This document discusses implementing a "playground learning environment" in social work education to help develop students' digital literacy skills. It proposes creating a mini online course (miniMOOC) separate from core topics as a threshold concept to help overcome biases against technology. The author provides background on challenges in social work education around technology and outlines next steps to further develop the prototype miniMOOC for inclusion in the social work bachelor program curriculum.

1. Social Work Education In A
Connected Age - A Playground
Learning Environment
David Appel

2. Moore’s Law
Moore, Gordon E. (1965). "Cramming more components onto integrated circuits". Electronics Magazine. p. 4.

3. Implementation is “the process of putting a decision or plan into effect;
execution” (OED, 2018).
Implementation in a rapidly changing environment means executing
plans in a reality these plans no longer refer to.
Implementation in a changing environment
McArthur, T., Lam-McArthur, J., Fontaine, L. and McArthur, R. (2018) The oxford companion to the English language, [Online]. DOI:
10.1093/acref/9780199661282.001.0001.

4. • develop digital literacy
• rethink the roles of educators
• overcome biases against technology
‘I came into social work to work with people not computers’
(Rafferty, 1997)
‘digital knowledge gaps in social work education and practice both exist
and persist’ (Taylor, 2017)
Challenges for Social Work education
Rafferty, J. (1997) ‘Shifting Paradigms of Information Technology in Social Work Education and Practice’, The British Journal of Social Work, vol.
27, no. 6, pp. 959–969.
Taylor, A. (2017) ‘Social work and digitalisation: bridging the knowledge gaps’, Social Work Education, vol. 36, no. 8, pp. 869–879 [Online].

5. Implement a playground learning environment set apart from the core
topics of the discipline to act as a threshold concept:
• transformative
• irreversible
• integrative
• troublesome
Playground learning environment
Meyer, J. H. F., & Land, R. (2003). Threshold concepts and troublesome knowledge: Linkages to ways of thinking and practising within the
disciplines. In C.Rust (Ed.), Improving student learning: Improving student learning theory and practice – Ten years on (pp. 412–
424). Oxford: Oxford Centre for Staff and Learning Development

6. miniMOOC
Playground learning environment prototype

7. https://app.webjets.io/p/WYZtFK0GbPVCwBC2yO94kzT3On72/-LWIJn3TkbYZJYx3rlDc
miniMOOC course design

10. Outlook

11. Next steps
• The miniMOOC prototype is available until 28 February 2019 – please
visit my Cloudworks site for more information
• Implement feedback and develop further topics in collaboration with
subject experts / teaching staff
• Implement miniMOOC as part of the Social Work bachelor curriculum
for Autumn term 2019

12. David Appel
Zurich University of Applied Sciences
-Twitter: @daappel
-LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/daappel
More information on Cloudworks:
https://cloudworks.ac.uk/cloud/view/11910