Information Technology Reference
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ecdotal, some faculty and administrators among
Schools of Social Work have voiced concern that
social work education may not be particularly
suited to online delivery, given long-standing
assumptions regarding face to face relationships
as the basis of interaction, knowledge translation,
modeling and evaluation (Siegel, Jennings, Conk-
lin, Napoletano, 1998). Although recognizing
these pedagogical concerns, the School of Social
Work at Dalhousie University, in Halifax, Nova
Scotia, Canada, had an existing commitment to
advancing post secondary education in commu-
nities marginalized by the socio-economic and
racialized barriers of this region, and thus began
delivering decentralized programs throughout the
Maritime Provinces in the 1980s.As technologies
have been refined, our means for delivery have
focused on Internet technology, and we now offer
national graduate and undergraduate level social
work degrees, both fully accredited by the Cana-
dian Association of Social Work Education.
This chapter begins with a review of the use of
computer assisted technologies in post secondary
education generally and social work specifically,
with an emphasis on the literature regarding
how students are considered to best learn within
an Internet-based design. The specific social
work curriculum under consideration is the field
education course, required for both graduate and
undergraduate social work degrees nationally and
internationally. Next, the chapter draws on the
rich literature of adult education and experiential
learning to lay the foundation for a focus on critical
reflection as the central content and process for
learning in field education. With its commitment
to generate knowledge both “empirically and self
reflectively, in a process of interaction, in order
to analyze, resist and change constructed power
relations, structures and ways of thinking” (Fook,
1999, p.202), critical reflection is taken up here as
a tool for transformative social work practice. The
chapter concludes with examples and experiences
from Dalhousie of how the online medium can
interact with the message of critical reflection on
the field placement experience to advance social
work education for practice.
tHe meDium: tHe online
environment
Online learning is at the cusp of educational in-
novation, in its accessibility and flexibility as well
as technological advances, to address a range of
learning styles and needs. Particularly at the post
secondary level, student demand for computers
and Internet based approaches to education has
reached unprecedented volume, with highly re-
fined tools and methods forming the measure for
the satisfaction of their experiences (Aminzade
& Pescosolida, 1999; Grauerholz, McKenzie
& Romeo, 1999; Green & Dorn, 1999). Acces-
sibility and utility are fundamental to a student
population that is mobile, migrant and mature in
its expectations that educational institutions will
deliver products and processes consistent with the
rapidly advancing telecommunications market.
Moreover, in the current climate of education as
commodity, and students as consumers, optimal
flexibility and opportunity for choice are con-
sidered basic terms of engagement as students
survey the offerings of universities and colleges
(Calhoun, 1999; Soley, 1999).
Incorporating electronic media in social work
education has been a practice for almost two de-
cades, originating in part to address education and
training needs in rural and remote areas (Stocks
& Freddolino, 2000). The limitations of provid-
ing only on site, classroom-based, synchronized
learning was clearly recognized as privileging
students with the resources and means to travel
to larger centres for their learning. In addition,
patterns of out-migration were a concern to rural
communities, which saw their former residents,
now professionals, not returning to provide a
range of helping services back at home. Social
work programs therefore began to incorporate
the methods of teleconferencing, audio and vid-
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