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Teaching Note--Tweeting Macro Practice: Social Media in the Social Work Classroom

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Title: Teaching Note--Tweeting Macro Practice: Social Media in the Social Work Classroom
Language: English
Authors: Teixeira, Samantha, Hash, Kristina M.
Source: Journal of Social Work Education. 2017 53(4):751-758.
Availability: Routledge. Available from: Taylor & Francis, Ltd. 530 Walnut Street Suite 850, Philadelphia, PA 19106. Tel: 800-354-1420; Tel: 215-625-8900; Fax: 215-207-0050; Web site: http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals
Peer Reviewed: Y
Page Count: 8
Publication Date: 2017
Intended Audience: Teachers
Document Type: Journal Articles
Reports - Research
Education Level: Higher Education
Descriptors: Social Work, Social Media, Educational Technology, Technology Uses in Education, Undergraduate Study, Student Surveys, Student Attitudes, Teaching Methods, Use Studies, Learner Engagement, Likert Scales
DOI: 10.1080/10437797.2017.1287025
ISSN: 1043-7797
Abstract: Despite its ubiquity, social work educators are just beginning to harness social media in teaching. In this teaching note, we discuss our use of Twitter in a bachelor's-level macro Human Behavior in the Social Environment course. We present results from a survey of 45 students designed to assess their perceptions of Twitter use in the classroom and, in particular, as a macro social work learning tool. Students appreciated using social media in the course and reported that Twitter was a valuable professional social work tool. We explore how social work educators can provide an innovative classroom experience that incorporates ethical and professional use of social media and demonstrate how we used Twitter to apply macro practice competencies.
Abstractor: As Provided
Number of References: 21
Entry Date: 2017
Accession Number: EJ1159439
Database: ERIC
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  Value: <anid>AN0125979237;swe01oct.17;2019Mar19.13:10;v2.2.500</anid> <title id="AN0125979237-1">Teaching Note—Tweeting Macro Practice: Social Media in the Social Work Classroom. </title> <p>Despite its ubiquity, social work educators are just beginning to harness social media in teaching. In this teaching note, we discuss our use of Twitter in a bachelor's-level macro Human Behavior in the Social Environment course. We present results from a survey of 45 students designed to assess their perceptions of Twitter use in the classroom and, in particular, as a macro social work learning tool. Students appreciated using social media in the course and reported that Twitter was a valuable professional social work tool. We explore how social work educators can provide an innovative classroom experience that incorporates ethical and professional use of social media and demonstrate how we used Twitter to apply macro practice competencies.</p> <p>Social media use has increased drastically in the United States during the past decade (Perrin, [<reflink idref="bib13" id="ref1">13</reflink>]). While only 7% of American adults used social media in 2005, now nearly 65% report that they use social media sites like Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn (Perrin, [<reflink idref="bib13" id="ref2">13</reflink>]). The vast majority (nearly 90%) of young adults in America use social media (Perrin, [<reflink idref="bib13" id="ref3">13</reflink>]) and the use of Twitter, in particular, is on the rise (Duggan, Ellison, Lampe, Lenhart, & Madden, [<reflink idref="bib3" id="ref4">3</reflink>]). Many students, especially undergraduates, have never known life without the Internet and often prefer to communicate using social media (Prensky, [<reflink idref="bib14" id="ref5">14</reflink>]; Young, [<reflink idref="bib20" id="ref6">20</reflink>]). Young adults are increasingly looking to social media for professional and academic use in addition to personal use (Kim, Yoo Lee, & Sin, [<reflink idref="bib9" id="ref7">9</reflink>]).</p> <p>Despite its ubiquity in our students' everyday lives, social work educators are just beginning to harness social media as a teaching tool (Robbins & Singer, [<reflink idref="bib15" id="ref8">15</reflink>]). Social work educational policy standards encourage us to be "proactive in responding to the impact of context on professional practice" (Council on Social Work Education, [<reflink idref="bib2" id="ref9">2</reflink>], p. 11). Social media is one such context. The existing research suggests that using social media in social work classes can help reinforce practice behaviors, improve digital literacy, and cultivate professional networks (Hitchcock & Battista, [<reflink idref="bib7" id="ref10">7</reflink>]; Young, [<reflink idref="bib20" id="ref11">20</reflink>]).</p> <p>In this teaching note, we discuss our use of Twitter, an online social networking site that allows users to "tweet" short, 140-character messages, in a macro Human Behavior in the Social Environment (HBSE) course. This course is the second in a two-course series; the first course examines individual development within a family context and this course focuses on the effect of groups, organizations, and communities on human functioning. We demonstrate how we used Twitter to reinforce course content, present student opinions about the use of social media in the course, and describe practical implications.</p> <hd id="AN0125979237-2">Social work and social media: Ethical and professional considerations</hd> <p>In 2005, the National Association of Social Workers (NASW) and Association of Social Work Boards (ASWB) created standards for technology and social work practice (National Association of Social Workers, [<reflink idref="bib12" id="ref12">12</reflink>]). The standards specify how technology can be used to improve the practice of advocacy, social action, and research while also charging social workers with acquiring new skills to use technology competently. While they provide a good jumping-off point, these standards were written within a year of the creation of Facebook and before the creation of Twitter, so they do not expressly address social media environments (Voshel & Wesala, [<reflink idref="bib19" id="ref13">19</reflink>]).</p> <p>In the absence of professional guidelines, many students and professionals are unsure how their social media identities relate to social work values and ethics. In their survey of 105 undergraduate and graduate-level social work students, Mukherjee and Clark ([<reflink idref="bib11" id="ref14">11</reflink>]) found that social work students lack awareness of how social network participation could affect their professional image and future employability. Further, they found that schools of social work were not providing training for their students on social network participation and illustrated a gap in students' knowledge of the ethical and professional use of social media (Mukherjee & Clark, [<reflink idref="bib11" id="ref15">11</reflink>]). Scholars have urged a proactive approach to this gap that stresses the importance of establishing nuanced guidelines to help social work practitioners navigate virtual boundaries and feel confident in using technology in the classroom (Brady, McLeod, & Young, [<reflink idref="bib1" id="ref16">1</reflink>]; Kimball & Kim, [<reflink idref="bib10" id="ref17">10</reflink>]). Because the guidelines remain ambiguous, using social media in the social work classroom may allow students to develop their online professional identity in an intentional manner in which they are given scaffolding to understand appropriate social media use (Kimball & Kim, [<reflink idref="bib10" id="ref18">10</reflink>]; Voshel & Wesala, [<reflink idref="bib19" id="ref19">19</reflink>]).</p> <hd id="AN0125979237-3">Twitter as a growing pedagogical tool</hd> <p>Twitter is a tool for microblogging, or the broadcasting of short messages known as tweets, and has begun to be used and evaluated as a teaching tool in many disciplines throughout the world (Greenhow & Gleason, [<reflink idref="bib5" id="ref20">5</reflink>]). Greenhow and Gleason ([<reflink idref="bib5" id="ref21">5</reflink>]) scanned the educational literature on microblogging and found that it has been associated with positive educational outcomes such as increased student engagement, more active learning, enhanced student–instructor relationships, and higher grades. Other studies have found that using Twitter encouraged student engagement and participation from students who did not normally speak up in class (Evans, [<reflink idref="bib4" id="ref22">4</reflink>]; Tiernan, [<reflink idref="bib18" id="ref23">18</reflink>]). Overall, the findings of these studies suggest that Twitter may be a useful way to enhance class discussion and connect students and instructors.</p> <p>Despite the promising evaluations of social media in education, very few social work educators have published accounts of their use of social media and Twitter in instruction (noteworthy recent exceptions include Hitchcock & Young, [<reflink idref="bib8" id="ref24">8</reflink>], and Sitter & Curnew, [<reflink idref="bib17" id="ref25">17</reflink>]). In their article discussing how social work educators might infuse social media into the classroom, Hitchcock and Battista ([<reflink idref="bib7" id="ref26">7</reflink>]) noted that although social work educators are using social media on a personal level, they largely fail to integrate it into their pedagogy. There is, however, a growing group of social work educators joining the call for social media use in social work education. These educators have asserted that social media can be a powerful tool for teaching students the values and ethics of the profession along with communication skills in an increasingly digital world (Hitchcock & Battista, [<reflink idref="bib7" id="ref27">7</reflink>]; Hitchcock & Young, [<reflink idref="bib8" id="ref28">8</reflink>]; Robbins & Singer, [<reflink idref="bib15" id="ref29">15</reflink>]; Singer & Sage, [<reflink idref="bib16" id="ref30">16</reflink>]; Sitter & Curnew, [<reflink idref="bib17" id="ref31">17</reflink>]; Young, [<reflink idref="bib20" id="ref32">20</reflink>]).</p> <hd id="AN0125979237-4">Tweeting in social work education: An example from a BSW HBSE class</hd> <p></p> <hd id="AN0125979237-5">Teaching methods</hd> <p>In this section, we will describe how we integrated Twitter-based exercises designed to reinforce course content in our macro HBSE course (see Table 1 for example Twitter assignments and their relevance to the course).<sups>1</sups> In the first class of the semester, we introduced Twitter as a tool we would be using for the course, demonstrated how to use Twitter, and highlighted the ethical implications of using social media as a professional social worker. Although most of our students (71%) had used Twitter in the past, we gave instruction on how to tweet and reply to tweets, described how hashtags work, and demonstrated Twitter management tools such as Hootsuite and TweetDeck that could be used to organize multiple social media feeds (e.g., a student could use TweetDeck to manage their personal social media accounts alongside their professional account). Both sections of the course shared a hashtag, which they were instructed to include each time they tweeted for class. By following the course hashtag, students and instructors could easily view all tweets relevant to the class. Each week, students were required to complete one assignment on Twitter and respond to at least one of their classmates' tweets (students were required to tweet twice per week but many students participated more regularly). No special equipment was required because the classrooms were equipped with a computer for demonstrations and students and instructors were able to access Twitter on their personal smartphones, laptops, and campus lab-based computers. Twitter is a free, Web-based service and students had Internet access through the campus network, so all could participate in Twitter-based assignments with existing university technology.</p> <p>Table 1. Example Twitter assignments and their connections to classroom activities and practice behaviors.</p> <p> <ephtml> <table><thead><tr><td>In-Class Content</td><td>Twitter Assignment</td><td>Behaviors Reinforced</td></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td>Introduction to using social media as a social work professional</td><td>Create a Twitter profile to use for this class. The profile should reflect your professional identity as a social worker.</td><td>Social media ethics and professional presence online. Effective engagement with stakeholders using practice skills.</td></tr><tr><td>Values and principles that guide practice in macro Human Behavior in the Social Environment course</td><td>Find a hashtag about a relevant current event or macro social work issue related to oppression, human rights, or social and economic justice. Tweet a response or viewpoint using that hashtag.</td><td>Identify social justice issues. Engage in respectful debate. Participate in online advocacy.</td></tr><tr><td>Understanding human behavior within groups</td><td>What characteristics does a good group leader have? Tweet an article about leadership or leadership development and share why you think it is relevant.</td><td>Synthesize information. Critically consume research literature.</td></tr><tr><td>Understanding human behavior within communities</td><td>Tweet a little-known fact about the community in which you are doing your group project. Add a picture if you have one.</td><td>Student engagement in group work projects. Appropriate communication between students. Use of technological tools for practice.</td></tr><tr><td>Diversity and empowerment in organizations and communities</td><td>Attend one of two film viewings. One film is focused on behavior within organizations and the other is focused on neighborhoods and communities. During the film, tweet your reactions to the depictions of empowerment in organizations and communities in the film. Be sure to also respond to tweets from other classmates or instructors viewing the film.</td><td>Critically assess how oppression and discrimination are maintained in the explicit and implicit structures within organizations and communities.</td></tr></tbody></table> </ephtml> </p> <p>Each student created a Twitter profile specifically for the course, and class discussion touched on ways to curate a professional presence on social media. Some students chose to use their existing Twitter profiles and adapted them to the professional standards discussed in the course. Based on our review of practice models established by Hitchcock and Battista ([<reflink idref="bib7" id="ref33">7</reflink>]), we anticipated that some students might be uncomfortable with the use of social media and discussed this possibility in class. We encouraged these reluctant students to use Twitter for the purposes of this course and to delete their account when the semester was complete if they wished. All students agreed to participate. We specifically addressed ethical issues by demonstrating appropriate use of social media for professional social work, engaging with our students on Twitter and modeling ethical social media use, and reinforcing ethical considerations in both classroom and Twitter-based discussions. These in-class discussions allowed us to discuss issues such as professional boundaries in online settings and managing one's online identity as a professional social worker.</p> <p>Assignments in the course highlighted concepts from course lectures and were designed to apply macro practice skills. For example, to apply diversity in practice, we asked students to identify hashtags relevant to social justice issues and to tweet using those hashtags to educate their classmates about issues of interest (adapted from Hitchcock, [<reflink idref="bib6" id="ref34">6</reflink>]). This encouraged students to apply ethical principles, critically appraise the audience the hashtags were engaging, and understand "hashtag activism" as a new iteration of traditional social action campaigns. They participated in online debate with classmates, which promoted respectful communication and exposure to opinions that differed from their own.</p> <p>We also integrated practical uses of Twitter for macro social work practice. Students practiced organizational leadership through identification of viral campaigns (e.g., the ALS ice bucket challenge) to showcase innovative ways to practice fundraising and development. Students assessed and shared research articles and infographics to our class Twitter feed and viewed how social service organizations used social media to draw attention to the populations they serve. Each assignment was tailored to augment the class readings and lecture materials so that the students were directly applying and extending their knowledge of course material while intentionally building their professional online identity. Our use of Twitter in macro HBSE allowed us to emphasize macro practice competencies identified by the Council on Social Work Education Educational Policy and Accreditation Standards (CSWE, [<reflink idref="bib2" id="ref35">2</reflink>]) and the practice competencies outlined in the NASW and ASWB technology standards (NASW, [<reflink idref="bib12" id="ref36">12</reflink>]; see Table 2).</p> <p>Table 2. Using Twitter as a pedagogical tool and its application to disciplinary standards.</p> <p> <ephtml> <table><thead><tr><td>Professional Organization</td><td>Competency Addressed</td></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td>Council on Social Work Education <xref ref-type="bibr" rid="bibr2">2015</xref> Educational Policy and Accreditation Standards</td><td>Use technology ethically and appropriately (Competency 1).</td></tr><tr><td /><td>Apply and communicate an understanding of the importance of diversity and difference (Competency 2).</td></tr><tr><td /><td>Apply an understanding of social, economic, and environmental justice to advocate for human rights at the individual and systems levels (Competency 3).</td></tr><tr><td /><td>Apply critical thinking to advocate for policies that advance human rights and social, economic, and environmental justice (Competency 6).</td></tr><tr><td>National Association of Social Workers and Association of Social Work Boards Technology Standards 2005</td><td>Using technology to inform and mobilize communities (Standard 9–1).</td></tr><tr><td /><td>Advocating for the use of relevant technologies to enhance the well-being of communities (Standard 9–2).</td></tr><tr><td /><td>Keeping informed about technology that will advance quality program operations and service delivery (Standard 9–3).</td></tr></tbody></table> </ephtml> </p> <hd id="AN0125979237-6">Survey design</hd> <p>Our evaluation aimed to understand students' opinions of Twitter use in the course. A total of 48 undergraduate students and two instructors used Twitter during the one-semester course. Forty-five of the 48 (94%) enrolled students chose to participate in the optional end of semester survey. Several questions were drawn from Welch and White's ([<reflink idref="bib21" id="ref37">21</reflink>]) peer engagement scale, and the remaining questions inquired about students' experiences using Twitter as a social work learning and practice tool. Questions used a 5-point Likert scale where 1 = <emph>strongly agree</emph> and 5 = <emph>strongly disagree</emph>. The questions aimed to collect information about student Twitter use, students' satisfaction with Twitter in the course, student engagement with the class material, and student evaluations of Twitter as a professional social work tool. We also incorporated several open-ended questions to gain qualitative insight. We distributed the evaluation electronically using the anonymous survey function in Blackboard to maintain student confidentiality. We present descriptive results and examples of students' responses to open-ended questions to illustrate social work students' perceptions of Twitter use in the classroom and, in particular, as a macro social work learning tool. The university institutional review board (IRB) granted approval for this study and deemed it exempt from IRB review.</p> <hd id="AN0125979237-7">Results</hd> <p>We examined the experiences of undergraduate social work students and found that Twitter made students feel engaged in the class material and, for many, extended their learning beyond the classroom. Students also reported that it was a useful tool for social action. The following section details our findings (see Table 3).</p> <p>Table 3. BSW students' opinions on Twitter use.</p> <p> <ephtml> <table><thead><tr><td /><td>Rating</td><td /><td /></tr><tr><td /><td>Strongly Agree</td><td /><td /><td /><td>Strongly Disagree</td><td /><td /></tr><tr><td>Survey Items</td><td>1</td><td>2</td><td>3</td><td>4</td><td>5</td><td>Mean</td><td>Total Respondents</td></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td>Twitter Use</td><td /><td /><td /><td /><td /><td /><td /></tr><tr><td>I regularly use Twitter outside of this course.</td><td>14</td><td>10</td><td>5</td><td>9</td><td>7</td><td>2.66</td><td>45</td></tr><tr><td>I regularly use Twitter for this course.</td><td>18</td><td>22</td><td>2</td><td>2</td><td>0</td><td>1.72</td><td>44</td></tr><tr><td>I had difficulty using the Twitter technology in this course.</td><td>3</td><td>5</td><td>2</td><td>14</td><td>21</td><td>4.00</td><td>45</td></tr><tr><td>I think I will continue to use Twitter after this course is over.</td><td>13</td><td>19</td><td>4</td><td>6</td><td>3</td><td>2.27</td><td>45</td></tr><tr><td>Twitter Satisfaction</td><td /><td /><td /><td /><td /><td /><td /></tr><tr><td>I enjoy using Twitter for this course.</td><td>15</td><td>20</td><td>6</td><td>1</td><td>3</td><td>2.05</td><td>45</td></tr><tr><td>Using Twitter for this class is useful to me.</td><td>11</td><td>21</td><td>7</td><td>3</td><td>1</td><td>2.12</td><td>43</td></tr><tr><td>Using Twitter in this course stimulates my interest in course content.</td><td>16</td><td>22</td><td>5</td><td>1</td><td>1</td><td>1.86</td><td>45</td></tr><tr><td>Using Twitter in this course enhances my learning of course content.</td><td>15</td><td>21</td><td>6</td><td>2</td><td>1</td><td>1.95</td><td>45</td></tr><tr><td>Engagement</td><td /><td /><td /><td /><td /><td /><td /></tr><tr><td>I regularly engage with classmates in person.</td><td>21</td><td>21</td><td>2</td><td>1</td><td>0</td><td>1.61</td><td>45</td></tr><tr><td>I regularly engage with classmates on Twitter.</td><td>10</td><td>18</td><td>11</td><td>5</td><td>1</td><td>2.32</td><td>45</td></tr><tr><td>Twitter as Professional Social Work Tool</td><td /><td /><td /><td /><td /><td /><td /></tr><tr><td>I think Twitter is a useful professional tool.</td><td>17</td><td>19</td><td>4</td><td>4</td><td>1</td><td>1.95</td><td>45</td></tr><tr><td>I think Twitter can be used to promote social justice.</td><td>24</td><td>16</td><td>2</td><td>1</td><td>0</td><td>1.52</td><td>43</td></tr></tbody></table> </ephtml> </p> <p>2 <emph>Note</emph>. 1 = <emph>strongly agree</emph>, 2 = <emph>agree</emph>, 3 = <emph>neither agree nor disagree</emph>, 4 = <emph>disagree</emph>, 5 = <emph>strongly disagree.</emph></p> <hd id="AN0125979237-8">Twitter use</hd> <p>Almost three-quarters (71%) of respondents had used Twitter prior to the beginning of the course, so in response to the prompt, "I had difficulty using the Twitter technology in this course," most students expressed disagreement (<emph>M</emph> = 4.00). They reported that they regularly used Twitter for the course (<emph>M</emph> = 1.72). Students reported that the use of Twitter was easy for them and that they appreciated the use of technology in the classroom. As one student stated, "I liked it a lot. Easy, fun, and it was nice being allowed to use technology as a tool to further class discussion especially since the use of technology is usually frowned upon in our social work classes." Those who did not appreciate using Twitter for classroom assignments (<emph>n</emph> = 4) reported that they preferred traditional discussion boards (such as those found on Blackboard) and had difficulty expressing their thoughts within Twitter's 140-character limit.</p> <hd id="AN0125979237-9">Twitter satisfaction/usefulness in the course</hd> <p>Students enjoyed using Twitter in the course (<emph>M</emph> = 2.05) and felt that it was useful (<emph>M</emph> = 2.12), stimulated their interest in the course (<emph>M</emph> = 1.86), and enhanced their learning of course material (<emph>M</emph> = 1.95). In their qualitative responses, many students expressed that they felt that Twitter was a modern, relevant way for them to apply material they learned in class to current events outside the classroom. For example, students stated:</p> <p>I think it will effect [sic] my grade in a positive way because I am applying course material to something I enjoy [Twitter] rather than forcing myself to try and apply the material in a homework assignment outside of the classroom.</p> <p>I love that everyone will find different articles and we will read through them and comment on them and so on. We are spreading awareness and learning all kinds of stats and information on social work and the world around us.</p> <p>The students' reactions to using Twitter were very positive and suggested that they both enjoyed using Twitter and found it to be a useful learning tool.</p> <hd id="AN0125979237-10">Engagement</hd> <p>Students regularly engaged with their classmates in person (<emph>M</emph> = 1.61) and using Twitter (<emph>M</emph> = 2.32). Several students reported that they liked Twitter better than traditional forms of classroom communication like Blackboard discussion boards. One stated, "I found it fun compared to the normal discussion boards. It also made me feel connected to my classmates." Students also used Twitter in unexpected ways that promoted further class engagement.</p> <p>Over the course of the semester, students became accustomed to using Twitter for the class and used Twitter for several unexpected purposes. Student elections took place during the semester and, unprompted by the instructors, students began to use our course Twitter hashtag to campaign for student office. They also used the hashtag to communicate with classmates about other courses and advocacy opportunities such as hanging a banner in the student union building for social work month.</p> <hd id="AN0125979237-11">Twitter as professional macro social work tool</hd> <p>Students viewed Twitter as a useful tool for professional social workers (<emph>M</emph> = 1.95). Students' qualitative comments supported the quantitative assessment. For example, one student stated:</p> <p>I think using Twitter for this class is really helpful because it is a tool that our generation has grown up around and what is most relevant to us. It is also a really great networking tool for job opportunities and such so that we will be able to find a position in the field soon after our graduation.</p> <p>They also reported that they saw Twitter as a useful social justice advocacy tool (<emph>M</emph> = 1.52).</p> <hd id="AN0125979237-12">Discussion</hd> <p>Students are actively using social media and increasingly view it as a key resource for seeking information about personal and professional issues (Hitchcock & Battista, [<reflink idref="bib7" id="ref38">7</reflink>]). In this teaching note, we describe how we used Twitter to augment classroom learning and reinforce macro practice behaviors. We were able to harness social media to teach practical applications of social media for macro social work practice, interventions, and professional development. While the results of our brief survey indicated that our integration of Twitter was well received by students, educators looking to implement Twitter into the classroom should be aware of a few challenges we faced.</p> <p>Although our results suggest that students did not have much difficulty using Twitter in this course, it is important to consider that not all students regularly use Twitter. It is crucial to hold an in-class orientation that introduces students to the technology and trains students to recognize and practice ethical boundaries within social media. We provided in-class explanations of Twitter assignments each week (with time for questions and demonstration) and continuously reinforced professional social media practices to ensure that students understood the role of Twitter in the course. We also found that spending time explicitly describing how the Twitter assignments related to professional goals and competencies helped students actively apply course material.</p> <p>There were many unanticipated benefits of using Twitter in the course, specifically around student engagement. The results suggest that students enjoyed the social aspects of using Twitter for the course and that it made them more deeply engage with the material and each other. It also helped instructors to quickly identify the professional interests of individual students through their tweets and integrate those interests into class sessions; we were able to bring discussions from the Twitter feed to the classroom.</p> <p>Students reported that they viewed Twitter as a professional social work advocacy tool and found it useful for promoting social justice. In the course, they demonstrated Twitter-based advocacy, expressed their opinions, and respectfully debated with their classmates through the use of Twitter. The qualitative insight reported above suggests that they found this to be a beneficial way to learn about issues their classmates were passionate about and become educated about current social justice issues worldwide.</p> <p>Our experience suggests that the use of Twitter in the macro HBSE classroom holds promise for promoting student engagement and can be used to model professional skills. Although our survey findings are not intended to be generalizable, we believe these findings are transferrable to other contexts, particularly in social work classrooms. Our survey indicated that students enjoyed using Twitter and found it valuable as a tool to promote social justice and professional development. Future research should explore the use of Twitter in the classroom more systematically to better understand how it may affect student engagement and professional skills.</p> <p>As educators, we can respond to changing technology by preparing social work students to use social media tools professionally, recognizing boundaries, ethical issues, and practical uses of social media for social work interventions. To meet students where they are, we must strive to keep ourselves up to date with the latest technology. This affirms our commitment to changing practice contexts and will help us to train students to competently practice in the face of changing technology.</p> <ref id="AN0125979237-13"> <title> References </title> <blist> <bibl id="bib1" idref="ref16" type="bt">1</bibl> <bibtext> Brady, S. R., McLeod, D. A., & Young, J. A. (2015). Developing ethical guidelines for creating social media technology policy in social work classrooms. Advances in Social Work, 16(1), 43–54.</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibl id="bib2" idref="ref9" type="bt">2</bibl> <bibtext> Council on Social Work Education. (2015). Educational Policy and Accreditation Standards. Retrieved from https://cswe.org/getattachment/Accreditation/Accreditation-Process/2015-EPAS/2015EPAS_Web_FINAL.pdf.aspx</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibl id="bib3" idref="ref4" type="bt">3</bibl> <bibtext> Duggan, M., Ellison, N. B., Lampe, C., Lenhart, A., & Madden, M. (2015). Social media update 2014. Washington, DC: Pew Research Center. Retrieved from <ulink href="http://www.pewinternet.org/2015/01/09/social-media-update-2014/">http://www.pewinternet.org/2015/01/09/social-media-update-2014/</ulink></bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibl id="bib4" idref="ref22" type="bt">4</bibl> <bibtext> Evans, C. (2014). Twitter for teaching: Can social media be used to enhance the process of learning? British Journal of Educational Technology, 45(5), 902–915. doi:10.1111/bjet.2014.45.issue-5</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibl id="bib5" idref="ref20" type="bt">5</bibl> <bibtext> Greenhow, C., & Gleason, B. (2012). Twitteracy: Tweeting as a new literacy practice. The Educational Forum, 76(4), 464–478.</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibl id="bib6" idref="ref34" type="bt">6</bibl> <bibtext> Hitchcock, L. I. (2013). Twitter learning activities for social work competencies. Retrieved from <ulink href="http://www.laureliversonhitchcock.org/category/twitter/page/4/">http://www.laureliversonhitchcock.org/category/twitter/page/4/</ulink></bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibl id="bib7" idref="ref10" type="bt">7</bibl> <bibtext> Hitchcock, L. I., & Battista, A. (2013). Social media for professional practice: Integrating Twitter with social work pedagogy. Journal of Baccalaureate Social Work, 18, 33–45.</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibl id="bib8" idref="ref24" type="bt">8</bibl> <bibtext> Hitchcock, L. I., & Young, J. (2016). Tweet, tweet!: Using live twitter chats in social work education. Social Work Education, 35, 457–468. doi:10.1080/02615479.2015.1136273</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibl id="bib9" idref="ref7" type="bt">9</bibl> <bibtext> Kim, K. S., Yoo Lee, E., & Sin, S. C. J. (2011). Social media as information source: Undergraduates' use and evaluation behavior. Proceedings of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, 48(1), 1–3. doi:10.1002/meet.2011.14504801283</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibtext> Kimball, E., & Kim, J. (2013). Virtual boundaries: Ethical considerations for use of social media in social work. Social Work, 58, 185–188. doi:10.1093/sw/swt005</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibtext> Mukherjee, D., & Clark, J. (2012). Students' participation in social networking sites: Implications for social work education. 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From the editor—The medium is the message: Integrating social media and social work education. Journal of Social Work Education, 50(3), 387–390. doi:10.1080/10437797.2014.916957</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibtext> Singer, J. B., & Sage, M. (2015). Technology and social work practice: Micro, mezzo, and macro Applications. In K. Corcoran (Ed.), Social workers' desk reference. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibtext> Sitter, K. C., & Curnew, A. H. (2016). The application of social media in social work community practice. Social Work Education, 35(3), 1–13.</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibtext> Tiernan, P. (2014). A study of the use of Twitter by students for lecture engagement and discussion. Education and Information Technologies, 19(4), 673–690. doi:10.1007/s10639-012-9246-4</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibtext> Voshel, E. H., & Wesala, A. (2015). Social media & social work ethics: Determining best Practices in an ambiguous reality. Journal of Social Work Values and Ethics, 12(1), 67–76.</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibtext> Young, J. (2014). iPolicy: Exploring and Evaluating the use of iPads in a Social Welfare Policy Course. Journal of Technology in Human Services, 32(1–2), 39–53. doi:10.1080/15228835.2013.860366</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibtext> Welch, B. K., & Bonnan-White, J. (2012). Twittering to increase student engagement in the university classroom. Knowledge Management & E-Learning: An International Journal, 4(3), 325–345.</bibtext> </blist> </ref> <aug> <p>By Samantha Teixeira and Kristina M. Hash</p> <p>Reported by Author; Author</p> <p></p> <p>Samantha Teixeira, MSW, PhD, is an Assistant Professor at the Boston College School of Social Work. Kristina M. Hash, MSW, PhD, is a Professor at the West Virginia University School of Social Work.</p> <p>Samantha Teixeira, MSW, PhD, is an Assistant Professor at the Boston College School of Social Work. Kristina M. Hash, MSW, PhD, is a Professor at the West Virginia University School of Social Work.</p> </aug> <nolink nlid="nl1" bibid="bib13" firstref="ref1"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl2" bibid="bib14" firstref="ref5"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl3" bibid="bib20" firstref="ref6"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl4" bibid="bib15" firstref="ref8"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl5" bibid="bib12" firstref="ref12"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl6" bibid="bib19" firstref="ref13"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl7" bibid="bib11" firstref="ref14"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl8" bibid="bib10" firstref="ref17"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl9" bibid="bib18" firstref="ref23"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl10" bibid="bib17" firstref="ref25"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl11" bibid="bib16" firstref="ref30"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl12" bibid="bib21" firstref="ref37"></nolink>
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  Data: Teaching Note--Tweeting Macro Practice: Social Media in the Social Work Classroom
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  Data: Routledge. Available from: Taylor & Francis, Ltd. 530 Walnut Street Suite 850, Philadelphia, PA 19106. Tel: 800-354-1420; Tel: 215-625-8900; Fax: 215-207-0050; Web site: http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals
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  Data: <searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Social+Work%22">Social Work</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Social+Media%22">Social Media</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Educational+Technology%22">Educational Technology</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Technology+Uses+in+Education%22">Technology Uses in Education</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Undergraduate+Study%22">Undergraduate Study</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Student+Surveys%22">Student Surveys</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Student+Attitudes%22">Student Attitudes</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Teaching+Methods%22">Teaching Methods</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Use+Studies%22">Use Studies</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Learner+Engagement%22">Learner Engagement</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Likert+Scales%22">Likert Scales</searchLink>
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  Data: Despite its ubiquity, social work educators are just beginning to harness social media in teaching. In this teaching note, we discuss our use of Twitter in a bachelor's-level macro Human Behavior in the Social Environment course. We present results from a survey of 45 students designed to assess their perceptions of Twitter use in the classroom and, in particular, as a macro social work learning tool. Students appreciated using social media in the course and reported that Twitter was a valuable professional social work tool. We explore how social work educators can provide an innovative classroom experience that incorporates ethical and professional use of social media and demonstrate how we used Twitter to apply macro practice competencies.
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