Our next debate on Tuesday, 29 November, is dedicated to social work and social care students and to the use and applications of social media in Social Work and Social Care Education. The details of the debate are as follows:
Topic: Use and Application of Social Media in Social Work and Social Care Education
Date: Tuesday, 29 November 2011
Time: 20:00 to 21:00 GMT (15:00 to 16:00 EST)
Official Twitter Feed: @SWSCmedia
The debate hashtag is: #SWSCmedia
Social media have transformed our every notion and influenced every aspect of our lives and lived experience ranging from our notion of relationship, privacy and connectedness to our learning, thinking patterns and knowledge management and transfer.
On the one hand there are those who suggest that social work and social care should embrace social media and transform its’ operation and learning model, while, on the other hand there are those who speak of the risks associated with the use of social media ranging from questions of privacy to challenges with regards to the management of personal and professional boundaries.
In this context, in our next live twitter debate, we wish to explore some of the following questions:
- Is social media more of a distraction or help in social work and social care education?
- What is the role of social media in today’s social work and social care learning and education?
- What are some of the ways that social media can be used to support and enhance students’ learning and experience?
- How can we use social media to develop and enhance specific abilities such as: critical reflection and reflective practice or various social work approaches such as solution focused approach, person centred approach, systemic approach, etc.?
- Can we use social media to support and enhance the quality of social work or social care placements? How?
- How about security, confidentiality, and other relevant issues?
- Social media is centred around ease of connections and sharing of information, while social work and social care practice require diligent regard for privacy, confidentiality and sensitivity in treatment and use of data and information. How can social work and social care practitioners and students reconcile these paradigmatically divergent approaches to information management and privacy?
- How can students and practitioners ensure and maintain appropriate personal and professional boundaries on social media?
We look forward to meeting you online to explore these and other relevant questions and hope you can join us in this important debate and share your views and experiences with other participants.
To receive regular updates on our twitter debates and case studies join us @SWSCmedia.
I think it’s also important to emphasise how social media supports the learning not just of students but of current practitioners. I’ve written a blog post on it and will share the link when it’s up because I thnk it is a fundamental part of the debate as learning happens beyond universities and throughout our careers as social workers – indeed, as professionals, we have to take responsibility for our own learning and it is a good way of doing so.
As for maintaining boundaries – I think it’s about using some common sense as much as being ‘trained’ into it!