Late Adapters? How Social Workers Acquire Knowledge and Skills About Technology Tools

Little is understood about the scope of information and communication technology (ICT) use in practice for agency-based social work professionals, and still less is known about how such practitioners acquire and avail themselves of opportunities to learn about ICT tools. This study asked a sample of social work field supervisors (n?=?371) to describe their personal and professional ICT use, to rank the technological sophistication of their agency, to describe the barriers and facilitators to ICT use in their organizations and to operationalize environmental opportunities for acquiring new skills and knowledge. The authors examine factors that may influence technology use: asking if organizational culture is related to uptake in the professional context, and if self-reported individual resistance to innovation and change can explain voluntary adoption of ICT tools. The results offer a portrait of how agency-based social workers are using technology in personal and professional life, describe how these supervisors learn about developing technologies for practice, and highlight the gaps in technology infrastructures among agencies, pointing to directions for further exploration.     

Social innovation and ICT in social services: European experiences compared

Innovation in social services and social policies in the European welfare systems is an evolving phenomenon stimulated by socio-demographic, cultural and economic changes. Many social service innovations are linked to disruptive technologies, especially the introduction of information and communication technology (ICT). To discuss the effects of disruptive technologies on health and social services, this article first proposes a framework consistent with the social innovation paradigm. Secondly, based on case-studies, it investigates different models of social and health service innovation driven by technology. The article shows advantages and disadvantages of service innovation driven by technology, and offers some final remarks about future challenges for ICT in health and social services. More evidences of effectiveness and efficiency are necessary to promote public and private investment to implement solutions on a wider scale. However, the impacts of technology-based solutions cannot be measured only in terms of economic aspects but also taking into account whether new technologies really provide the opportunity for citizens to have a better life and advocacy for their rights.     

The use and non‐use of assistive technologies from the world of information and communication technology by visually impaired young people: a walk on the tightrope of peer inclusion

In affluent societies how people use technology is symbolic of various values and identities. This article investigates the symbolic values and use of assistive technologies from the world of information and communication technology (ICT) in the daily lives of 11 visually impaired young Norwegians. The article draws on a qualitative interview study and employs an interactionist approach. While the use of ICT is found to symbolise competence, belonging and independence, the use of ICT assistive technologies is found to symbolise restriction, difference and dependency. Thus, ICT and ICT assistive technologies have inherently contradictory sets of associations. To fit in as ordinary young people the visually impaired participants reject ICT assistive technologies whenever possible. The partially sighted participants who are somehow capable of participating in online interactions with their peers without ICT assistive technologies reject them. The blind participants, however, do not have the option of participating online without ICT assistive technologies and, consequently, they accept ICT assistive technologies.     

New Technology in Home Help Services — A Tool for Support or an Instrument of Subordination?

The implementation of information and communication technologies (ICT) is in line with a general transformation of the work of home help services in Sweden. One strong motivation behind the introduction of new technology was to change the ways of working towards greater efficiency in order to reduce costs and at the same time raise the value of care‐giving work. This article discusses the introduction of ICT in home help services as a part of the increasing rationalization of care‐giving work and its consequences for the workers. The results of an ethnographic study of the introduction of hand‐held computers in a working team in home help services in Sweden shows that the motives for the implementation of ICT run counter to the basic norms that are supposed to govern care‐giving work. The technology participates in reproducing the subordinate position of care‐giving work as well as that of the front‐line workers. The workers act according to personal decision‐making ability and show a form of limited resistance to the technology while, at the same time, taking part in their own subordination.     

TOOLS AND TOYS : Communicating gendered positions towards technology

With the rising importance of technology in the information and knowledge society, the gender-technology relationship is ever more important when thinking about gender equality. Gender researchers have shown not only that the use and design of technologies is gendered, but that people also position themselves in relation to technology, based on certain gendered assumptions about technology in societies. This article looks at how people working in quintessential information and knowledge society professions, namely information communication technology (ICT) work, position themselves in relation to technology. Using a social constructivist framework and a discourse analysis, it shows how gender differences are achieved in communication: men tend to describe technology as a toy, while women tend to describe technology as a tool. In some instances this pattern is broken, which opens up the opportunity to rethink the gender binary. This article argues that the way in which people position themselves in relation to technology continues to be gendered, which may threaten gender equality in the information and knowledge society, and it also indicates that there is the possibility of change.     

Risk Management in Online Human Services Practice

SUMMARY

The growing use of the Internet for human service practice has resulted in ethical and legal issues that have yet to be fully addressed by current professional codes of ethics and the courts. This paper describes issues and risk-management procedures related to online human service practice, including: use of novel and untested services, unclear jurisdiction, equivalence of face-to-face and online practice, duty to warn and to provide emergency services, privacy and security of online transactions, establishment of fiduciary relationships, online assessment, and fees for online services. In addition, risk-management issues related to human service agency Web sites including copyright, ownership of the Web site, posting of staff names, online fundraising, online threats and disruption of services, unsolicited e-mail, and agency e-mail policies are discussed.     

Implementing evidence-based practices and programmes in the human services: lessons from research in public administration

The development of evidence-based practice and programmes (EBP) has led to increasing interest in implementation issues in the field of human services, and specifically how to bridge the gap between scientific knowledge and actual practice. However, because EBP are usually connected with social policies, which are political, implementation problems arise concerning resource allocation, ethics and power. Such implementation problems in the field of public administration have been extensively researched. The aim of this paper is to investigate whether and how research into policy implementation in public administration may benefit ongoing research on EBP in the human services to understand, explain and manage common implementation problems. This paper is based on a broad review and comparison of the literatures on policy implementation in public administration and implementation of EBP in the human services. Analysis shows that human services could learn from public administration research to develop a broader theoretical approach for understanding and managing implementation of evidence-based practice and programmes.     

Emotions in a Rational Profession: The Gendering of Skills in ICT Work

Information communication technology (ICT) work is rarely seen as a work environment where emotional and social skills are key. However, the ideal ICT worker is increasingly said to possess a range of emotional and social skills that are often associated with femininity. This raises the question of how skills are discursively gendered in ICT work. This article firstly shows which skills ICT workers identify as those needed by the ideal ICT worker. Secondly, it highlights how ICT workers construct their own skills. Thirdly, some light is shed on how the gendering of emotional and social skills shifts with different discursive contexts and it is shown what the implications of this are. It is suggested that there is a dynamic at work through which men can appear as a new ideal ICT worker with more ease than women, despite the fact that women are more often associated with social and emotional skills.     

Preparing Social Work Graduates for Digital Practice: Ethical Pedagogies for Effective Learning

ABSTRACT

Debate has arisen in social work about the value of online education, with proponents providing examples of innovative approaches to online teaching and those against it citing the need for face-to-face interactions to suitably teach and assess social work skills. At the same time, social workers are increasingly making use of social media, websites, online databases, email, and text messaging services for work with clients. Consequently, social workers must be adequately prepared to make use of online technologies in their practice. Drawing on examples of online interactive activities used at two regional universities and informed by Chi’s conceptual framework of cognitive processes of learning, this article argues that learning via information and communications technology (ICT) helps prepare graduates for emerging digital practice and should be an integral part of social work education. Further, ICT enables educators to monitor the levels and quality of student rehearsal of practice skills and knowledge in interactive learning experiences helping promote competent practice, grounded in social work values.     

‘I know,I can,I will try’: youths and adults with intellectual disabilities in Sweden using information and communication technology in their everyday life

This study introduces how technology and humans are part of relationships that influence agency among people with disabilities. It aims to focus attention on the use of, and access to, information and communication technology (ICT), and agency among youths and adults with intellectual disabilities. The study draws on empirical research conducted with youths and adults with intellectual disabilities, as well as staff at a day centre. It shows that by drawing upon interests, previous experiences, and cooperating in ICT activities the participants’ agency changed. Also, it shows how disability is relational and how it can be influenced by ICT. An interdisciplinary approach is adopted to interpret the findings and to explore: How do people of different ages with intellectual disabilities experience the use of ICT in their everyday lives? Are people with intellectual disabilities able to influence their level of activity by using ICT? And if so, in what ways?     

A Delphi study of the future of new technology research in public relations

New technology has dramatically expanded over the past decade. New features on websites, powerful mobile devices, and the subsequent restructuring of news services have dramatically changed the profession. This study sought to learn about the broader issues of technology, and forecast trends in online communication technologies. In an effort to learn what technology professionals outside of public relations know about new technology and social media, this study used a Delphi methodology and solicited the participation of technology professionals from computer science, professional writing, communication studies, art, business, music and other areas. The first two rounds of the Delphi findings are reported and suggest that public relations professionals need to broaden their understanding of new technology to consider social and relational issues, rather than the current focus on practice.     

Key misconceptions when assessing digital technology for municipal youth social work

ABSTRACT

Municipal youth protection work has become infused with digital technology, and yet there is still limited research on how to assess the impact of digital technology on municipal youth social work. This article reviews a range of misconceptions regarding the assessment of digital technology for youth social work in municipal contexts. This review was generated in connection with the development of an app system for communication between young clients and their municipal social workers in Denmark. The misconceptions relate to: variations in technologies and contexts; the impact of digital technologies on the relationship; social justice; differentiating between the user and the digital technology; digitalization and standardization; stakeholder and functional models of municipal social work. The paper concludes that the relationship between municipal social work and digital technology is complex and that thus complex comprehensions of municipal social work practice are needed if the relationship between technologies and practice is to be grasped adequately. The paper argues that given the complexity of the field and the speed of technological and legal changes, external support with regard to assessing how to use, develop and incorporate digital technology needs to be made available to municipalities and social workers.     

Who Gets to ‘Work Hard,Play Hard’? Gendering the Work–Life Balance Rhetoric in Canadian Tech Companies

This article is based on an exploratory study of the implicit gender norms in work–life balance (WLB) rhetoric in ten Canadian information and communication technologies (ICT) organizations. Interviews with human resources (HR) managers and preliminary company website analysis revealed a masculinist and heterosexist bias in the implementation of WLB practices, legitimized by the gender composition of the workforce and the demanding yet inherently rewarding nature of the ICT sector. Participants deliberately separated care (read: childcare) from WLB (read: flexible hours and working from home), reproducing the assumption that an ‘ordinary’ worker is a man with a female partner who assumes primary responsibility for the reproductive realm. The study concludes with: (i) recommendations to increase HR's role in providing functional support for WLB practices and (ii) three future directions for research. This article contributes to a general call in feminist scholarship to apply a gendered lens to WLB practices.     

The Perspective from the Field on Computer Literacy Training Needs

Summary

Rapidly evolving computer technology is changing agency life and social work practice and challenging schools of social work to incorporate such information technology into their curriculum in order to prepare students for these changes. This article describes one effort to meet this challenge: a planning and data-gathering approach utilized by the School of Social Work at the University of Washington to integrate classroom and practicum preparation with computer applications in the field. As part of this process, human service agencies that serve as practicum training sites and potential employers for master's level students within the Seattle metropolitan area were surveyed.

Based upon findings from this survey, this article presents an agency-based perspective on computer literacy training needs through addressing the questions of who is using what computer tools, toward what service ends, with what expected level of proficiency, and with what future needs and directions in mind. Implications of these field-based findings for curriculum planning, for prac-ticum development, and for the conceptualization of computer literacy within human services are identified.     

Design Imperatives to Enhance Evidence-Based Interventions with Persuasive Technology: A Case Scenario in Preventing Child Maltreatment

ABSTRACT

This article examines how current thinking in persuasive technologies may be applied to evidence-based therapeutic interventions through a planned and multidisciplinary design process. Design steps identified in the human services and the design sciences are merged to generate six design imperatives. The need for human service knowledge to inform design is discussed in each design imperative. A case scenario using Healthy Families America (HFA), a broadly implemented child abuse and neglect prevention program, is presented as illustrative. The final design imperative argues for continuous attention to ethics across all disciplines. The design imperatives provide an initial framework for optimizing the development of persuasive technology applications in the human services.     

Socioeconomic implications of broadband services

Korea has shown rapid growth in the development of broadband services over the last several years. The Korean government and business have developed broadband services as a new business model, and the country has emerged as the world's undisputed leader in broadband services. Many media scholars, government telecom officials and information technology (IT) experts around the world are interested in how Korea has so quickly embraced broadband technology. They are also enthusiastic about seeing the fulfilment of their own vision of the information economy through the example of broadband service in Korea. This article explores key aspects of broadband services in Korea and its implications for the information economy. It examines why and how Korea has developed broadband service by examining several institutional factors. It also analyses whether government ICT policy frameworks have contributed to economic and social development. Then, it investigates how the government neoliberal economic policies have influenced the transnationalization of the broadband service market and the impact on the information economy.     

Inter‐professional Learning to Prepare Medical and Social Work Students for Practice with Refugees and Asylum Seekers

Social workers and medical practitioners, particularly those in general practice, provide services for individuals who experience social exclusion. Access to medical, health and social care services has been identified as problematic for refugees and asylum seekers, reflecting their marginalised status within society. It is widely accepted that multi‐agency responses and working together are key requirements in improving access to services and promoting social inclusion; however, achieving this across professional and agency boundaries often remains challenging. Joint planning and training have been suggested as being important in improving communication, leading to more flexible and creative services.

This paper describes the genesis and implementation of a series of innovative inter‐professional workshops for medical and social work students, focussing specifically on marginalised groups. Learning and teaching input was developed by, and came from, service users and qualified medical, health and social work practitioners. The paper focuses particularly on the sessions relating to refugees and asylum seekers. The content and structure of the sessions are discussed and students' responses are reported. The implications for future inter‐professional learning and practice in relation to socially excluded groups are highlighted.     

Empowering Community-Based Programs for Youth Development

This article discusses the need for community-based programs for youth and their families and urges the social work profession to resume its historical leadership in such programs while incorporating recent theory and practice. The authors describe the reasons why social workers abandoned neighborhood-based youth development services, the intended outcomes of such services, and current societal and professional trends that support a revival of social work’s involvement in youth development. They discuss one school of social work’s current participation in a youth agency partnership and examine implications of the suggested revival for social work education. Collaboration among families, schools, diverse community services, agencies, and educators is emphasized.     

A situated understanding of digital technologies in social movements. Media ecology and media practice approaches

Abstract

The article tackles two main aspects related to the interaction between social movements and digital technologies. First, it reflects on the need to include and combine different theoretical approaches in social movement studies so as to construct more meaningful understanding of how social movement actors deals with digital technologies and with what outcomes in societies. In particular, the article argues that media ecology and media practice approaches serve well to reach this objective as: they recognize the complex multi-faceted array of media technologies, professions and contents with which social movement actors interact; they historicize the use of media technologies in social movements; and they highlight the agency of social movement actors in relation to media technologies while avoiding a media-centric approach to the subject matter. Second, this article employs a media practice perspective to explore two interrelated trends in contemporary societies that the articles in this special issue deal with: the personalization and individualization of politics, and the role of the grassroots in political mobilizations.     

Human Services and the Information Economy

SUMMARY

This article discusses the impact of the information economy on human services. The major topics discussed include: the changing nature of work, the impact of the cost of adoption of technology by the human services, the changing expectations the public has for agency use of technology, the move to electronic record keeping and data management, the need for developing a data integrity management process, and the impact of the Internet and intranets on software development.