An Interactive multimedia presentation for the Department of Residence Life apartment area

As a Complex Director for Residence Life I have had to deal with many questions regarding life in the RIT apartment complexes. As an Editor I recognize the need for clear and easily accessible answers to commonly asked questions. This multimedia presentation should address both these issues. Created was a presentation for students that are interested in renting an apartment on campus. Currently there is nothing available, beyond a pamphlet, to help them make an informed choice about where to live. This presentation will aid the Department of Residence Life in their impact on occupancy because it will state clearly the advantages of living in the apartments connected to the cam pus. This presentation is ideal for transfer students who are unfamiliar with what RIT can provide for its residents. Included in the presentation are text, graphics, and a video describing the living accommodations and services offered to apartment residents. (Appendix A is a general outline of the presentation.) The Department of Residence Life has given their full approval and support to the project. Members of the department have evaluated the work, as it was completed, checking for accuracy and ensuring that the information is easily understood. While the presentation answers commonly asked questions it also re-inforces the idea that RIT is at the cutting edge of technology. By creating a multimedia presentation for Residence Life we will show students that RIT is able to implement the current technology they have been learning about in the news. This presentation was created primarily through the use of the program HyperStudio. This program was chosen because it is fairly easy to learn thus giving the Residence Life Department the opportunity to adapt the program quickly as changes occur in the information presented. In creating this presenation the computers in the Apartment Area office at Residence Life, a personal computer, and the IEPL lab were used. The Department of Residence Life may not be able to use the presentation because of budget constraints. Recommendations for use and possible expansion have been included should the necessary funding become available

A Social Work ‘Academic-in-Residence’?

This paper outlines ideas in action relating to establishing closer connections and collaboration between a University Social Work team and a third sector children and families social work agency. It suggests that there is much scope for such cooperation and advances the notion, common elsewhere but not so in social work education and practice, of establishing within the agency an ‘academic-in-residence’. It is argued that this is a further development of knowledge exchange and capable of producing much benefit for agencies, faculty, practitioners and students.</p

Being, knowing and doing:aligning ontology, epistemology and axiology to develop an account of social work as practice

This article takes as its starting point reflections from social work academics at a Scottish university around persistent tensions between the nature of social work practice and the ways in which social work students and social workers talk about it. Practice (perhaps by definition) is practical, whereas how it is spoken and written about often betrays instrumental, narrow or dated clinical orientations. Picking up on the International Federation of Social Workers (IFSW) definition of social work as a practice-based profession and drawing on the literature around the scholarship of teaching and learning (SOTL), we seek to (re)invigorate the case for social work as practice. We argue that this offers students and practitioners a conceptual framework through which they might articulate and validate what they do. We begin by critiquing current orientations to social work. We then come on to propose a broadly Aristotelean concept of practice. We make some suggestions for how this might better orient social work to the nature and demands of contemporary professionalism. We conclude by considering the implications of our argument for social work education and practice.<br/

Embedding learning as a practice of value:Learning from the experiences of early career social workers in Scotland

Across the Global North, professional learning for social workers has become a matter of concern. Efforts to ‘fix’ the problem have focused narrowly on formal methods of learning and show limited connect with recent research. In this article we report on findings from a mixed-method longitudinal cohort study, which examined early career social workers experiences of learning over the first five years of professional practice. Drawing on a repeat-measure annual online survey, our findings provide an inside-view of how early career social workers in Scotland experience work-based learning over time and how professional learning for social workers can be enhanced. Quantitative and qualitative data were analysed using descriptive statistical analysis and reflexive thematic analysis respectively and integrated using a convergence coding matrix to identify meta-themes. Our findings support an integrative, developmental and ecological approach to professional learning, embedded in a value-led understanding of social work as practice. We invite the profession to embrace and embed learning as a ‘practice of value’, both as an antidote to managerial approaches to practice and learning and as a way of valuing the extraordinary work that social workers do

Ontological (in)security in early career social work during COVID-19:Experiences in Scotland

The impact of COVID-19 on the working lives of professionals has been of much interest. Within social work, the pandemic had increased workload demands, while the way in which work was done had shifted significantly. This article uses data gathered from newly qualified social workers (NQSWs) who began their working lives during the pandemic. These first years in practice are viewed as an extension to social workers’ formal education and as a vital stage in their professional development. Survey (n=124) and interview (n=12) data were gathered from NQSWs across Scotland. Findings were considered through Giddens’ lens of ontological security, to explore NQSW transitions during a context of pandemic disruption and its impacts on NQSWs’ confidence and competence, as well as their sense of self and identity. Consistent with other studies, respondents were most impacted by home working and the associated isolation and separation from colleagues, particularly when engaged in emotionally charged work. Findings uncovered a trichotomy of experience, with variation in the quality and availability of formal and informal support, induction, training and development. Implications for practice include a need to focus on how we support and nurture NQSWs at such a critical stage in their professional socialisation