Developing Digital Competence for Practice

Citation

Westwood J & Taylor A (2016) Developing Digital Competence for Practice. In: Stone C & Harbin F (eds.) Transformative Learning for Social Work: Learning for and in Practice. Basingstoke: Palgrave MacMillan, pp. 154-167. https://he.palgrave.com/page/detail/Transformative-Learning-for-Social-Work/?K=9781137542359

Abstract
Baker (2014) advises that ‘Social work must overcome its historical reluctance to embrace ICT if it is to remain relevant in the era of the network society’ (Baker, et al. 2014, p. 468). With that in mind this chapter provides the opportunity for students, practitioners, managers and practice educators alike to reflect upon their digital presence and we include recent examples of social media and technologies as they are being utilised in social work education and practice. We take a systemic approach, considering practitioner, agency and digital technology to our thinking and as a result start by asking you to pause and reflect on the following questions: Which social media and technologies do you use? What is the purpose of your engagement with each? What is your ongoing professional development and practice approach in a digital sense?

Keywords
Social media for social work practice; Digital competence for social work practice; digital literacy in social work