No abstract

No abstract

Students in undergraduate social work practice courses come to the class with varying levels of educational, life, and practice experience. Students require an introduction to the material through textbook reading before they are able to engage in critical discussions, yet reading adherence varies widely among students. This research explores the use of reflective journals as a Flipped Classroom technique to increase reflective thinking and reading adherence. This study surveys 27 students in two practice courses about the use of weekly reflective journaling as a flipped classroom assignment. Findings support that reflective reading journals increase student preparation and engagement, but require more work for students and instructors. Implications are discussed.

Pedagogical foundations exist for incorporating technology in instruction; however, these foundations have not kept pace with technology's evolution. Through the use of Information Communication Technologies (ICTs), students now can share content directed at external audiences, i.e., audiences other than the instructor. These audiences are referred to as authentic audiences as they are public-facing and exist outside of the classroom. The existing literature offers evidence of student satisfaction with assignments directed at appealing to external audiences, however, the literature provides no comprehensive pedagogical rationale for assignments directed at authentic audiences wherein the goals are self-determined. The authors discuss the theory of heutagogy, the study of self-determined learning, as an approach for assessing assignments that utilize ICTs and are directed at authentic audiences. Finally, the authors offer an approach for the assessment of these assignments, including a rubric.

Digital storytelling (DST), broadly defined, is a storytelling method that is interwoven with digitised images, texts, sounds, and other interactive elements, and it has been increasingly used for social work and healthcare interventions. While the term DST has become more popular, its role in actual social work interventions is not clear. The ambiguity of DST presents a hurdle to further theorisation for social work practice and research. This article aims to provide a narrative review and derive a conceptualisation that is in line with social work's psychotherapeutic and systems orientation. The review has derived a two-layer conceptualisation. In a broad sense, DST can be seen as an umbrella term covering different sorts of storytelling activities that use digital communication media. Practitioners and researchers can adopt a set of parameters for describing and comparing different practice designs. More specifically, DST can be seen as a kind of narrative practice utilising digital communication media. This definition offers a conceptual base for DST, which helps further theorisation and research in social work practice.