Author Archives: thesocialworkpad

How social media assisted clinicians during the teachers strike in Chicago

Posted on October 1, 2012 | Leave a comment
CPS Strike

Teachers and clinicians strike together

I took time off from posting in August getting prepared to come back to work beginning September at my school.  As many know, the CTU decided to strike a week after school began.  The strike also included all clinicians (social workers, psychologist, nurses, speech pathologists, counselors, OT and PT) and they had committees developed to bargain for their rights.  Social media played a huge role in keeping everyone up to date on the negotiations and the daily strike  locations.  I tweeted about the strike from my address @socialworkpad, and our delegates emailed us daily.  The CTU developed a Facebook page devoted to keeping members informed of the changes in negotiations.  I can proudly say that I used my social media to make an impact.  When our delegates needed feedback on some of the language that would be written in the new contract, it was easy to give feedback via email and texting.  For the first time clinicians voices were heard and contract specifications were developed specifically for each job title.  This is a good example of how social media can make an impact and make changes for everyone involved.

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How to Choose and Remember a Strong Password

Posted on May 8, 2012 | Leave a comment
Security

Secure Your Passcodes

In the past month I had the opportunity to present to my colleagues on integrating technology into their social work practice.  On resounding issue that I discussed was creating a secure password for your educational web 2.0 sites.  These codes should be different from your personal passcodes that you use for your bank accounts, credit cards, utility bills, etc..  I’m sure that most people are aware that this is not  good practice, but with the use of all the new helpful web 2.0 tools, you now are in need of  additional passcodes.  I tweeted some of the useful articles I found on my twitter account but I decided (since many of my readers may not be users of twitter), to put a post on my blog about creating strong passwords and passphrases.  This is especially important since I encourage my readers to subscribe to a great deal of web sites, which will require a password to be created.  Some great suggestions were given, such as using a password generator or subscribing to a password “safe”, where you store all your passwords and passphrases and only need one code to get to all your other codes.  A good practice in becoming a 21st century social worker is to begin with securing your crafts.  So with that in mind, I will provide you with a couple of good articles that will assist you in creating a strong and memorable password.

Short clip on: Creating a strong passcode   Related articles on passcode creation: How do I create a secure password , 10 things Gen Y do online and shouldn’t, Create Strong but Memorable Passcodes, Sites that store passcodes: LassPass, KeePass Password Safe, 1Password  (only suggestions!)

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A Guide To Discuss With Your Students Regarding Facebook

Posted on April 23, 2012 | Leave a comment

The guide “Facebook for School Counselors,” has been recently released and it attempts to deal with educating counselors on how to teach and advise students regarding appropriate Facebook use.  This guide should be discussed with students and address the penalties one could face if they are found to use Facebook as a tool to bully, post inappropriate photos and or videos.  This guide gives the links and numbers that people can contact if they want to report inappropriate behavior.  Social Workers can definitely use this as a teaching tool for both parent and students.  This guide can be used to begin a discussion on the successful use of social media.  Follow the link below for a copy of the guide and other interesting statistical articles.

http://education.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/education/high-schools/articles/2012/04/16/new-facebook-effort-targets-educating-school-counselors

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THIS APP IS A MUST FOR RECORDING BEHAVIORS EASILY!

Posted on March 23, 2012 | Leave a comment

Teacher’s Class Behavior Pro – From the Android Market

Record behaviors with a tap of the button!  This app is awesome to keep track of behaviors you are documenting or doing and observation on.  Its excellent when using the BOSS data collection protocol.  Just put in the behaviors you want to monitor and when you see them tap the button and it will be recorded.  You can email the data to yourself to keep for your records and to print out.  This app doesn’t put the data into a chart, but you can easily find a chart making tool such as chart dog, word, excel or others.  You can find this app on the android market for use on your smart phone or android tablet.  The cost for the app is $.099 for the Pro version.  The free version has preset behaviors that can’t be changed.  Currently not on the Ipad.

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APP TIME

Posted on February 22, 2012 | 4 comments

Everyone is all in an uproar about apps.  It seems to be the new buzz word around town, but what is an app, and whats it to you?

Apps is an abbreviation for application. An app is a piece of software. It can run on the Internet, on your computer, or on your phone or other electronic device. 

So whats a widget?  Just think of a widget as an icon or symbol that represents the application (app).  It’s no different from the icon for Publisher, Word, Excel ect..  Since so many new technology devices have come out recently, that don’t use a mouse or toggle ball, how would you start the application?  That’s the magic behind the widget. Its like the doorbell covering over the electricity 🙂

So for those app thirsty people, who just want to explore, here are some starter links for you. 

One Small Request: if you find an app that is outstanding, put a comment on my site and tell us about it.  What made it fun, exciting, therapeutic, educational or just plain Dynamite!

The Android

Love That Android Market

These are good starter lists for you to review and see if some of them will address your needs  I can get more specific but for your reading pleasure relax and explore.  A lot of apps are mentioned, but have they been tested out, that’s the key.  I will review apps that I think are worthwhile here at the “Pad”, but one at a time :0
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
I think this is enough for now (LOL)
 
 

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Engaging reluctant talkers and develop non-threatening environments

Posted on February 21, 2012 | Leave a comment

Have you ever had a group where you knew someone had something to say but was reluctant to talk.  Are you having trouble getting that shy student to become engaged?  Well these web 2.0 tools may be of use to those students and  allow their voices be heard.  Click on the links or  photos below to learn more..  LET YOUR VOICE BE HEARD!

Teacher Reviews New Student Participation App

TodaysMeet Create a room invite your students and begin to discuss.  You can use this to get feelings about a controversial subject, or express your ideas about a problem.

Read further for  TodaysMeet Advice    CHECK OUT TodaysMeet

Student Response Tool

I really like this one.  This is another student response system (there doesn’t seem like a fee) that has a game component built-in as one of the choices.  Present a topic such as bullying or cybersafety, make an interesting quiz, then use the answers in the game portion 🙂

The Cyber UnGame

Technology Meets the Un Game

One more GOOD one :0  This is the collaborize classroom.  When you look through the teacher resources you find great writing prompts with many ways to differentiate learning. You can add a short video clip, pdf documents, photos, word document ect.. This isn’t a grand stand production where the learning curve is timely. It is easy to set up and manage. For clinicians, you can use this tool for therapeutic conversation starters and evaluating students feelings about topics. A book club discussion group can easily be done on this site and best of all it is free (for now LOL ).

I am still a newbie at this blog thing, so I welcome any recommendations, advice or just plain old motivation.  🙂

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HELLO WORLD

Posted on January 29, 2012 | Leave a comment

Well this is my first post to my new blog!  I am so excited.   I decided on the name the “social work pad” for three reasons: PAD: a cool home (one you like to come to) , something you can write on and a technology device.  Presto! thesocialworkpad :0

I have been working on learning how to navigate WordPress for a couple of months now and I finally think I have it!  I will probably make changes to the look of my page but I wanted to get a post out by January and here it is.

This blog will be dedicated to bringing you innovative ways to incorporate web 2.0 and other tools into social work, especially for those working in school settings.  I have a lot of information so far and I want to share it with those who assist others; rather it be Social Workers, Counselors, Psychologist etc..  I am planning to develop and present workshops on web 2.0 for Social Workers.  So look out and follow me on my very first blog.  I hope to post something monthly but who knows, once I get into the hang of it you may hear from me more 🙂

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