Social Workers & Social Media

Combining Facebook and enquiry-based blended learning to teach social media skills

This story contains the rationale to a 7-minute film outlining how Facebook and an enquiry-based blended learning design were combined to help students develop professional social media practices. 

Introduction 

The following seven-minute film outlines how Facebook and an enquiry-based blended learning design were used to help students develop professional social media practices. The film also includes student feedback about their experiences of engaging with this learning design. Whilst related to social work, the issues, methods and lessons explored here can potentially be applied to other disciplines.

 

Background

 

As an educator, I was aware that students who connected using Facebook during their studies could effortlessly maintain that social network once they left University. Like any other professional group, there was the possibility that once they left University these students could use these social networks to discuss future work related issues.

 

To enable students to learn about the potential and pitfalls of sharing, communicating and collaborating using social networks once in employment, the challenge was to find ways of equipping them with the necessary skills and knowledge to use these tools professionally. 

To meet this challenge, this film outlines how Facebook and an enquiry-based blended learning design were used to provide students with opportunities to explore issues such as:

• online safety 
• projecting and maintaining a professional online image
• maintaining personal and professional boundaries 
• using social networks to develop and share good professional practice 
• working for the benefit of future service users

Facebook was used as a site for learning because over 90% of the two cohorts represented on this film (MA and BA students) reported actively using this medium. One of the benefits of using an enquiry-based blended learning approach was that their experiences of developing their knowledge and skills on Facebook could potentially be transferred to other social networking sites.

 

Other articles on social media and social work:

 

Below the above article.  

 

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Eye on Ethics: Novel Boundary Challenges: Social Networking  

Frederic G. Reamer, PhD, November 13, 2009, Social Work Today. 

Each social worker who contacted me posed a similar question: 

Could I help them think through some difficult boundary challenges they had encountered involving social workers’ use of social networking sites, such as Facebook and MySpace? Their tales each differed slightly but still involved complicated ethical issues that stemmed from social workers’ personal use of social networking sites.  

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Pause Before Posting — Using Social Media Responsibly
By Matthew Robb, MSW, LCSW-C , Social Work Today, Vol. 11 No. 1 P. 8.

Excerpts:

Social workers using social media such as blogs, Facebook, message boards, or Twitter must think carefully about how their postings could affect their clients and their careers.

Frederic G. Reamer, PhD, a prominent ethicist and professor of social work at Rhode Island College, has written extensively on social media. His analysis is as textured as his bottom line is clear: When social workers contemplate ways to evade, finesse, or otherwise wiggle around the Code of Ethics, they are on the slippery slope to professional misconduct.

“As a general guide,” Reamer says, “social workers who use social media need to think very carefully before they post anything. We must adhere not just to the letter of the code but also to its spirit. Sliding underneath the code by doing something technically permissible or debatable does not mean you are acting ethically or that your actions are not potentially harmful.”

Tips for Responsible Use of Social Media 

Social Work Today asked our panel to share their wisdom about the responsible and ethical use of social media. Here are some of their observations:

• Blog about your passion but brace for heat: In 2008, a Milwaukee social worker noted his online political commentary “seems to bring out the devil in quite a few other bloggers.” Consider the vitriol from one: “You make me physically ill. I seriously and sincerely hope you are violently victimized by one of these bastards you keep defending. You deserve it.”

• Protect yourself: It’s true our digital age offers no guaranteed safe harbor, but do not make yourself an easy target. Use Facebook Places, Foursquare, and similar apps wisely, says University of Texas social work student Cheryl Jones.

• Googling clients; clients Googling you: In a recent news story, a client described being Googled by her therapist as feeling “close to rape.” As far as clients Googling social workers, our panel says it goes with the territory. “Given the intimacy of the clinical setting or the issues attendant in community organizing, what client wouldn’t be interested in learning more?” asks Jones. As always, focus on healthy boundaries.

• Clients blogging about therapy: Social workers exercise no editorial control over clients, Fran Forstenzer, MSW, LCSW-C, notes.

• Be consistent when blogging: “I would be devastated if my social worker were sympathetic to my beliefs in therapy yet espoused something quite different in cyberspace,” says grad student Elizabeth H. “It would undermine the therapeutic relationship.”

• Clients asking to “friend” you: If you’re doing direct social work, don’t friend on Facebook. Says Dennis Shelby, PhD, of the Chicago-based Institute for Clinical Social Work, “I would politely decline and discuss it in the next session.” Macro social worker Melinda Lewis, LMSW, accepts friend requests from students but always keeps her audience in mind when posting.

• “Friending” clients: Our panel speaks as one: Don’t start down that slippery slope.

• “Liking” groups or causes: Lewis politely declines these requests. Sure, you admire “Students for Saving Gaia,” but how do you feel about “Concerned Americans Against Birth Control”?

• Whistleblowing: The NASW Code of Ethics outlines proper handling of such sensitive issues, notes University of Maryland professor, Tanya Sharpe, PhD, MSW. As slow or frustrating as this path might be, first go through proper channels.

• Be culturally sensitive: “Remember the digital divide,” reminds University of Michigan student Carrie Rheingans. “Many clients are not on the Internet and aren’t computer savvy.”