Internet Across the Social Work Curriculum

INTERNET ACROSS THE CURRICULUM

Adele Weiner, Ph.D.
weinerap@ymail.yu.edu
Wurzweiler School of Social Work, Yeshiva University, NYC, NY

Curriculum Development Workshop:
Council on Social Work Education Annual Program Meeting,
San Francisco, California, March 1999.
.
This presentation can be found as an interactive outline
on the world wide web at:
http://draweiner.freeservers.com/basicinternet.html

Basic Internet Resources for Social Work Education

E-Mail and Mailing Lists

An e-mail message goes only to the person(s) listed in the address box, while a message sent to a mailing list goes to everyone subscribed to the list.
Non-Synchronous Communications
General Social Work Mailing List - SOCWORK

To subscribe send an e-mail message to majordomo@uwrf.edu without any topic, heading or signature
You will receive a message back indicating you have been successfully subscribed.

Specialized mailing lists offer the opportunity for class communications and discussions.

Chatrooms or MOOs

Synchronous Communication
AOL Chatrooms - Private and Public
Private Chat Rooms on Web Pages - XOOM (http://xoom.com/home/)
MOOs (Multi-User Object Oriented) - Virtual Office/Meeting Room with Education tools - Diversity University (http://moo.du.org)

Internet Browsers - Netscape, Explorer, AOL

Search Engines and Directories

Indexed - Yahoo (http://www.yahoo.com)
Concept-based - Excite (http://www.excite.com)
Robots (Bots), Spiders or Crawlers - Hotbot (http://www.hotbot.com)
Multiple search -

Metacrawler (http://www.go2net.com/search.html)
Ask Jeeves (http://www.ask.com) Jeeves lets you ask a question the way you'd ask it in the real world.
Dogpile (http://www.dogpile.com)

Virtual Libraries - Electric Library (http://www.elibrary.com)

Database Searches - May require registration or paid subscription

Medline - Public Access to Medline through the National Library of Medicine (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/PubMed/)
PsycInfo (http://www.apa.org/psycinfo/)
Social Work Research and Abstracts (http://www.silverplatter.com/catalog/swab.htm)
Educational Resources Information Center (ERIC) - Public Access (http://www.accesseric.org:81/)
ProQuest (Many public and school libraries) (http://www.proquest.com/)

Full text of articles from research periodicals and newspapers
Allows the development of course packs from existing packages or from scratch.

Database Sets - Fedstats (http://www.fedstats.gov)

Online Subscriptions

Government Reports
Newspapers

Social Work Resource Pages

The New Social Worker (http://www.socialworker.com/)
Social Work Access Network (SWAN) (http://www.sc.edu/swan/)
World Wide Web Resources for Social Workers (http://www.nyu.edu/socialwork/wwwrsw/)

Readings

Grant, G.B. and Grobman, L.M. (1998). The social worker's internet handbook, Harrisburg, Pennsylvania: White Hat Communications.
Karger, H.J. and Levine, J. (1999). The internet and technology for the human services, New York: Longman.
Syllabus: New directions in education technology, San Jose, California: Syllabus Press, http://www.syllabus.com
Vernon, R. and Lynch, D. (2000). Social work and the web, Belmont, California: Wadsworth.
Weiner, A. (1999). Taking a HIV/AIDS education course to the 'net. New Technology in Human Services, 12(3/4), 12-16.

Issues in Using Web Pages

General Browsing by Students vs. Specific Sites Selected by Faculty
Credibility and Reliability of the Information (Or Any Idiot can have a Web page)

Government Sites - Federal Web Locator (http://www.vcilp.org/Fed-Agency/fedwebloc.html#search)
Professional Social Work Organizations

NASW (http://www.naswdc.org/)
CSWE (http://www.cswe.org)
BPD (http://www.rit.edu/~694www/bpd.htm)

Professional Service Organizations
Professional Journals
Newspapers and News Services

Citation format (http://www.uvm.edu/~ncrane/estyles/apa.html)
Privacy and Security
Netiquette for students and faculty

Visit Some Social Work Education Sites

An Interactive Course Syllabus - Social Dimensions of AIDS (http://www.geocities.com/CollegePark/7113/)

Cross Curriculum Projects and Readings Lists - An Interdisciplinary Curriculum Project - Hunger Across the Curriculum (http://www.geocities.com/CollegePark/Lab/5195/)

This Presentation Internet Web Page- Internet Across the Curriculum (http://members.xoom.com/weinerap/basicinternet.html)

Ideas for Using the Internet Throughout the Curriculum

Some of these items require directed sites by faculty and others allow student exploration.

Any Class

Use of government sites for accurate up-to-date demographic data
Search engines to locate materials for papers and projects
Requiring specific web sites as course readings/assignments
Online office hours or guest speakers in chatrooms/MOOs
Resources for lecture notes
Duplication of handouts and slide shows for in-class use
Subscriptions to professional mailing lists, newspapers or government documents
Interactive projects with students from other sections of course, other schools, other countries, other majors (e-mail, mailing lists, chatrooms/MOOs)
Online Book Ordering
Online Syllabi and Bookmark files

Social Welfare Organization and Policy Courses

Have students locate sites of agencies and organizations.
Develop a scavenger hunt that requires students to go to certain sites and find specific information.
Use government on-line libraries to locate legislation, policy guidelines, congressional reports/hearings, etc.

Research Courses

Read government reports and statistics
Use of statistical software
Data analysis of publically available data sets

Human Behavior in the Social Environment

Using professional organization sites that deal with issues covered, such as individual development, lifestyles, diversity, family issues, death and dying, etc.
Government demographic statistics

Practice Courses

Subscription to professional mailing lists
Visit social work organization sites (national and local) and look for current practice issues

Field Courses

Develop an internet manual of resources for agencies
Visit organizational sites for advocacy or client empowerment
Participate in specialized field of interest mailing lists
Development of agency web page (advanced)