Educating a Multidisciplinary Human Services Workforce - Information Communication Technologies for Human Services Education and Delivery - page 14

learning has taken on new meaning in the human
services since the advent of ICT. These days,
learning environments that are considered as
face-to-face educational programs now invariably
adopt a blended approach and include an array of
ICT tools to supplement or replace on-campus
classes. Human services educators need to ensure
that the “blended” learning experiences offered
maintain and enhance the academic integrity of
the discipline and meet the needs of the human
services industry for both entry and refresher
(continuing professional education) requirements.
A considered approach to the use of ICT tools in
human services is required; one that matches the
planned learning experience with an appropriate
learning design and instructional architecture.
A key message in this chapter is the importance
of adopting an informed approach to the use of
ICT, using a variety of learning approaches and
appropriate instructional architectures to support
these. For instance, cognitive views of learning
are well supported by guided discovery and
exploratory architecture and seem well suited
to human services education; particularly due
to the emphasis on “learner control.” However
this can be well supplemented by absorption
and behavioral approaches and architectures.
Ultimately student needs and the knowledge and
skills required by the human services workforce
will determine the most appropriate approaches
and architectures to use.

Bogo, M., & Vayda, E. (1987). The practice of
field instruction in social work. Toronto, Canada:
University of Toronto Press.

Clark, R. C. (2003). Expertise, learning, and
instruction: Building expertise (2 nd ed.). MN,
USA: International Society for Performance
Improvement.

Kolb, D. (1984). Experiential learning: Experi-
ence as the source of learning and development.
Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.

Lonne, R. (2007). Working together for health,
community services and justice to shape local and
global workforces. In Proceedings of the RMIT
University 2007 Partnerships for World Graduates
Conference , Melbourne, Australia.

Martin, J. (2007). Conflict management and
mediation . Port Adelaide, Australia: Ginninderra
Press.

Martin, J., McKay, E., & Hawkins, L. (2006).
The human-computer interaction spiral. In Pro-
ceedings of the2006 Informing Science and IT
Education Joint Conference , Salford - Greater
Manchester, UK (pp. 183-197).

Martin, J., McKay, E., Hawkins, L., & Murthy,
V. (2007). Design-personae: Matching students'
learning profiles in Web-based education. In E.
McKay (Ed.), Enhancing Learning through hu-
man computer interaction . Hershey, PA: Idea
Group Inc.

Mayer, R. E. (2001). Multimedia learning . New
York: Cambridge Press.

referenceS

Anderson, T., & Elloumi, F. (Eds.). (2004). Theory
and practice of online learning (2 nd ed.). Canada:
Athabasca University.

McKay, E. (2008). Human-dimensions of human-
computer interaction: Balancing the HCI equa-
tion . Amsterdam: IOS Press.

Australian Government. (2008, December).
Employment outlook for health and community
services . Retrieved January 2, 2009, from http://
www.skillsinfo.gov.au