This project focuses on developing a technology inventory through the ethnographic study of technology use, data collection, and critical digital literacy among social work students in a public, urban university in the United States. This tool is intended for use as an open access educational intervention to facilitate students’ critical examination of their technology use and data collection practice, with a deep probing of the ubiquity, risks, liability, and potential benefits of technology in social work. Its design has revealed additional insights into how students’ technology use and practices are shaped by their life contexts outside of the classroom and how this creates resource and access gaps that may impede some students’ capacity for developing critical technology literacies. The tool is part of a larger open educational project aimed at developing and disseminating open resources for social work students to better understand the role of technology in social work practice.
Attendees of this session will be able to:- Hear student perspectives on an open access tools for understanding technology use in social work practice through dissemination of results of focus groups conducted with Master’s of Social Work students in practicum
- View the prototype of the technology inventory with description of its development
- Understand the importance of integrating assessment of students’ critical digital literacy into curriculum planning, especially with open access resources
