Nathalie P. Jones, PhD, MSW is an Assistant Professor of Social Work at Tarleton State University. In this blog post, Dr. Jones writes about her experiences creating and implementing an infographic assignment with nontraditional social work students. As an Assistant Professor of Social Work at Tarleton State University, I have absolutely enjoyed educating social work […]
Posted in Web 2.0 tools
Posted in Web 2.0 tools
If you are a google user and you are familiar with Google apps and extensions for education, you may be familiar with these great add-ons. If you are new to the Google experience or just haven’t ventured past the basics, here are my tips for extensions that are very beneficial and game changers.
You can set the timer for any time you want. When your time is up, you’ll hear the alarm sound.
This ext/app (on phone) creates bright colorful notes. You won’t forget to do anything important any more! Google keep was highlighted at a tech conference, and what really blew me away was the ability to take a photo of text on a page. It then will clear all the clutter around the text, and it is viewed as plain text page. You can then use this same text image to open in a reading extension in chrome and your students now have the ability to have the article read to them! Here’s more on Google Keep, check it out.
Blocks all advertisements on all web pages, even, Facebook and You-tube
Show you-tube videos without adds!
GREAT GOOGLE DRIVE ADD ONS (there’s a couple here that assist with task completion and focusing!)
Twitter has been such a great tool for learning, sharing, and meeting new colleagues. If you haven’t tried a twitter chat, there are some great social work chats being held on twitter. One way to curate and organize your topics is through using hashtags. Hashtags also can also help you find out whats happening in your professional community.
There’s one great hashtag that I want to promote, and I hope it catches on. The hashtag #SWvirtualpal is a cool hashtag that helping social workers develop a community on twitter. Laura Hitchcock helped develop this term and writes about it on her recent blog post. Please read her post to learn how to find your SWvirtualpal. https://t.co/FVftFcK1Tx
Find me on twitter as @socialworkpad
So until I started this blog a few months ago, I was pretty oblivious about other social work on-line resources. One of my underlying motives for starting this blog was to re-up my passion for social work through more regular research and reading about social work and the topics we touch on a daily basis. […]
via 7 Online Resources for Social Workers — Social Work Community
Posted in Articles, Web 2.0 tools
Recently, while doing my tech tools research, I ran across a couple of tools that were easy to use, took little time to create, and were FREE. All of these tools could be used to make impactful statements or promote a good cause. On the web site connectsafely.org , there is a push to promote safer internet day, which is happening February 11th, 2014. Students can raise awareness about internet safety and how they are using technology and the internet to make their world safer. The idea is that students can share one good thing they have done, or seen on this website (more examples are on saferinternetday.us). The following tools shared below are excellent ways you can make a statement, demonstrate social emotional learning or just have great fun.
Recite is a tool that allows you to type your statement right into the quote box, scroll…
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On this post, I want to share two great tools that I think will be very helpful in getting some of our shy and less expressive students motivated to share their thoughts and stories. I’ve been working with two great tools that can be used with laptops or tablets (I really like the web based tools), to make creative videos and video blogs. One of the tools has been around for a some time, while the other tool is new and is in beta form (so it’s in testing mode as it redefines the tool to work more efficiently).
Adobe spark was formally Adobe voice, and it was a good tool then but as I was using the tool with the librarian, for creating book trailers, we noticed that Adobe Voice now had a web-based interface and other tools were added to the suite. Spark is free for anyone to try at spark.adobe.com . You have three choices, Post, Page, and Video. Each option has a plus sign and a short description. The Post tool is designed to help you create a social meme; Page is for portfolios, catalogs, and info pages; and Video is for tutorials and presentations. For this post I will focus on the Video portion of spark.
One of the integrated projects I assisted with in the library setting is assisting my students with making a book trailer. The students chose their favorite book or a book that they have read and their task was to; make a script that they would use to make their video, chose pictures that would connect to the paragraphs in their script, make slides with the pictures and text and narration on them. This sounds somewhat easy but it was quite a challenge for many of the students, especially my diverse learners, and students with communication and Autism disorders. I got to work with most of my students in developing a book trailer which gave me loads of social emotional skills to work with the students on.
Students used the skills of: collaborating, making decisions, taking turns, using reciprocal conversation, waiting, expressing ideas, using their voice to get their point across active listening, following instructions, etc.. Great for goal attainment. Here is a link to one of my students videos, and this took a lot of effort for him to make this short clip. (it’s under the teacher’s name as we used a new email and password that all the students made videos under so that we could access them for review and keep control of the content.) https://spark.adobe.com/video/HyBm9y8Q
Students collaborating on making a book trailer
This video is from Free Technology for Teachers by Richard Byrne
Read more about ways to use Adobe Spark on Richard Byrne’s site http://www.freetech4teachers.com/2016/05/10-ways-to-use-adobe-spark-in-school.html#.V05t4VUrLIV
I have to say as soon as I viewed the videos and comments on this tool, I could see the social emotional uses. Recap is a video reflection tool where you can develop a class of students and give questions that the students will answer via the Recap tool. So lets suppose you read a social story to the students and you want to assess, if they were the character, how would they handle the situation or dilemma? The students would then use the sign in pin and go to the dashboard on the Recap site and there they will see the question you have posted. Students then would video tape their answer, which they will love to do! Instant feedback and promotion of using their voice, to share their thoughts. This could be very encouraging and motivational for students that are shy or struggling with sequencing their thoughts. Below is a video made by a student on how a student would use Recap.
As you can see, the possibilities are endless for this tool. As stated earlier, the tool is in beta and currently free. Teachers and students can use Recap on desktops, Chromebooks and any laptop. Currently, Recap for iPad supports student accounts only. Give it a try. Sign up at letsrecap.com
Leave a comment as to how you would use these tools in practice
Posted in Web 2.0 tools
Great blog post from Sean Erreger discussing technology in social work education. Sean is using at video conferencing tool called Blab.IM that is currently in beta form. Take time to listen to the video conference as his participants discuss the future of technology in social work education. Blog post below.
Recently I blogged about the Social Work Distance Education Conference and how it was exciting to see how technology is changing social work education. The week after this post I had chance to do …
Source: Tools for Practice Tuesday: Blabbing about #SWDE2016
Posted in Web 2.0 tools
Thanks to all my followers, and those who check in and read my posts. I hope to continue to give you more creative ideas and ways to incorporate technology into your social work practice. 
Posted in Web 2.0 tools
The University at Buffalo School of Social Work is making its mark on helping their students use and understand how important technology is and how it can be used in the profession. They have developed some great resources for social workers to use.
Take a look at this video: The social worker’s guide to social media, by Dean Nancy Smyth.
On the School of Social Work site, you can find a list of resources for social workers to explore when using or looking for technology. The list is beneficial and a great find. Check it out below.
Click image to go to page
One of my other favorite go-to persons is Dr. Jennifer Edwards, Executive Director of Texas Social Medial Research Institute.
Check out the research page and their twitter chat page. Great source of information.
Laura Hitchcock is another social work professor (University of Alabama-Birmingham), that is making a mark in technology for social work. Check out her blog, Teaching and Learning in social work.
Dr. Erin Mason is from my hometown Chicago, so I can’t forget to mention her. Dr. Erin Mason is an Associate Professor in the Counseling program at DePaul University in Chicago. Dr. Mason is the developer of the blog, SCOPE. SCOPE provides school counselors with information about the latest technology tools, trends, and resources. I have to give a little love to my fellow school counselor. School counselors work with side by side with many social workers in schools. Check Dr. Mason out on her blog – SCOPE – scope4scs.com
I know there are others out there, like myself that are making a mark with technology in Social Work. I don’t want to leave anyone out but, in blogging, make it short and sweet.
How are you making your change to becoming a 21st-century social worker? Do you have any other great trailblazers in social work and tech? Leave me a comment!
Posted in Web 2.0 tools
Click photo for NASW site
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