[Slide stating: UB School of Social Work University at Buffalo The State University of New York www.socialwork.buffalo.edu]
Hi, I'm Nancy Smyth, from the University of Buffalo School of Social Work and
I have Mike Langlois here from Boston, who we've been spending some time talking
about social work and technology. And we thought we'd talk a little bit right now
about the concept of developing a Personal Learning Network. And let me
just say briefly what that really kind of is. I mean, I think we all already in
our professional lives decide people that we can trust to keep us abreast of
new developments in our fields; whether those be authors or colleagues or places
that we go for continuing education. So, really Personal Learning Networks and
technology you're just about using the technologies that are out there as a way
of developing our own networks. And Mike, maybe you'd like to start by talking a
little bit about how you've used that and I'll do the same thing.
[Mike Langlois speaking]: Sure. One of the
ways I really do use Twitter is as a Personal Learning Network and I really
like to use the example of Twitter, because one of the number one questions
I get from people when we talk about technology is, "Why would I use Twitter? I
don't want to know about anybody's food. I don't want to see pictures of
anybody's dinner that night." And I had that initial experience when I tried
Twitter. I thought why would somebody want to send out little tweets or
retweets of 140 characters? And that was because I hadn't developed Twitter as a
Personal Learning Network. It wasn't until, over time, I started connecting
with Nancy on Twitter or connecting with Jonathan Singer's Social Work podcast or
Dorlee M. (Micheali). People that through their tweets, their posts I start to see, "Oh,
they're sending me links for really interesting articles. Oh, these are people
that I really think I can enjoy what they have to offer in terms of
intellectual engagement." That Twitter started to become a Personal Learning
Network for me. And so now one of the main places that I actually get
information is from that Personal Learning Network. So Twitter has actually
changed for me. It's not something that's random, and it's not something about
people posting random tweets about what they're doing as much as people using
shortened links and we probably should tell people
about this neat thing called bit.ly. It's b-i-t-dot-l-y, that you can take whatever
website link and put it in there it will shrink it so it gives even more room to
put it in your tweet. But so Twitter has been a real good example for me of how I
can harness this social media to create a Personal Learning Network.
[Nancy speaking]: And I think Twitter has been that way for me too, and one of the things that I wasn't clear
about with Twitter is, that you get to pick and choose who you follow on
Twitter. So, there may be people tweeting about Justin Bieber out there but you
don't have to choose to follow them. You get to pick the individuals that you
want to follow and actually Twitter is now getting pretty sophisticated at
recommending people to follow. But, you could actually go on, search Twitter for
keyword like, "Social Work," and they're going to bring up names of people who've
listed that as one of their keywords in their bio. And then you automatically
have people that you can check out, to see what they've been posting, and follow
them. I wrote sort of a basic blog post about this idea of what's the
basics that you need about Twitter. But really just like the other ways that
we've established Personal Learning Networks without technology, it's about
trust. It's about finding people who are credible. So, you start to follow Jonathan
Singer, you start to follow Dorlee M. (Michaeli). I start to follow you and say, "You know,
well, I know Mike and he's - he's a very thoughtful blog posts. He shares this
kind of information." Doralee does this wonderful once every week or so does
this great summary of some of the best things across Twitter for mental
health and psychology and social work, so then you don't even have to follow those
people. You follow Doralee, and you get that summary. And so, you really do get to
stay abreast of things. I mean one of my favorite examples of this comes from a
colleague at University of Buffalo, The School of Medicine, and he tells a story
of how he had a resident he was working with who had a kid in the emergency room
and the kid was basically not doing well on a ventilator. That the kid was not
responding to treatment and the resident came to
him and said, "You know, what are we going to do?" and he said, "Let me see what I find
out." He got on online and he went to Medscape, and all the places you go, to
look for evidence. Couldn't find anything in the research literature on this
problem. And so then, at four in the morning, he gets on his Twitter network
and he sends out a tweet. To something to the effect of "does anybody have
experience with this type of thing happening when people are on ventilators?"
So, he didn't talk about a case, he took it to the situation level. And you know,
when he woke up later, he came and he had a response from a physician in Europe
who said, "You know, I'm writing up four or five cases about this. You might want to
check this issue out." And it turned out that issue was what the problem was and
they were able to save the kid's life. So, you know, part of what I say about this
is where else can you now get access to an international network of experts and
do it over a couple of hours? But he didn't get on Twitter that night. I mean,
if he just had started and said, "Gee, I'm going to sign up for Twitter and send out this
tweet," he never would have been successful. He developed this network
from people that he followed, who he trusted, who also listened and talked to
him. So, people were checking in to see what he was tweeting and he had this
relationship already set up. And that's the part, you have to set up
beforehand, and then you start to learn from people and then in a tight
situation you actually have an expanded network of people to call on for
expertise about things. And that to me was like, "Wow, how fortunate for that kid
and his family that they had a globally connected physician." And what are the key
situations that we're in we could do that? I mean, I can think of times I've
used listservs that were there for specific types of therapy. I've trained
in EMDR, when I was learning EMDR there was nobody in my community who
knew EMDR. And I would be, "Okay I'm going to be using this with someone who's
pregnant. What do I need to be aware of with that?" So, I would throw a question
out and within 24 hours, I would hear from lots of people, including some of
the top names in the field, you know. Who would say, "Well, these are the things you
might want to consider," or "Here's this adapted release,
you know, sort of information" or "a risk that you may want to do. You may want to
talk to their physician first." I mean all this information I never would have had
access to if I had just been relying on my own resources for that sort of thing. And
those things still exist; there are still listservs, but people are often
using Twitter in place of some of those things. Or they're using things like
Google Plus, which has some great communities. LinkedIn, some folks are
using that; even Facebook. It's really all these platforms have that ability. It's
where - where do you want to start? I think is the issue. And how do you want to - how
do you want to stay on top of it, because to me Twitter is very easy to use, and
the fact that you have to limit yourself to 140 characters keeps me concise. [Mike speaking]: Well, the other
thing about Twitter that I really want to make sure people
understand is the power of the retweet. That there's this concept so, first off,
when we say 'tweet,' we mean you basically put out a statement that's 140
characters. And it can include a link to an article or it can just be something
that you want to say. But then someone else can look at that, and they can
forward that to all their followers, and that's called a retweet. And I think all
of us are capable of having great ideas, but I don't think all of us have a great
idea every single minute of the day and a lot of times people are holding back
from Twitter because they're thinking, "I don't have something to say." And yet, if
you think in your Personal Learning Networks, in real life, you don't always
have to raise your hand in every class. You're not always the one publishing the
article; you're often the one saying, "Hey, look at this article that so-and-so did."
And so, part of what makes Personal Learning Networks the same as on social
media is we rely a lot on people to forward things, because we trust their
judgment in appreciating and understanding things. Not because they're
generating the content all the time. It's not always that Nancy Smyth has the
right idea; it's that Nancy Smyth can tell me so-and-so had a good idea. And so,
I think sometimes people need to take a little pressure off themselves that they
don't have to tweet something profound every time. Usually when I do my Twitter
for my Personal Learning Network, I have a combination of my blog, which
comes out usually once a week. And so, for every time I post about a blog, I usually
posts two or three things that I've seen in social media or Psychology news
sources, because I think that a lot of what I have to offer people isn't my own
individual thinking, but "Hey, I noticed that." And so, Personal Learning Networks
again are trusting people to not just promote their own agenda but promote an
interest in learning. [Nancy speaking]: Well and in fact if somebody's promoting their
own agenda, that's usually one of the things that makes me not feel real trusting of them.
And when I decide who to follow, I look at what they've been tweeting, and if
they're only tweeting the stuff they're doing, I'm usually not interested in it.
For me, finding places to follow both individuals, but you have lots of
organizations that are on these places. Parts of the federal government that are
sharing information over Twitter from their websites, and you can follow them
as well. So, I know when the National Institute on Mental Health issues a
statement that they are no longer recommending medication as the first
intervention for early-onset schizophrenia, that in fact they've
changed their perspective on that. I found that out, you know, the day that
they announced that, and many people won't hear that information for - I would
like to say year - I think it could be a lot longer than that. One of the
unpopular things I've said in trainings I've done on evidence-based
practice is, I think that if you want to be using current methods and methods
that have some research support, you have to be online because now these treatment
manuals are often not disseminated anywhere except in PDF files and things
like that. And so, you can't stay abreast of those things if you're not, have
your own network to stay abreast of what's been published and be able to
download some free - most of the time free - resources for people. There's some
amazing things there, but you have to know who to follow and you have to
follow people who know who to follow. So, I can rely on Dorlee (Michaeli) to let me know
about that stuff. I don't have to track it all down myself.
And, that's the beauty of the Personal Learning Network, is it's really
the same way now. I - I don't have to know everything, I just want to stay connected
to the people who keep me abreast of the stuff I need to be aware of and then I
can share that with the other people I'm connected with and it gets passed on.
[Mike speaking]: One other thing I'd want to just say about Personal Learning Networks is, I think
we've talked a lot about, and rightly so sort of more academic examples of how
people learn, and I think there's a lot of other kinds of learning. And one of
the kinds I'm thinking about was learning about social events or current
events. And what I'm thinking about in particular is how Twitter was so crucial
for myself and people in my family when we lived in Boston this year, and we had
the Boston Marathon attacks. And the information of what was going on and
what was closed and what we knew was coming fast and furious through Twitter
streams. And there was some misinformation just like there was in
the news, but I remember actually watching the news while I was following
Twitter and noticing that Twitter was actually much more accurate -
[Nancy speaking]: Hours ahead of the news too. [Mike speaking]: Because, whereas the person that was
broadcasting the news was at a desk, somebody somewhere or getting multiple reports from people in
the field, I was getting direct reports from people in the field. And so, one of the
ways my Personal Learning Network kind of kicked in was it helped
alleviate some anxiety. Because I felt like I actually was knowing a little bit
more, a little bit more accurate during real time. So, Personal Learning Networks
aren't necessarily just for if you're doing research or a dissertation. Personal
Learning Networks are a way you can alleviate your anxiety in a traumatic
event and I think we can use Twitter for both. [Nancy speaking]: And in fact, people who are studying
disasters use them to stay abreast, because I think they are really good
predictors of what's going on. Hurricane Sandy was - was a similar issue for me, and
I was able to track it. And you do see some garbage there but it's interesting,
you can sort it out very quickly based upon the sources and repetition. You see
people in a particular area saying something, and then it has a lot of
credibility, and it was hours before that stuff would show up on to CNN. It really
is a way to just stay learning and connected and to be able to find that information
on a thing like Twitter. That's part of what we talk about as digital literacy then.
Is you know, do I know how to go to Twitter and find the current earthquake?
What I'm trying to find out about it, because I might not be following people
about that. And our skills to connect to that information are some of the things
Howard Rheingold talks about when he talks about Netsmart and ways to stay
abreast of things in the world. And I definitely help with anxiety. I think
that's a good point. [Mike speaking]: And your crap detector - [Nancy speaking]: Yes.
[Mike speaking]: - that's what everyone talks about - it's a crap detector. And crucial again, I think we keep coming
back - when we talk about technology, we keep coming back and talking about relationships because
Twitter doesn't happen in a vacuum. There are people. There are people with minds
and souls and hearts and feelings that are sending these tweets out into the
world for others to see and you, we need to keep in mind, you know, that those are
people behind those tweets and that's what makes those networks powerful. Not
because one particular person said something you know particularly profound,
but because I know that person through a deeper way, either through an existing
personal relationship, like we have, or through a cumulative effect of knowing
them through their tweets, what their interests are. But there, it's never
just about the tweets. The Personal Learning Network is always about the
people and - and the relationships that are forming and the tweets are just
another medium for it. [Nancy speaking]: Well, that feels like a good stopping
place on that point. But I would say that that's probably the part of the technology that keeps me
most jazzed most of the time so. [Mike speaking]: Yeah, and maybe this is something to
think about in the future. We might want to offer something on Twitter; specifically how to
use Twitter clinically. [Nancy speaking]: Hmm, that's a thought. I like that.
[Slide stating: UB School of Social Work University at Buffalo The State University of New York www.socialwork.buffalo.edu]