Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
social work knowledge and skills. They must be
able to say why this experience in another culture
is appropriate in terms of acquiring the required
knowledge and skills. Moreover students must be
financially capable of funding their travel, accom-
modation and living expenses whilst on placement
overseas. Similarly adequate RMIT University
social work/ field education staff resources are
essential to negotiate and maintain appropriate
contact with all parties during the placements.
Further complexities arise when students may be
required to carry out additional course work while
on placement. Both access to information for their
course work as well as access to discussion and
course material is an issue where connectivity is a
problem. In 2006, students expressed great frustra-
tion at their inability to access both the university
discussion board as well as quality information to
supplement their learning from the field.
•
The information packs to the partner-
ing agencies which need to precede stu-
dents' placement should be sent on-line
by the University well before the student
placement.
Supervision and liaison requirements to be
•
communicated to the agency such that suit-
able facilities, whether telephone, Internet
or designated videoconferencing can be
made available when required.
The use of mobile phones and SMS to be
•
explored further.
Internet facilities to be made available
•
to students while on placement and web
based discussion groups set up on arrival
of students, if not prior to arrival.
Protocol to be established for communica-
•
tion in case of emergencies.
ICT is as beneficial as the system allows it to
be. In rural areas often there are power failures
and this would mean that there may be interrup-
tions to supervisory/ liaison/ discussion sessions
in progress. Efforts are made by the institution to
have backup electricity generation systems but
this may also take time or fail in some instances
for a variety of reasons (for example fuel, miss-
ing operator, and such other factors). The Internet
facilities in some isolated rural areas in Orissa,
India have not stabilized and in many places
there are still dial up facilities which may be very
slow and may continually disconnect; this is a
frustrating experience. Broadband connectivity
is proving to be a very useful service provided in
some of these locations. The technology available
with an agency in a rural area may be obsolete
by standards in Australia and therefore students
with their knowledge of current technology may
not be able to operate them.
In contrast, students on exchange placement
in Malaysia and the Philippines benefited from
being situated in urban agencies involved in
international issues and projects for which they
had reasonably sophisticated ICT equipment.
ict application for
international placementS
Our experience confirms the need for a well
conceptualized policy/ road map for ICT in inter-
national placements. However, this may require
some resources invested both by the university
and other partners. Web based technologies can
be further used so as to enable all stakeholders to
communicate better.
Clearly some of the steps involved would be
that:
•
Students have to think through their mo-
tivations for an international placement,
identify what are the skills/ knowledge and
resources they bring to the placement, ar-
ticulate what they need to learn and fulfill
the requirements based on checklists prior
to departure: part of this may be to gather
adequate information about the placement
and various programs that a recipient coun-
try may have.
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