Examining Effective Utilization and Evaluation of Social Media Technology in Social Work Education

Abstract:

Background/Purpose:

During the course of the past decade, social media technologies have increased in usage across the U.S. and global societies. As a result of the increased utilization of social media, social work educators are finding themselves considering technologies such as; Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, SnapChat, and many others for use in the classroom at a far greater rate than ever before. Along with the greater inclusion of social media in social work education, comes a greater need to consider how to evaluate student learning, curriculum, and projects that incorporate these technologies. Another major concern of educators considering using social media in the classroom is how to navigate institutional review boards and ethical considerations in order to formally evaluate student learning with social media enhanced curriculum.

Approach:

This roundtable session will begin a dialogue about how educators are successfully incorporating social media and technology innovation into social work classrooms with an emphasis on evaluation and ethics. Two presenters will speak on how they utilized Twitter to facilitate an inter-group dialogue session between students of a HBCU and a historical white university, emphasizing how they evaluated the project in terms of student learning outcomes. Another presenter will speak on the importance of digital literacy in social work education and how to effectively measure and evaluate it. An additional presenter will speak on the importance and use of rubrics in evaluating social media in the classroom and ensuring adherence to CSWE’s EPAS. A fifth presenter will speak from her years spent as director of an institutional review board about the challenges social work educators face when submitting proposals that include social media based learning and evaluation to IRBs. Finally, a final presenter will serve as a discussant for this round table to help moderate the discussion through posing questions as well as taking audience questions. The moderator is an expert on social media and the utilization of social media data in research and evaluation in social work. 

Contribution:

This session will help social work educators begin to unpack some of these issues around using and evaluating social media in social work education through a robust and free flowing discussion. The aim of this round table is to generate dialogue and suggestions for how to effectively and ethically utilize and evaluate social media in the classroom.