Document Type

Article

Publication Date

2011

Publication Title

Groupwork

Volume

21

Issue

3

Abstract

This paper addresses the relationship between social groupwork and technology. It discusses the evolution of online technology—how the technological revolution of the computer, the Internet, and mass access to new communication devices has impacted our lives with unprecedented speed and universality. It acknowledges the natural and understandable resistance of many skilled and renowned groupworkers to the use of these new modalities. It addresses the numerous benefi ts and challenges that technology brings, and the critical and timely need for groupworkers to make the conceptual shift to embrace these modalities. A case is made for groupworkers’ ability to take a leadership role in the development of effective, effi cient and ethical online groups across disciplines and fi elds, and the need to contribute to the burgeoning scholarly literature on best practices in the development of online communities. An example of the use of technology to facilitate connection and effective teaching among adjunct groupwork educators is offered as one avenue for increasing groupwork’s voice within an academic institution

Comments

Author Posting. © Whiting and Birch, 2011. This article is posted here by permission of Whiting and Birch for personal use, not for redistribution. The article was published in Groupwork, Volume 21, Issue 3, 2011, http://dx.doi.org/10.1921/095182411X636545

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License.

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