HEA Project: using twitter in social work education and research

This project began with a fabulous event last year: http://www.heacademy.ac.uk/events/detail/2013/19_Apr_CLL_Birmingham

Follwing this event the HEA provided funding for several project. the project I ran was developing short instructional films and workshops for  social work academics to learn about how they could use Twitter to contribute to and support their teaching.
I convinced three students from UCLan  School of Media http://www.uclan.ac.uk/schools/journalism_media/index.php to make the two films. Webster, Alex and Tondurayi worked on these as their final year projects. The films were piloted at a session with 9 social work academics in May 2014 along with two linked workshops which supported participants to develop their skills in using Twitter.  The feedback from the workshop at UCLan was really promising and a few tweaks were made to the films following those sessions. In addition the workshops will be presented at JSWEC on Wednesday 23rd July 2014, I am hoping that these will attract SW academics who are interested in Twitter but a little cautious.

It is clear that Twitter and otehr SNS's are here to stay and here @UCLanSocialWork we are keen users of this medium, engaging with each other, our students and colleagues in other institutions and in  countries across the world. It does take time to build up profile and find a balance in using Twitter, but once you start to engage and collaborate you will see the benefits and potnetial. Here's tomany more of these initiatives!

Social Media in Social Work Education

The proofs of the book arrived a couple of weeks ago and I have read them and corrected them. I have to say it was enjoyable to read through the chapters again. I still can't quite believe that we managed to get this project turned around in such a short timescale. The front cover looks great, Critical Publishing and OOH have done a great job with the text making it look like and feel like a real book:
 http://criticalpublishing.com/index.php/browse-by-subject-1/social-work/social-media-in-social-work-education.html

We are launching this at JSWEC on Thursday 24th July in the Windsor Building : http://jswec.net/2014/agenda/ we are looking forward to telling people about our experiences of working together on ths project and promoting the projects we discuss in the book.  We will of course be tweeting about the launch on the day as well, for people who can't make it to JSWEC this year.

Fast work and other exciting news

I was delighted with the publishers response to the typescript, until I received it I hadn't realised just how nerve wracking the wait had been. As it turns out the feedback was very positive and the typescript needed a few tweaks and the authors responded in super quick time. I was thrilled to be able to get the revisions completed today just in time for a break! I'm looking forward to the next stage of the production process, having done it twice in recent weeks I feel like I'm knowledgeable and my heart doesn't sink when the copy editor drops an e mail into my inbox anymore.

In other good news on the social media in social work education front: @lizith led an abstract submission including myself and @bonklesoul to present a talk to a learning technology conference later this year about some of the innovative work we are doing in social word education which features in the book. Fingers crossed for that one!

Next on the social media and socia work agenda is the planning of the launch of the book @jswec in the summer. We have already started pooling our ideas for this so look out for a simoultaneous online launch if you can't be there on the day.

We got there in the end...#teamwork

On  Monday, the last day of March the ominous deadline loomed ahead. I don't really know where the energy came from but the book draft was submitted on time (cheers to herself !). The last few hours before the deadline were fraught. I had a clear desk, but a full head. All those little jobs became laborious tasks which took much longer than a couple of minutes each which was my (unrealistic) estimation. Now I feel like an anxious student as I wait impatiently for the publishers comments. Having recently completed another edited collection (jointly with 4 other people) I am somewhat familiar with the never- ending aspect of editing... just when you think the last i is dotted and t crossed another list of corrections come along. However I am very keen to get these as I am, along with the authors so eager to get this book published as social media and social work is such an exciting area. This weekend I'm toasting the fabulous authors whose quick responses and warm acceptance of my comments and edits contributed to the timely submission of this book. Here's to you - Cheers!

Are we there yet?

The final stages of editing a book are quite challenging. As well as trying to draw on the themes discussed in the chapters, it is also important to give a cohesive feel to the book. I have read all of the chapters at least 6 times and I find new and interesting links every time I read them, and so prioriting which to focus on in the concluding chapter has been quite a task.
I learn new things every time I come to the end of a writing project, often associated with how ineffective I am at estimating time. I gave one of my tutees some advice this week which, I decided to use myself today. It is better to do 2 hours of solid, dedicated work than to commit to a long day glued to the PC.
The other "little jobs" left to do before this project comes to its conclusion include checking and re-checking the bibliography, making sure the contents section is accurate, listing the additional sources and clearing up the spelling and grammatical errors (mine not the authors!) pagination, table headings and numbers.... and dealing with my deadline anxiety.... I have scheduled half of my weekend for these jobs. Will it  be enough time to get us there?
So yes we are nearly there, almost.... just a few more things to check and finish and then we will be there... and breath!

...and the tension is building...#deadlines

...Who would have thought that twitter conversations and discussions after JSWEC last year would result in an edited collection by the following March? It just goes to show what a team of dedicated enthusiasts can do when they put their minds to it. At lunchtime I had a blank word doument, this afternoon as I leave I have more than half of the book ready, chapters in order, introduction, conclusions in progress, some final revisions and edits to a couple of chapters. The chapters have been carefully crafted by the social work and social media enthusiasts who signed up to this project back in September and its all coming together really well. I will keep you posted in (more or less) real time as it happens! Happy days!

HEA Twitter project

Last April along with other tweepers and social media in social work groupies from across the UK, I attended a workshop at Birmingham University funded by HEA. Tarsem Singh Cooner @Akali655 and Chris Allen @DrChrisAllen facilitated the event.  It's fair to say we all left the building (some of us had to be escorted out) as high as kites and on fire with enthusiasm.http://storify.com/Akali65/feedback-from-the-changing-the-learning-landscape . The HEA encouraged us to bid for funding to follow up and develop some of the ideas we discussed on that day. I put in a bid for a project to develop a media resource to encourage social work academcis to use Twitter in theIR teaching and research.I was delighted receive an award the Changing the Learning Landscape project. A short progress report is now due.

 

In October three students from the School of Journalism, Media and Communication @WebsterMugavazi @TonderayiMach @AMLabelle started to work with me on the project. This is part of their final year studies for their degree.  They have designed a film which will instruct academics in some of the features of  Twitter to get them started with the basics of running a twitter account.  I saw a short version of this in December,  the film is now complete and I will be having a preview next week. The team are making a second film which will instruct viewers in how to make the most of twitter as a teaching resource, and how to use some of the advanced functions. Earlier this week I submitted an abstract about the film project to @jswec conference and I am keeping my fingers crossed that I am successful. I hope to use the opportunity @jswec to formally launch the films. There will be a full preview here @UCLanSocialWork in May and I have a growing list of sceptical but interested colleagues who are keen to come along and pilot test the films.

 

The films will be available on-line sometime later this year along with instructions on how to facilitate a seminar/webinar to use them.

A flurry of excitement

Next time I am getting worn down with working on academic texts I will remember my feelings of delight and elation when the book cover appears online! This happened today and the authors who are contributing to the book I am editing on social media in social work education were tweeting happily. It certainly gave me the final push to complete my work on the introduction and conclusions. Watch this space :-)

Lots of progress in social media and socia work

There's been a lot going on behind the scenes in the last few months. Amanda, David and I have just about finalised the work we carried out using twitter in social work education. I'm delighted that some fantastic authors and social media advocates have contributed to a new book I have been editing all about using social media in social work education which is going to be published later this year. One of the authors wrote an App (https://sites.google.com/site/socialworksocialmedia/) and my review of this has just been published in the Journal of Social Work Education. I really did enjoy using the Social Media in Social Work App : http://www.tandfonline.com/eprint/SPvkUjNG4mNjpNfd9ZNx/full and I would encourage academics and practitioners to  engage with these types of approaches to teaching and learning in social work.