E-educating the social worker

Eindhoven seminarMarch 2008

Neil BallantyneLearning technology manager

IRISS

Two papers

Ballantyne (1996)

“Child care social work & the Internet.”

&“Will IT change the face of social

work education & training?”

Then = 1996

Now = 2008

Paper one

In “Child care social work & the Internet.” I wrote

that...

“The Internet is here to stay.”

The Internet is here to stay!

ThenNow

Go back in time

Thenthere were an

estimated 40 million

internet users worldwide

Seemed like a

lot

Nowthere are an estimated

1,320 million internet users

worldwide

Now that is

a lot

Source: Internet world stats

But the digital divide remains

I also wrote that...

“While it is true that an important component of the

Internet is the global distribution of information....”

“...over emphasis on this function draws attention away from the value of

the Internet as a participatory medium for communication,

networking, and building & maintaining communities of interest.”

A participatory medium for communication, networking, and

building & maintaining communities of interest?

However…for a long time the Internet was a sprawling library of contentWith

some shopping

malls

And then…

Web 2.0

arrived

What is web 2.0?“…a perceived second generation of web-based communities and

hosted services — such as social-networking sites, wikis and

folksonomies — which aim to facilitate collaboration & sharing

between users.”

Source: Wikipedia (2007)

Paper 2.0

“Will information technology change the face of social work education &

training?”

& communications

A debate

Yes: Neil Ballantyne

No: Yanno Rafferty

What I wrote...

“...the real impact of new technology in social work

education and training may not arise from heavy investment in

externally designed courseware…”

“...it is the use of electronic networking in social work education that will enable a

paradigm shift.....away from a conception of new technology as

a a means of distributing information…”

“...towards an understanding of the role of learning

technology in supporting active learning &

educational dialogue...”

What Yanno wrote...

“social work is essentially about human interaction

which cannot be replaced by a computer...”

I agree but…

learning is essentially about human interaction which can be supported by a computer

“….a good trainer never actually uses the materials available - they pick and

choose and modify to suit the students they are working with...”

Yanno also wrote that…

and he’s right...

online content needs to permit adaptation &

modification

hence learning objects....

visit the learning exchange

and online learning ought not to be about content

alone

but also about conversations

content & conversations

face2face & online

Face to facelearning

Onlinelearning

Conversations

Content

Online communities

Open learning materials

Resource-based learning

Facilitated discussions

Study groups

SeminarsSymposia

The course in a box

Teach & test courseware

Learning in the blender

Is there strongevidence thatany of this is

“changing the face of social work

education & training”?

Is the network revolution transforming the nature of learning?

Improving what is learned?

How quickly it is learned?

How much is learned?

…and doing this more than traditional teaching technologies?

No… technology does not cause learning

"The best current evidence is that media are merevehicles that deliver instruction but do not influence student achievement any more than the truck thatdelivers our groceries causes changes in our nutrition" Clark (1983)

But…the affordancesof learning technology can support

effective pedagogical design.

And help make learning:more efficient…

more consistent…more flexible…

more affordable…more accessible

Many studies suggestthere is

no significant differencebetween learning with

technologyand with more

traditional methods

Source: No significant difference

But when studies suggestthere is no significant difference

between counselling skillsdeveloped working online

or face to facethen that is significant.

Source: Ouellette et al (2006)

Whilst the Internet and the sum of human

information & knowledge continues to

grow at an alarming rate…

Human learning is limited

by the fixed information

processing capacity of

human cognitive architecture

The Internet The neural netcognitive

socialemotional

How can technology bestsupport evidence-informed practice

in the workplace?

How to design effective educational multimedia?

Can web 2.0 be harnessedfor learning?

Some current concerns

thennow

www.iriss.ac.uk

neil.ballantyne@iriss.ac.uk