The WWW and Social Work Education

This page reviews recent literature concerning the effect of WWW on social work education.
It provides an informed and critical introduction for both social work students and educators.
For a more detailed discussion of the WWW and Social Work please read my journal article  Surfing the World Wide Web and Social Work.
 

The WWW and Social Work Education

The literature concerning the impact of the WWW on social work education emphasises the following:
Exponential growth in Social Work Resources
The social work presence on the WWW continues to grow since the first sites appeared between 1994 and 1995. Vernon (2001:571-573) attests to this through his contrast between the 1997 little yellow bookmarks which contained five websites for journals and Dr Gary Holden’s, World Wide Web Resources for Social Workers which lists almost 1,800 journals and newsletters amongst its multitude of links. O’Donoghue (2001:43) argues "that social work is significantly represented on the WWW." His argument is based on a search conducted using six major search engines using the term "social work". The number of social work webpages reported in this search ranged from Alta Vista’s 15, 331, 695 to Yahoo’s 1,620,000. Google with 3,460, 000 was the medium. Arguably, this search is indicative of the tip of the proverbial internet iceberg, because search engines are unable to detect social work journal articles stored on electronic databases such as Proquest and EBSCOhost, as well as other types of protected information (Sandell et al, 2002; Holden, 2002). That said, it is evident that the catalogue of resources available for social work education is now vast (Vernon, 2001: 571-573).

Accessibility and Availability
Coupled with the vast catalogue of resources is the potential for easy access and fairly unfettered availability of these resources to both student and educator. The Web has transcended the bricks, mortar and hard paper copy of the past. Vernon (2001: 571-573) emphasises this point through discussing the advances in technology such as ram, computer processors, modems, and browsers, which have reduced the time spent waiting for pages to appear and have improved access. Vernon (2001:571-573) also highlights the increased availability of access to the WWW through cybercafes, public libraries, handheld devices, etc… Writing in the United States, he comments that, "many schools, faculties, and students now enjoy access from home, work, and campus"(Vernon, 2001:572). In Aotearoa New Zealand, the Department of Statistics (2002) reporting on the 2001 Census state that:

In 2001, 88 percent of New Zealand businesses regularly used a computer, while 36 percent operated a website. Forty-seven percent of New Zealand households had a home computer, and 37 percent had access to the Internet. These statistics place Aotearoa New Zealand as a leading country in terms of the percentage of our population who have access to the Internet. They also indicate that the "digital divide", i.e., the gap between those who have and can access the WWW and those who don’t have and can’t access it is significant. This social divide is also present in the microcosm of society that is found in the social work classroom and it poses a challenge for social work educators in regard to the availability and accessibility of knowledge for some of our students.

Communication Potential
The WWW as well as providing unprecedented access and availability of documents has also provided an unprecedented ability to communicate with other people via email groups, discussion boards and chat rooms. Social work students in other countries appeared to have embraced the use discussion boards as a means by which to consult with peers or others about assignments and other matters concerning their study. One example of this is the study room discussion board on the British Association of Social Workers website (http://www.basw.co.uk/forum/UltraBoard.cgi?action=Category&CID=5&SID=) where students discuss a range of matters from placements to assignments. Another example, is the Care and Health study room discussion board, which states that it has a social work lecturer regularly visiting to help students with projects and assignments (http://www.careandhealth.com/discuss.asp). In Aotearoa New Zealand students feature in the membership of the ANZ Social Work Group (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ANZSocialWorkgroup/) and some discussions in this e-group have been related to course work and placement issues. At one stage, the discussions were dominated by the learning needs of some students completing unit standards through work-based assessment.
The communication potential of the WWW has also been recognised by social work educators and their institutions, hence the proliferation of WebCT and distance education courses (Sandell et al., 2002; Vernon, 2001).

Critical Evaluation
The amount of resources, the easy of availability and access to them and the communication potential with peers and others through the World Wide Web has led to concern about students’ ability to recognise "cybertreasures from cybertrash" (Lynch, 2001: 381-386). Lynch (2001: 381-386) emphasises the need for critical thinking and evaluation concerning web-based materials. The author would also add the need for students to also be critical in terms of discussion board, email and chat-room advice. Lynch (2001: 381-386) recommends that students are encouraged to the consider the following criteria when considering the value and significance of web-based information:

In the Aotearoa New Zealand educators should also encourage students to consider where the resource comes from and its applicability to our bicultural situation, as well as the development of a considered critique of the globalisation and americanisation discourses dominant on the WWW.

References

Department of Statistics (2002), Information Technology, http://www.stats.govt.nz/domino/external/web/prod_serv.nsf/htmldocs/Information+Technology [accessed 19 September 2002].

Holden, G. (2002), Delivering Knowledge for Practice: A World Wide Web-Based Example, Journal of Social Work Education, 38 (1), pp. 167-172.

Lynch, D.(2002), Critical Thinking and the Web, Journal of Social Work Education, 37 (2), pp. 381-386.

Menon, G., and Coe, J. (2000), Technology and Social Work Education: Recent Empirical Studies, Research on Social Work Practice, 10 (4) pp. 397-399.

O’Donoghue, K. (2001), Surfing the World Wide Web and social work practice, Social Work Review 13 (2) pp. 43-49.

Sandell, K., and Hayes, S. (2002), The Web’s Impact on Social Work Education: Opportunities, Challenges, and Future Directions, Journal of Social Work Education, 38 (1), pp. 85-99.

Vernon, R., (2001), Back to the Future, Journal of Social Work Education, 37 (3),
pp. 571-573.


(c) 2003, Kieran O'Donoghue, PO Box 437, Palmerston North, New Zealand
 
 

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Date: 20 January 2003
 
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