Keynote presentation at 2019 Social Work Distance Education Conference in San Antonio, TX, April 10, 2019 by Melanie Sage, Laurel Iverson Hitchcock and Nancy J. Smyth.
What role will social worker choose in shaping the digital future?
1. What role will social
workers choose in
shaping the digital future?
Melanie Sage @melaniesage
Laurel Hitchcock @laurelhitchcock
Nancy Smyth @njsmyth
2.
3. “… for this discovery of yours will create forgetfulness in the
learners' souls, because they will not use their memories, they will
trust to the external written characters and not remember of
themselves. The specific which you have discovered is an aid not to
memory, but to reminiscence, and you give your disciples not truth,
but only the semblance of truth; they will be hearers of many things
and will have learned nothing; they will appear to be omniscient and
will generally know nothing; they will be tiresome company, having
the show of wisdom without the reality.”
– Socrates, 895AD, on writing
4.
5. “At night the children often lie awake in bed restless and fearful, or
wake up screaming as a result of nightmares brought on by mystery
stories… “they have developed the habit of dividing attention
between the humdrum preparation of their school assignments and
the compelling excitement of the loudspeaker.”
- Gramophone Magazine Editor, 1936, on radios
8. Where is the profession of social work, generally,
on the technology adoption curve?
9. "Suppose tonight, while
you slept, a miracle
occurred. When you
awake tomorrow, what
would be some of the
things you would notice
that would tell you that
social workers were
shaping the digital future?"
10. Where would you need to be on the curve to do
shape social work’s digital future in the areas you
imagined?
11.
12. Speculative Futures
Take us just past our current reality
related to Virtual Reality (VR) into the
realm of science fiction.
20. Robot characteristics
Based on the results of the six-month long community design process, the researchers identified a number of
characteristics and design guidelines for robots to support dementia caregivers and people with dementia:
•Robots should help redirect conversations when repetitive questioning becomes burdensome
•Robots should be integrated into everyday objects that the people with dementia are already familiar with, or
borrow features from those objects. For example, one caregiver wanted her husband to get messages through the
TV, which he spends a lot of time watching.
•Robots should be able to adapt to new situations and to the behavior of the person with dementia. This is
particularly important because dementia is a progressive disease and each stage brings new challenges for
caregivers. In addition, patterns of progression vary from person to person and as a result are almost impossible to
predict.
•Robots should be able to learn from end users, and customize and personalize their interaction and responses.
•Robots should have human-like components. That is not to say that they should look human. Rather the machines
could, for example, use a real human voice or face. “When caregivers wanted robots to take active roles in
persuading people with dementia to do something, they designed robots with more human-like features,” the
researchers write. Related to this, caregivers wanted robots to include features that would help build trust, such as
looking like a friend or clinician.
Moharana, S., Panduro, A., Lee, H., and Riek, L.D. (2019). "Robots for Joy, Robots for Sorrow: Community Based Robot Design
for Dementia Caregivers". In Proceedings of the ACM/IEEE International Conference on Human Robot Interaction (HRI).
21.
22.
23.
24.
25.
26. What will you do when you
get back to work to carve
out your role in shaping
the digital future?
Editor's Notes
Melanie
A journey of past, present and future
We hope do is to bring you into a conversation we’ve been having
And hear some of your dialogue -
Melanie- Our story- how our conversation started- on twitter- moved through mostly virtual spaces- which helped us connect in physical spaces-
Reshape the story social work profession tells about their role in shaping our digital futures
Stories people tell when things are changing… Nancy- Boundary and Privacy focused- HIPPA, FERPA,
disciplinary action to tech- social workers are “people people” – first SWDE distance ed conference- debate about “going online” and assumptions about that. We are near-sighted.
Current story is part of a centuries-old stories about what happens when we have to deal with change…. Laurel- once upon a time- let’s talk about deep past and reaching future- beyond hipaa – a 10,000 foot view -
Laurel The problem with writing
Laurel Talking to strangers over the telegraph akin to modern-day social media
Laurel Radios ruining the world
Laurel-
What’s your cultural bias- how does this pic bring it up? Does it bring up what is wrong/harmful or how this might be a proactive tool? What part of that is your own bias?
A child with a tablet- what’s the best possible case scenario for this utility from a social work lens?
What’s the absolute worst?
What does the programmer who is designing for the greatest good need to know about creating that intervention?
Who’s going to tell them that?
Melanie- Mentimeter- where are we as a profession?
Melanie
What would YOU be doing differently?
In the classroom?
In your research?
In your national advocacy?
Melanie
Where would you like to be? What would it looked like if ?
https://www.mentimeter.com/s/965822cb3f362a163ad67d9dc31080e0/ae462b36f349
Melanie= started looking at headlines- in just a few days’ span- about how tech is influencing mental health. How are social workers shaping these conversations, interventions? Who are they people running these projects? Why haven’t they invited us to the table? Because we haven’t made a space for ourselves there….
Do we have something to say about these issues???
The medical social worker would never say “I can’t work in a hospital because I don’t know how to do surgery.”
Melanie- Example from Columbia – 12 minute VIRTUAL REALITY EXPERIENCE- Courtney Cogburn, Asst Prof SW, studying the mental and psychosocial consquences caused by the stresses of racism. Walk in their shoes, a lived experience. People who experience these types of simulations report more favorable views, empathy, and perspective.
Social work prof using VR to build empathy and racial understanding
You’re a young man of 15, heading out to meet friends at a basketball game. The next moment, you’re kneeling on the sidewalk in front of your house with police officers screaming and cursing at you, hands on their holstered guns. You’ve been mistaken for somebody else. The world goes dark and you hear your mother’s voice pleading, “Just do what you have to do to get home alive.”
Art these up- float in words- add image = transitional slide
Nancy
SW’ers feel de-skilled in cross-disciplinary work
“exploitation” – language
Nancy story values/cross-cultural communication
Knowledge/values
Desmond’s work with the CS dept
CS uses his (and students/lived exp) domain expertise to train algorithms
Learn each other’s language
Medium article: https://blog.usejournal.com/why-ai-needs-social-workers-and-non-tech-folks-2b04ec458481
Nancy What social workers bring to the table: Understand the language, values, history, ethical/value frame,
Nancy - Ruby Guillen and Christina Tipton- co-founders of the California NASW technology committee
Where to locate these communities-
On your campus-
In your research area
Hackathons
Melanie
https://www.ecnmag.com/news/2019/03/robots-dementia-caregivers-want-robots-joy-robots-sorrow
https://bioengineer.org/the-robots-that-dementia-caregivers-want-robots-for-joy-robots-for-sorrow/
Researchers found that caregivers wanted the robots to fulfill two major roles: support positive moments shared by caregivers and their loved ones; and lessen caregivers’ emotional stress by taking on difficult tasks, such as answering repeated questions and restricting unhealthy food.
Melanie
Half of the robots designed by caregivers were primarily focused on alleviating stress from the repetitive questions people with dementia ask. Caregivers also envisioned robots that could provide reminders of a person’s daily schedule and tasks. They also designed robots to help with physical therapy and manage medications.
As dementia progressed, caregivers wanted robots to interact more with the person with dementia by helping with daily tasks and offering reminders. The robots that caregivers imagined acted as counselors and facilitators–and sometimes as the “bad guys” who could say “no” to the person with dementia.
Will we be part of these conversations?
Melanie
Will we be part of these conversations?
Institution already made major investments, policy/procedure-
We can critique/come after but decreases the chance of effectiveness
“I told you so” or “they should have asked us” instead of guiding- not a good strategy for advocacy
Protest: after the fact or inform and shape= heartware = to help inform how humans engage in tech, build resilience in the use of digital tools, and use tech for good
Melanie-
What will you do when you get back to work?
Mentimeter- scrolling quotes
Take questions-