Charles Frost

cfrost@mtsu.edu

Charles Frost

Social Work

N/A

portable stored in Department Office

New Technology

N/A

The Social Work Department is requesting funds for a Portable Interviewing and Presentation lab to meet the faculty and student needs in the classroom and in the fieldwork and community settings into which the Department extends its program. Given the variety of settings in which this lab will be used, the portability of it is essential. The lab will include videotaping and play back of social work practice skills and public presentation capacities. Much of social work practice involves the development of social work skills such as interviewing clients and learning the use of the problem solving process with individuals, familiees, groups, and organizations. The lab will be used in the classroom for students to tape their practice sessions and play them back for critique purposes. The instructors will be able to use the equipment for skills demonstration. The lab will also be used in training sessions required for our Council on Social Work Education accreditation of the fieldwork agency supervisors that occurs numerous times through any given year. The training focuses on how to be an effective fieldwork supervisor and how to improve social work practice skills within the agency setting. Faculty will use the presentation components in the classroom, at agency sites, and at other settings as part of the extensive public service done by the Social Work Department faculty. Students will use the equipment as part of classroom and agency presentations. It is vital that social work students develop effective presentation skills, incorporating "state of the art" technology to have the competitive edge because a large part of their social work practice will be public speaking: for fund raising, education and other prevention service, and public relations. This lab will be used by and benefit all of the 215 undergraduate social work majors. It will be used for the courses SW 263, "Interviewing Skills," SW 458, "Social Work Practice I," "SW 465, "Social Work Practice II," and SW 459 and 468, the field instruction courses. All five of these are required of all majors.