Field Educators here:
https://laureliversonhitchcock.org/2018/11/05/revised-social-media-toolkit/

Second, here is a link to a worksheet from the presentation: Develop your Professional Social Media Policy Worksheet