That more social work researchers and clinicians are starting to embrace social media doesn’t surprise Karen Zgoda, a licensed clinical social worker and Ph.D candidate at Boston College Graduate School of Social Work.
“I think one of the biggest arguments for using these tools is that clients are already using them,” said Zgoda, whose research focuses on the role of technology in social work. Zgoda writes a regular column on the subject for The New Social Worker Online magazine.
“As social workers, I think it is important to go where the clients are and understand how they are using these tools and how we can use them to help folks,” she added.
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Linda Grobman, publisher and editor of The New Social Worker, and a licensed social worker, counts herself among the “early adopters” of new social media, though she has been using the Internet for social work networking for years. She expects other social workers to eventually invest in the communication tools.
“I think today’s traditional-age students already know about it because kids are growing up with technology-assisted learning,” Grobman said. “They already know about Facebook, text messaging, iPhone apps, YouTube and so forth. So as younger people enter the social work field, there will naturally be more social workers using social media.”
You can read the Contact article here: http://ssw.unc.edu/contact/?p=412
ReplyDeleteOops! I updated the article to reflect the source and provided a link to it.
ReplyDeleteGreat article!
ReplyDeleteYour post on this prompted me to post something I've been meaning to discuss on my own blog regarding some facebook drama and my school. It's finally settled now and I can safely say that I'm glad the school decided to not censure me for it (for a while I got a little scared I'd messed up my final semester of school!)
http://dreamadvocate.blogspot.com/2010/02/social-networking-and-social-work.html
I have a question. I am going to college currently in order to be a social worker. As part of a project I am mandated to speak and ask some questions about Communication skills and technologies on the job. If anyone is interested please contact me at destineesdawn@yahoo.com I sinceerely appreciate your time
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