Information Technologies

Teaching to Use—Using to Teach

Frank B Raymond Iii, Leon Ginsberg, Debra Gohagan

• Publisher: CRC Press
• Year: 2020
• eBook ISBN: 9781000156706
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Computer Science
• Subtopic: Computer Science General
• Index: Computer Science

This insightful volume explores examples of the use of technology to teach social work knowledge, values, and skills across the curriculum. The chapters cover a wide range of perspectives, including international views of the role of information technology in Great Britain and Malaysia, training approaches for faculty development, and computer-based software that has the potential to transform the manner in which curriculum objectives are met. Prepare for technology-based instruction in social work education for the 21st century! Information Technologies: Teaching to Use--Using to Teach Information Technologies: Teaching to Use--Using to Teach, addresses your need to fully prepare today?s social work graduates to work and live in this rapidly changing, technology-enhanced environment. Based on the 1997 Information Technologies Conference: Using to Teach--Teaching to Use, held in Charleston, South Carolina, this book covers the multitude of topics that were presented on technology-based instruction as we head into the 21st century. Articles in Information Technologies range from the use of the Internet and computer applications to research projects that address the effectiveness of technology-based teaching and learning activities. It also dicusses international views on the role of information technology in Britian and Malaysia. Information Technologies gives particular attention to distance education, and it is the most thorough treatment to date of the use and teaching of technology in social work education. Specific areas you?ll gain valuable information from include:

• establishing a faculty development lab
• starting intensive faculty training sessions
• computer-based software that has the potential to transform the manner in which curriculum objectives are met
• international perspectives on information technology
• the use of Geographic Information Systems technology in social work practice as a tool for improved visualization of social and economic inequalities
• models for teaching social work curriculum with technologyWith Information Technologies, you will gain a competetive edge in preparing your faculty and students with the latest world-wide information on studies pretaining to technology use in a social work setting. A conglomeration of diverse and well-researched articles on the use of technology to enhance social work education await you in this special volume.

SECTION 1: USING TO TEACH

Part-Time MSW Distance Education: A Program Evaluation

Michael Forster
Timothy Rehner

SUMMARY. An evaluation of a part-time master’s of social work program including 18 hours of interactive video instruction examined student academic performance, instructors’ ability to achieve instructional objectives, interactions among students and between students and faculty, and quality of instructional environment. The evaluation was conducted following 12 hours of interactive video, “distance” coursework. Results of grade comparisons and surveys of students, faculty and staff suggest that distance education courses are comparable to the main campus courses in instructional quality. Students and faculty voice concerns, however, about limitations on interaction and spontaneity imposed by the interactive video environment. [Article copies available for a fee from The Haworth Document Delivery Service: 1-800-342-9678. E-mail address: [email protected]]

KEYWORDS. Distance education, interactive video, MSW programs, educational program evaluation

Michael Forster, PhD, is Assistant Professor of Social Work and Coordinator of the Master's Program, and Timothy Rehner, PhD, is Assistant Professor of Social Work and Coordinator of the Bachelor's Program, The University of Southern Mississippi School of Social Work.

Address correspondence to the authors at: The School of Social Work, The University of Southern Mississippi, Box 5114, Hattiesburg, MS 39406.

This article is the revised version of a paper presented at the 1997 Information Technologies Conference: Using lo Teach-Teaching to Use, held in Charleston, South Carolina, September 7-9, 1997.

[Haworth co-indexing entry note]: “Part-Time MSW Distance Education: A Program Evaluation.” Forster, Michael, and Timothy Rehner. Co-published simultaneously in Computers in Human Services (The Haworth Press, Inc.) Vol. 15, No. 2/3, 1998, pp. 9-21; and: Information Technologies: Teaching to Use-Using to Teach (ed: Frank B. Raymond III, Leon Ginsberg, and Debra Gohagan) The Haworth Press, Inc., 1998, pp. 9-21. Single or multiple copies of this article are available for a fee from The Haworth Document Delivery Service [1-800-342-9678, 9:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m. (EST). E-mail address: [email protected]]

INTRODUCTION

Distance learning promises to revolutionize higher education (Drucker, 1997; Garrison, 1989; Schlossberg, Lynch & Chickering, 1989; Wulf, 1995). Yet distance education remains controversial among many faculty on quality and other grounds (Blanch, 1994; Blumenstyk, 1996), and poses interrelated instructional (Day, 1995) and evaluative (Kember, 1995) challenges. Instructional quality of distance courses comparable to traditional classroom experience is not a given without appropriate and effective modification of course delivery methods, and in some cases course content (Cyrs & Smith, 1990). While the interactive video environment seeks to duplicate the classroom experience through a variety of technologies, problems of assuring the attention and engagement of distant learners in particular persist (Owens, Pace & Finneran, 1995). Of particular concern to many educators, too, is preserving the relationship component of the educational experience when students are learning “at a distance” from the instructor (Freddolino, 1996).

The purpose of this study was to evaluate a part-time MSW program with a substantial distance education component. The program, based at a satellite campus and including several interactive video classes, was designed to be qualitatively equivalent to the main campus parent program. The study was initiated because administrators and faculty wanted to assess whether students in main campus and remote groups were in fact receiving comparable educational experiences. In particular, faculty and administrators want to ensure that instructional quality was not compromised by the use of interactive video classes.

BACKGROUND

The University of Southern Mississippi (USM) School of Social Work’s MSW program initiated a part-time distance education program in the Fall of 1996. It was introduced in south Mississippi as a means of strengthening social work education on the Gulf Coast, a region that has experienced some of the greatest population growth in Mississippi, and as a response to requests by prospective students and social service agencies that needed professionally trained social workers. Prior to this present extension of the Hattiesburg MSW program to the Gulf Coast, some local residents pressed on several occasions to establish a local part-time MSW program through the USM Gulf Park campus, located 60 miles south of Hattiesburg in Long Beach. In August 1996, the two campuses were linked via an interactive video network. This technology made it feasible, given the limited resources (notably faculty) for the Hattiesburg campus, to offer a part-time MSW program on the Mississippi Gulf Coast.

The part-time program, approved by the Council on Social Work Education, was a three year plan that called for a new cohort of 15-20 students to be admitted every other year. Eighteen (18) semester hours (6 courses) of the 60-hour curriculum were taught “live” on the Hattiesburg Campus using interactive video technology. In most but not all cases, the faculty who taught a course via the interactive video component also taught a non-IVN section of the same course in a traditional format during the same semester. The remaining 42 hours were taught in a traditional format by faculty from the Hattiesburg campus who drove down to the Gulf Park Campus. Table 1 identifies the courses included in the three year part-time curriculum plan that were taught via IVN technology.

Equipment and Instructional Support

The “Interactive Video Network” (IVN) developed by the University of Southern Mississippi offers near-state-of-the-art capabilities. The University system is a MediaMax (VTEL) 486 CODEC, which is the heart of VTEL’s advanced group conferencing systems. The IVN system operates over public and dedicated T-1 circuits. The system supports full-motion two-way video with up to 30 frames per second and at transmission rates of 384 Kbps and above.

Each room has two mounted cameras with zoom capacity and four mounted TV monitors, two front and two back, so that participants facing either way can see both their own and the remote site. Student tables are arranged classroom style, facing the faculty workstation. Individual micro

TABLE 1. Three Year Part-Time Curriculum Plan

Year #1	Year #2		Year #3
Fall	Fall		Fall
SWK601 HBSE I*	SWK 637	Research II	SWK 653	Assessment
SWK 605 Policy*
SWK 608 Practice I	SWK 642	Field II	SWK 673	Field III
Spring
SWK 602 HBSE II*	Spring		Spring
SWK 609 Practice II	SWK 666	Commun*	SWK 658	Advanced
SWK 634 Diversity	SWK 674	Families		Interventions
Summer	SWK 696	Groups	SWK 673	Field III
SWK 617 Research I*
SWK 641 Field I	Summer
	SWK 635	Mangmt*
	SWK xxx	Elective
	SWK xxx	Elective

* represents courses that were taught via IVN technology

phones are arranged along the student tables and turned on and off by the students before and after they speak.

Faculty workstations in IVN classrooms included an ELMO visual presenter that provides the option of viewing slides, transparencies, 3-D objects, and written work at all conference sites. A Power PC 6100 for graphic presentations and connectivity to the Internet and World Wide Web is available for both DOS and MAC system users. A VCR is available to play taped resources. A touch pad is used to operate all the foregoing equipment. Each classroom is also equipped with a telephone, fax machine, copy machine, and large white grease board.

In addition to the actual technology, the University provided some added support for faculty teaching via IVN. During all telesessions, each site had a technician on hand to operate the equipment. Technicians at either site could operate the cameras, monitors and visual presenters at the remote site. The University also ran a shuttle between both campuses, a minimum of three times per week, that was used to transport handouts, exams, and other material.

The School of Social Work also provided an on-site support person that was present in all the remote classes. This program facilitator was a graduate of the USM Hattiesburg MSW program and had been a student of the faculty that taught the IVN courses. She was available to students for face-to-face contact and acted as a bridge between students and instructors. In addition to proctoring exams, collecting and distributing assignments and facilitating activities that were a part the faculty members’ classroom experience, s...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Copyright Page
• Title Page
• Contents
• Introduction
• SECTION 1: USING TO TEACH
• SECTION 2: TEACHING TO USE