{"id":444,"date":"2012-07-17T04:57:29","date_gmt":"2012-07-17T03:57:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.iriss.org.uk\/socialmedia\/?p=444"},"modified":"2012-07-17T04:57:29","modified_gmt":"2012-07-17T03:57:29","slug":"social-media-in-childrens-services","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.iriss.org.uk\/socialmedia\/2012\/07\/17\/social-media-in-childrens-services\/","title":{"rendered":"Social media in children’s services"},"content":{"rendered":"

The first event here in Toronto was a\u00a0PART<\/a>\u00a0(Practice and Research Together) Council meeting. \u00a0The Council is made up of around 12 Executive Directors of various children’s services from throughout Ontario. \u00a0After their regular business I gave a presentation on what social media is and how it can be used for a range activities from personal professional development to internal communications to engagement with client groups. The thrust of the talk is there is no ‘one big thing’ out there called ‘social media’, \u00a0Rather what we call ‘social media’ is\u00a0the natural development of the World Wide Web as a communication, rather then a broadcast medium.<\/p>\n

New ways of doing things do tend to scare some people. \u00a0The World Wide Web has disrupted several business models – newspapers, banking, travel agents, booksellers to name a few. Some fear the risks that arise from being able to communicate instantly and easily. \u00a0But if\u00a0we focus on the underlying human processes and behaviours as well as existing professional codes of conduct we will be better able to rationally assess and manage risk. \u00a0It is useful to consider existing risks and ask whether new web-based methods introduce new risks. \u00a0It’s quite possible that they do not: in fact they may reduce risk. The greater risk is not allowing people to participate, as by participating we gain confidence and a more intuitive feel for the medium. \u00a0It’s a bit like driving a car. \u00a0Once you’ve passed the test you then start to learn the how to apply – and bend – the rules. Whether you become a bad or good driver depends on you, not the road or the car.<\/p>\n

The Council members were generally receptive but some wondered whether a using a four minute video the engage professionals wasn’t ‘dumbing down’ the message. \u00a0My view is that the medium of itself doesn’t dumb down the message. If we wish to engage practitioners in embedding evidence-informed practice we should choose whatever media are most appropriate. A message, or story, can be poorly presented in any medium: written, audio or visual.<\/p>\n

Since delivering that talk a rather interesting take on this subject has appeared in the Guardian,\u00a0The media has two tribes, but there’s only one winner<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In the beginning was the word. And it was spoken. It’s an easy technology to master, speaking. Then it was written: memories shrank and trees were felled. Then printed \u2013 simple enough, if messy. Now, words shift in complicated ways. They can be filtered by algorithms, untouched by human tongue; they can be rendered graphical and made to dance. They can be tweeted and texted, liked and shared. Technology has always dictated how stories are told \u2013 but the current breadth of opportunity for spreading the word is as complicating as it is exciting.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The article goes on to lament that those who can write beautifully and creatively are hampered by being unable to grasp modern communications technology. \u00a0As the journalist in this case sees it:<\/p>\n

\n

The tribe to which I belong knows how to tell a story, but can’t grasp the digital possibilities. Being a technically illiterate journalist in today’s multimedia world is like being a pilot who’s a bit shaky on landings.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

My only quibble is that I’m not sure you do in fact need to be all that technically literate. \u00a0It might help, but most social media tools and services are really quite easy to use.\u00a0In fact my closing argument to my Canadian hosts was that social media is about people, not technology. Grasping the ‘digital possibilities’ is possible. But I think what we’re talking about is digital literacy.<\/p>\n

Here are two Prezi presentations I used:<\/p>\n

http:\/\/prezi.com\/rrtlzqap5hx-\/introduction-to-social-media\/<\/a><\/p>\n

http:\/\/prezi.com\/t9go9_hxqkin\/the-iriss-journey-with-evidence-informed-practice\/<\/a><\/p>\n

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The first event here in Toronto was a\u00a0PART\u00a0(Practice and Research Together) Council meeting. \u00a0The Council is made up of around 12 Executive Directors of various children’s services from throughout Ontario. \u00a0After their regular business I gave a presentation on what social media is and how it can be used for a range activities from personal… Read More »Social media in children’s services<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","neve_meta_sidebar":"","neve_meta_container":"","neve_meta_enable_content_width":"","neve_meta_content_width":0,"neve_meta_title_alignment":"","neve_meta_author_avatar":"","neve_post_elements_order":"","neve_meta_disable_header":"","neve_meta_disable_footer":"","neve_meta_disable_title":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.iriss.org.uk\/socialmedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/444"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.iriss.org.uk\/socialmedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.iriss.org.uk\/socialmedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.iriss.org.uk\/socialmedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.iriss.org.uk\/socialmedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=444"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.iriss.org.uk\/socialmedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/444\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.iriss.org.uk\/socialmedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=444"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.iriss.org.uk\/socialmedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=444"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.iriss.org.uk\/socialmedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=444"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}