Is it truly impossible to find ways to apply and use social media within the paradigm of social work education?
No, it’s not! As per the proverb, “where’s there’s a will, there’s a way.”
However, according to Bruff, Harapnuik and Julius (2011) in Revolution or Evolution? Social Technologies and Change in Higher Education, there are a number of key obstacles that need to be overcome in order for social media to fulfill its potential within the realm of higher education. These include:
- Mistrust of technology
- Faculty need of good examples of effective uses of technology
- Lack of a culture of openness to try technology among faculty
- Loss of control when shifting from faculty-oriented to student-centered learning
- Perception that technology does not offer deep learning
Below is a twelve minute animated clip of Sir Ken Robinson’s talk about the need for a radical change in our education paradigm which I think you will find fascinating.
Now, to return to the world of social work, please continue to read: The Use/Application of Social Media in Social Work Education Has Wonderful Potential… at the Social Work/Social Care & Social Media blog to see the eight ways that social media could transform social work education.
Finally, I would like to make mention of the sources that I used/cited in my guest post because my guest host had technical difficulties in making the hyperlinks stand out properly.
Sources cited:
Langlois, M. (2011). Gamer Therapist
Levasseur, A. (2011). Teaching Without Technology?
Smyth, N. (2011). Healing Isolation & Facilitating Empathy: The Power of Virtual Worlds with mentions of Virtual Hallucinations Sim and Against All Odds
Smyth, N. (2011). Virtual Worlds as Immersive Treatment Settings: The PTSD Sim
Zgoda, K. (Fall, 2011). SW 2.0: Going Where the Client Is: Exploring Virtual Clinical Social Work Practice. The New Social Worker Online.
Photo credit: Oil and water don’t mix
I’d like to mention another obstacle that I know is a factor for many faculty who are employed in institutions that place high value on research productivity: time to learn these new technologies & how best to integrate them.
The reality is that the promotion and tenure places high value on writing scholarly articles and doing research. Faculty are judged on how much impact they have in their area of expertise, which is a function of the quantity and quality of their research and scholarship. Time spent on learning these new technologies (which change at a rapid pace) is time not spent doing the things that are considered most valued by academe.
Highly ranked universities are usually ranked highly because of their research. While teaching figures into the picture, it doesn’t count as heavily. Whereas at the community college level, teaching counts most heavily. And as you would expect given this emphasis, community colleges often lead the way in terms of innovative use of technology.
Thanks so much for sharing this valuable information, Nancy.
How interesting to learn that research carries more weight than teaching in the ranking of universities leading to yet another obstacle in the application and use of social media in higher education.
This suggests that if one wants to encourage greater innovation in education, perhaps there is a need for some sort of revision in the formula (or the weights of the different components) used to calculate college rankings.
Thanks for the thorough article DorleeM. The changing education paradigms video was a real eye opener to me. I guess it’s only logical that education should be reviewed as a society progresses.
Thanks for stopping by and sharing your thoughts on education, Adam.
I apologize for only responding today; somehow, your comment was misdirected by google into the spam folder and I only discovered it today!