The use of virtual reality and computer simulation are gaining ground in social work as viable teaching methods. Traditionally recognized as ancillary to classroom learning, they are being incorpor...

Virtual Reality and Computer Simulation in Social Work Education: A Systematic Review

SUMMARY Social work courses and programs delivered with distance technologies continue to increase in number. This article reports on current social work education research on distance courses and programs, and makes recommendations for future distance education research. Distance education research in other fields is described to give context for social work efforts.

Evaluation of distance education programs in social work

Social work education has historically focused on clinical practice and community organization, rather than on the development of management skills, and research documenting the macro practice field experiences of social work students is scarce. A national retrospective study of the fieldwork experiences of social work managers was conducted based on competencies established by the National Network for Social Work Managers (NNSWM). The 200 respondents (63% response rate) were managers and administrators with an average of 20 years post-master's experience. Results of hierarchical regressions indicate that macro practice focus and years of experience were the only significant correlates of the participants' retrospective perceptions of both quality and intensity of their field experience as related to management competencies. A factor analysis of the competencies revealed three underlying factors-internal experiences, external experiences and evaluation experiences, accounting for 73% of the varia...

Exploring Managers' and Administrators' Retrospective Perceptions of Their MSW Fieldwork Experience

Summary Relatively little has been written encouraging social workers to use communication technologies for community service purposes, such as education and advocacy with general populations, and empowerment of individuals, groups and communities, especially marginalized and voiceless populations traditionally served by social workers, to tell their own stories using these media. This paper reviews relevant literature on the use of media in social work, presents examples of ways visual technologies have been used to serve populations-at-risk, and briefly describes a course jointly offered by a school of social work and a school of the arts intended to teach students the use of various technologies for community service purposes. The application of social work practice, theory, research and policy to media production reflects a littleexplored potential modality for micro and macro intervention, and thus is an innovation in the field, combining service learning, inter-disciplinary collaboration and application of social work knowledge through technology. We also argue that social workers should become competent in using media to harness their power for intervention with and on behalf of clients, and to positively and actively shape the way clients and our profession are portrayed and viewed in the larger world.

Teaching Social Workers to Harness Technology and Inter-Disciplinary Collaboration for Community Service

SUMMARY This article describes the use of WebQuests, a computer-facilitated instructional strategy for social work education. Pedagogical constructs relevant to the use of WebQuests as a computer-facilitated instructional strategy are identified and discussed. Examples of the application and integration of WebQuest activities in an undergraduate social work curriculum are presented.

Computer-facilitated instructional strategies for education: designing Webquests

SUMMARY The integration of computer training within social work education is necessary for social workers to keep abreast of technological changes occurring within human service agencies. This article presents several techniques to integrate computer simulations and Internet research within the baccalaureate curriculum. Emphasis is placed on the use of these techniques to teach policy and macro practice.

Macro practice and policy in cyberspace: teaching with computer simulation and the Internet at the baccalaureate level

The importance of computer training in social work education will continue to increase as the profession becomes more globalized and technological. It is the authors' premise that social work education must include the integration of training in computer technology. One resource available to educators is the Internet. The world wide web contains a vast amount of information on policy and social issues. This article discusses the use of web based learning exercises to simultaneously teach social policy and enhance student computer skills. Two learning exercises are presented which are designed for use in social work policy courses. The authors present their teaching experiences and provide suggestions on using this approach in the classroom environment. Information on resources and useful URL's for policy research is included in the discussion.

Charles Edward Neal

Papers

Macro practice and policy in cyberspace: teaching with computer simulation and the Internet at the baccalaureate level

Untangling the Net: Using Policy Resources in the Classroom