Developing a Technology Inventory for (and With) Social Work Students in Practicum

Background

In social work education, worker technology use is under-theorized or considered a specialization. Conversations about technology are generally defined by risk management frameworks of professional liability and potential harm to clients, with some attention given to the importance of confidentiality, an ethical mandate of the profession. This ethics and liability discourse can obfuscate the greater promise and peril of technology use in social work, mirror legalistic and professional norms that do not align with social work’s ethical commitment to advancing human rights and social justice, and scare off students and researchers from deeper engagement. While technology adoption can offer tangible improvements such as expanding access to services for marginalized populations ( ie: the exponential growth of telehealth opportunities and AI-based chatbot integration for mental health services) and reconfiguring organizational processes (such as apps for public welfare benefits applications), it also creates new problems, ethical dilemmas, and unanticipated consequences. This project focuses on developing a technology inventory for the ethnographic study of technology use, data collection, and critical digital literacy among social work students in a large public, urban university in the United States. This tool is intended for use as an educational intervention to facilitate students’ critical examination of their technology use and data collection in practice, with a deep probing of the ubiquity, risks, liability, and potential benefits of technology in social work

Methodology

The researchers conducted focus groups with MSW students enrolled at Silberman School of Social Work at Hunter College completing practicum. Focus groups were held on Zoom and lasted approximately 90 minutes. Focus groups consisted of open-ended questions such as:

• What data do you collect in your practicum/field setting?
• How do you collect it? (probe for expansive definition of data, i.e. intakes, case notes,
• financial information, assessments, screenings, etc.)

Focus groups also involved an evaluation of the technology inventory tool using probes such as:

• Are you thinking of specific data collection procedures or technology use when you read through these questions?
• Does examining this tool make you consider any of your data collection procedures or technology use differently?

Results

• Students are generally not receiving education about technology use in social work practice in their social work curriculum
• Training on specific technologies used in practicum settings is inconsistent and frequently nonexistent
• Students are not encouraged in their social work education to critically analyze the implications of their technology use in social work practice in terms of: surveillance, technological determinism, or client self-determination
• Students found the inventory tool helpful and thought-provoking and thought it could be a useful part of social work curriculum
• Technology use varied by organization and practicum setting

Conclusion and Implications

In many ways, practicum is the ideal space for exploring critical digital literacy and is an opportune site for its integration into social work curriculum. Social work education needs to incorporate an expansive and appropriately reflective view of technology into social work curriculum, including in-class tech-based projects and consideration of the value and ethics underpinning its approach to technology use.