Introduction The following two articles outlines how three academics from the UK (@Akali65), Canada (@a_knowl) and Australia (@drbrianstout) used the Social Work Social Media App (link below) and Facebook to help students from their respective institutions collaboratively explore some of the tricky ethical issues practitioners and students can face in practice.
The following video outlines how the app can be used in higher education settings. It provides the perspectives of some students experiences of using the app as part of an enquiry-based learning journey.
The following short video provides a 60 second overview of the Social Work Social Media app. No longer available for download.
Connecting students internationally using Facebook Below is an audio narrated Prezi used during the Joint Social Work Education and Research Conference (JSWEC) 2014 conference. This explains how we connected students from our respective institutions to collaborate and meet the learning objectives set for them. The article below outlines our approaches and learning in much more detail:
Creating a Mobile App to Teach Ethical Social Media Practices Abstract Social media has transformed the way individuals and communities interact. The number of mobile devices connected to social media networks has increased exponentially over the last few years. These devices tend never to leave the sides of their owners and offer potentially limitless flexible opportunities for communication and learning. This article initially outlines how an individual social work academic created a mobile phone and tablet app to help students explore the ethical uses of social media in social work. The aim was to encourage discussion around the theoretical and technical challenges posed when seeking to ensure an educational mobile app was grounded in social work as opposed to Information and Communication Technology principles of learning. Students’ experiences of using the app in Australia, Canada and the UK are analysed. The evaluation suggests that the scenario-based principles underpinning the design and engaging in learning on the mobile platform had both positive and negative impacts on student learning. The article details the lessons learned from these processes.
Cooner, T, Knowles, A & Stout, B 2015, 'Creating a mobile app to teach ethical social media practices', Social Work Education, vol. 35, no. 3, pp. 245-259. https://doi.org/10.1080/02615479.2015.1042361
International Collaborative Learning Using Social Media to Learn about Social Work Ethics and Social Media Abstract The widespread adoption of social media (SM) has created new ethical challenges for social workers in understanding the use of SM and professional practice. This paper describes a project where social work students participated in international collaborative blended learning using closed Facebook groups to explore ethical issues related to professional practice and SM. The learning design incorporated the use of an innovative smart phone app, an online video case scenario, and asynchronous collaborative learning. The results of students’ evaluations, lessons learned and recommendations about the learning design are included in the discussion.
Knowles, A & Cooner, T 2016, 'International Collaborative Learning Using Social Media to Learn About Social Work Ethics and Social Media: International Collaborative Learning using Social Media', Social Work Education, vol. 35, no.3, pp. 260-270. https://doi.org/10.1080/02615479.2016.1154662