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The Family and
Child Welfare Technology Project is being implemented by the
Department of
Psychology and Sociology at
Southern Arkansas University - Magnolia
[Landmark
Bell
Tower (96k)]
[(Peace Hall
(64k)].
The project is
a demonstration of the role of new technologies in creating a
community partnership between universities and social service
providers. The goal of the project is to improve the education of
social service students and to create more community and
family/community-centered social services in the Southwest Arkansas
region. The project is part of a larger statewide effort at child
welfare reform funded through the
Arkansas
Partnerships in Public Child Welfare.
The SAU project was initiated October of 1995 with a subcontract with the
University of Arkansas at
Fayetteville.
The Family and Child Welfare Technology Project takes advantage of
current Internet technologies and of current methods in
family-centered social service delivery. The two are linked together
through an innovation in education called the Regional Interactive
Curriculum, which systematically coordinates the processes of
professional practice and student education. This combination of
professional practice in the field and students learning in the
universities is accomplished through Internet tools and resources
such as e-mail, electronic and telephone conferencing, the World Wide
Web, on-line data bases, and Web site development capabilities. By
integrating these tools into the teaching and practice environments
students and case managers can interact to their mutual benefit.
The project's primary focus is to use the Regional Interactive Curriculum
concept to assist in a potential problem of the family centered approach.
Namely the fact that the more case managers are family-centered the more
they must work across program, agency and geographic boundaries. As case
managers work more across traditional boundaries the amount of information
that they must manage increases significantly; thus placing service
implementation and positive outcomes at risk. The two current goals of
the project are: (1) To show how using the concept of Regional Interactive
Curriculum resources from the university and regional agencies can be
networked together to provide a family/community centered structure to
social service workers that is flexible and efficient; (2) Use students as
the network builders and managers from the start. That way they can
learn family centered methods in an environment that connects them
directly to their region's problems, needs and services. The results
should be that professionals and agencies will have a customized regional
network of students, programs, and agencies that will allow cross-boundary
cooperation and provide students with a sophisticated understanding of
their region's needs and resources. These students will bring the
ability to use the new technologies in social services when they graduate.
Regional Interactive Curriculum will be a system which will provide
flexibility and adaptability thus allowing for broad regional cooperation
in delivering social services.
An Historical Perspective
The NSF Grant:
In 1991,
James
Willis and Edward
Kardas received a
grant
from the National Science
Foundation to establish a computer laboratory to be shared by the
departments of
Political
Science and Psychology, respectively. That grant marked the
beginning of Kardas' involvement in using technology in education.
Kardas developed his first computer-based course, General Psychology,
soon after. That course has since been translated into a Web-based
course. His research showed that student satisfaction was higher with
the computer-based course than with his traditional lecture-based
course.
Case Management Software:
In 1994 Milford
completed work on a software program to assist interdisciplinary
teams in intervention planning. The work from this project greatly
increased his understanding of how to weave technology into case
management. How to make technology serve the case management team
without creating additional management burdens was a very important
lesson. The skills learned in that project resulted in the creation
of an adaptable, flexible, user-friendly, and interdisciplinary
product for psychological case management.
Shortly after, Milford developed a HyperCard program to assist
students in understanding how a social service agency works. The
program,
The
Virtual Agency, laid the ground work for an understanding of
how virtual social services might be implemented.
IV-E and Southern Arkansas University:
In October of 1995 SAU became part of the Arkansas Partnerships in Public Child
Welfare reform. This partnership made Title IV-E funding available
through a subcontract between SAU and the University of Arkansas at
Fayetteville. SAU used the funds to evaluate how Internet tools might
assist child welfare reform and the education of student and
professionals in social service fields. That grant initiated what was
to become The Family
and Child Welfare Technology Project. The grant was renewed the
following year. In the two years of Title IV-E funding, the
infrastructure for further creation of Internet social services was
built. The needed hardware and software were evaluated for potential
educational, case management and welfare reform uses. In short, the
project went from an idea to reality.
Establishing a Regional Base:
In 1995-6 several meetings were held where social service
providers provided input into the design of an area-wide social
service Internet network. Meetings were held in Camden, El Dorado,
and Magnolia. These meetings led to a mutual understanding of the
basic end-user requirements of the network: that use of the network
could not place any additional time or personnel demands on agencies
and that the network provide tangible benefits to workers and clients
without extensive training time. Those requirements were met.
Internet Book:
In the spring of 1995, Kardas and Milford agreed to collaborate on
a book,
Using the
Internet for Social Science Research and Practice. The need
for such a book had become apparent to them as they incorporated
Internet-based materials into their courses. Students needed a book
where they could learn the basics of using the Internet for research
and practice but such a book did not exist. The book was published in
December of 1995.
HyperCard to HTML:
Kardas' initial efforts at computer-based courses were written in
HyperCard, an early implementation of an object-based hypertext
computer language. Hypertext is, according to Kardas and Milford
(1995, p. 5):
In a hypertext--a term coined by
Nelson (1965) although Bush (1945) was the first to publish a paper
on what we would now call hypertext--text or other materials are
encoded in such a way as to make them difficult to represent on
paper
. . .Hypertext, in contrast, is both nonlinear and
moveable, and it can be easily viewed in more than one sequence and
reordered in an infinite number of ways.
. . . Computers make the easy handling of
hypertext materials possible. Without computers, we would probably
still be at the stage of merely imagining hypertext.
Later, the World Wide Web and its language HTML made it possible
to extend hypertext courses beyond a single computer to large
networks of computers. So, Kardas and Milford began to create their
courses in HTML and to distribute them to SAU students through the
campus computer network. Of course, those same courses and materials
could be distributed anywhere in the world to any networked computer.
HTML makes the creation of interactive teaching materials relatively
easy.
Psychology-Sociology Department Strategic Plan:
In 1994, the Psychology-Sociology Department at SAU wrote a
strategic plan for the first time. In that plan, the department's
strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats were identified.
Then, a plan was created to deal with that analysis. The plan had a
very good effect on the department in that several weaknesses
identified have since been addressed by the plan. Specifically, the
plan stated that the department was weak because it had limited field
placements, limited availability of funds, an obsolescent computer
laboratory, and limited staff help. The Title IV-E funds have
addressed each of those weaknesses to a certain extent. Certainly,
those funds have shown just what kind of services the department
could provide when given the opportunity.
Some of the opportunities identified then have also panned out.
The top opportunity identified was:
1.
Extramural opportunities -- The department
has a chance to affect the communities it serves greatly. These
opportunities come from both physically proximate situations as well
as the Internet. In both, the department could achieve greater
efficiency in instruction, improved faculty development, and closer
relationships with students, the SW Arkansas area, and the world.
Again, the aid the department received from IV-E made it possible
for the department to reach out beyond its building to the
surrounding community (see below for how that was accomplished).
One of the threats identified was geographical isolation. The plan
said, "The university's geographical isolation is a threat in many
ways. However, it is probably most acute in terms of the employment
and graduate education prospects of our graduates." Both of the
specific examples have begun to be addressed thanks to our link to
the IV-E program.
In retrospect, it is fairly heartening to see how a plan can
actually lead to results. Although the department has been able to
demonstrate its potential in terms of teaching and service to the
community, the true extent of the department's possible contributions
lies in the future. But, an excellent start has been made in the last
five years, both in terms of facilities and in terms of faculty
expertise.
First Regional Interactive Projects:
In the spring of 1996 two projects were undertaken to test the new
equipment and the viability of the concepts. First, an Electronic
Field Lab was established with five students providing data to two
agencies through the Web. Second, two other students created an
on-line food stamp
policy manual for DHS. These two projects showed the viability of
the network as an efficient educational tool and as an efficient
method of providing direct services to agencies. Because of the
success of these two projects, plans were then developed to bring
more manuals on-line and to create more interactive courses.
Project Status
Hardware and Software on Hand:
Thanks to two years of funding from IV-E, the department has been
able to replace its "obsolescent" lab, install servers, redeploy
older machines to new uses, wire additional rooms, set up remote
access, teach students about the newest areas of research and
practice, and begin to distribute useful information to practitioners
in the field. Basically, the department has nearly all of the
hardware it will need for a few years. Its software needs have lagged
behind its hardware acquisitions, thus software will become a higher
budget priority in the future. Our capacity includes:
However, if the department is to branch out to become a larger
entity in the region, additional resources: hardware, software, and
personnel, will be needed. In terms of equipment, the department is
at a crossroads. On the one hand, the current system can adequately
serve the department's students and 2-5 agencies, or, on the other
hand, it can grow and not only serve its students, but also serve the
entire Southwest Arkansas region and serve as a model for the rest of
the State. We discuss both of those options further, below.
Projects:
Several projects involving our network are active. Three
agencies, Union
County DHS, Union County DCFS, and the
Southwest
Arkansas Community Development Corporation cooperate with the
department to explore the network's potential. Those agencies sponsor
interactive field placements for undergraduate students, a new
teaching model that brings together practitioners and students via
the Internet. This project allows the students and practitioners to
work together over the network to locate needed resources and develop
management tools. Other students have provided those agencies with
case management tools such as
local resource
databases,
on-line
policy manuals, data research, discussion groups, agency Web
pages and resource location. We have also started to the use the
network to offer services directly to clients, a concept they may
have great potential. Kardas has initiated the
109
Group a group of
pre-adolescent boys who can now demonstrate their work over the Web.
The past fall semester has been dominated by one large
undertaking: implementing a way to have all DCFS offices in Southwest
Arkansas linked to our network. Completion of that task will allow
large-scale regional services. Several methods of implementation were
discussed. Using the Department of Human Service's Wide Area Network
to link the local offices to the Internet through Little Rock
appeared to be the best method. That plan would allow access to our
network over 56K lines, a rate twice as fast as high-speed modems.
Additionally, that connection speed can accomodate very low cost
audio and video conferencing. Obviously, this approach requires a
close working relationship with Southwest Arkansas DHS offices
because they manage the buildings and the lines. At several
meetings--local, regional, and state--the benefits of such a system
were demonstrated to DHS managers; they became very supportive of the
concept and pushed for its implementation. Those meetings determined
the proposed network's structure. At this time, 10 counties are
scheduled to go on-line in the second are third week in January,
which will link those ten local DHS and DCFS offices to our services.
That network will be the pilot version of a regional Internet social
service/education network. As word of the network has leaked out,
requests from other agencies wishing to become clients have arrived.
However, those requests could not be addressed because of our very
limited personnel resources.
Personnel:
The current level of FTE resources available to the above projects
is inadequate. Initially, most work was done by Kardas and Milford
using whatever time they could steal for the project. Given all the
paths being explored, it did not take long for the project to put
inordinate demands on their time. This problem was temporarily
resolved by enlisting the help of department students, most having
very little training in computers. In fact, about 80% of the current
project was implemented by undergraduate sociology and psychology
students. Later, as the project grew and became more complicated,
both in terms of hardware and software, it became obvious that
additional skilled personnel were needed. Thus, in the summer of 1996
the Partership's Area IV Technology Specialist, Danny Stewart, was made available
through the partnership to the project two days per week. Now,
Stewart manages the technical aspects of the project. Assisting him
is a part-time student worker, funded through the department's
budget.
Milford and Kardas still do most of the development work. Stewart
spends 16 hours per week providing technical assistance and the
student worker runs the server and manages the information flow. All
put in unfunded extra hours. For the project to continue, to explore
what further services are possible, and to provide reliable
interactive service, will require FTEs devoted solely to those tasks.
The Family and Child Welfare Technology Project is the result of the
efforts of many people who have been willing to share their resources
to insure the project's success. Among those who have truly been dedicated
to the success of the project are the many of the students of the
Department of Psychology and Sociology. The vast majority of the web
site resources were developed by the department students. In particular
Charles McCartney, sociology major, has been invaluable in designing the
web site, managing the servers, finding and evaluating software.
Charles is graduating this semester; he will be missed. The Community
Service Rolodex is the result of the work five sociology majors in the
Electronic Field Placement class; Tia Silliman, Carolyn Beasly, Cindy Hicks,
Stephanie Manning, and Nancy Wilkerson. These students gathered the data
and established the initial database. The project's first online policy
manual was created by Tia Silliman and Charles McCartney. Angela Leake,
graduate student in the department of education, was primary typist and
spent many afternoons inputing data for several web resources. Joe Harker,
psychology major, has assisted in resolving technical problems in getting
the pilot site online. There are the numerous students in the sociology
and psychology classes that have given feedback concerning what appears
to work and what does not. Thanks for their willingness to experiment with
new teaching formats.
Along with the students at Southern Arkansas University support has come
from faculty and staff. Ed Kardas, Chair of the Psychology and Sociology
Department during the initial phase of this project, was the guiding force.
His understanding of the project's potential, technical knowledge and
ability to foresee future needs made the project possible. It was his
work, computers and education through his National Science Foundation Grant
that laid the groundwork for the current project. The current Department
Chair, Joe Bates, has been a voice of support for the project. He has
always allowed the department to try new ways of improving the class room
process.
The computer services department at Southern Arkansas University have been
another supportive force. Computer services director John Weber, and network
manager Jim Ferguson were invaluable and patient in answering our technical
questions, even when we were not sure what we were asking. University
President, Steven Gamble, Vice President Dan Ball and Dean Jerry Pyle,
have been other voices of support in this project. Their patience and
willingness to try innovative teaching methods have given the project
the flexibility it needs to succeed.
From the outset this project was designed to be just a small part of a
greater state wide effort at child welfare reform. Through the Arkansas
Partnerships for Public Child Welfare reform, many others have made
contributions to this project. Betty Guhman and Debra Hurd need thanks
for their willingness to make the funding possible and their enthusiasm
about the possibilities. Through the Partnership the input from others
working on child welfare reform has been very helpful. The assistance
given by the Department of Sociology at Henderson University is
specifically appreciated. The faculty has always been willing to share
their resources to insure the project's success. Danny Stewart,
the partnership's information technology specialist has been willing to
put up with being divided between Henderson and Southern Arkansas
Universities. He has been also willing to put up with, at times, less
than clear direction while having to put the network together. His
technical support has pulled us out of the fire on more than one occasion.
There are many service providers in the field who offered their time,
facilities and input during the conceptualizing of how this project should
be implemented. Their input was very helpful. Bettye Thurmon, DHS County
Administrator for Union County, was willing to open her facilities to use
as our "virtual agency." Her staff has also been willing to put up with
our questioning and has given much advice as to what will be useful to the
"line workers."
Finally a large thank you goes to Beth Walker, the partnership area
coordinator. She has pulled together the various resources to give this
project life. Her support, patience, advice, and enthusiasm for the
potential of the project makes enjoyable what otherwise might seem an
overwhelming task.
Courses:
As noted above,
Kardas'
general psychology was the first course to be converted to a
hypertext format. Since then Kardas has converted the following
courses: Learning,
Comparative
and
Physiological Psychology,
Research
Methods
I and
Cognitive
Science. Of those, only Learning is still in the HyperCard format
exclusively. Comparative and Physiological Psychology is in both
formats. The other courses, being more newly created, are in HTML
format. Milford, too, has been busy creating courses. His courses are
all in HTML format. He has integrated the Internet into his
Social
Welfare Policy,
Minority
Relations, and
Introduction
to Social Work courses.
Along with course creation has come the opportunity to explore
several research issues. Most of those issues deal with interface
design and with the interaction of class size and teaching method.
Such research could inform a much larger community as to better ways
to implement computer-based classes. Specifically, it could point to
new methods of instruction that take advantage of the characteristics
of the technology itself. Using e-mail to deliver materials and
grades to students, on-line testing, and "electronic visits" by
outside experts are but a few examples of topics currently under
investigation.
Another feature of such course creation has been a closer knitting
of research and practice issues. As an example, for the next year
faculty will use
parental
discipline as a concrete focus for several courses. Kardas will
use it in research methods as the vehicle for teaching his students
about conducting research. Thus, issues surrounding parental
discipline will be used to create opportunities for research topics.
For instance, a recent report of racial differences in the effects of
spanking
(Deater-Deckard,
Bates, Dodge, and Pettit 1996), will be used to explore
cross-cultural issues. They reported in the November issue of
Developmental Psychology that spankings actually led to positive
social effects in black children and to negative social effects in
white children. Milford will use the parental discipline focus in his
social problems course as a way of discussing interventions and their
effects. Gina Deahl, will use the focus in her developmental
psychology course to teach about the relationships between children
and their caretakers. Each year the department will choose a similar
focus.
Acquired Skills and Know How:
This department is uniquely poised to deliver a combination of
teaching and service that few others can. The initial enthusiasm
toward technology by a few has now infected the many. Nearly all
members now believe that technology is an aid and advantage to
teaching. That technology is an aid to practice has also been amply
demonstrated. The interaction between teaching and practice may have
the greatest potential of all. The question is what to do next? The
department would like to expand its reach to encompass the campus,
Magnolia, Columbia County, and indeed, all of Southwest Arkansas.
However, such a vision is presently not possible without further
infusion of money, primarily for personnel. Given such monies, a
model program for Arkansas and the United States could be created.
Without them, the department will remain as one of the best at a
small regional university. The plan for expansion is delineated
below.
Future Goals and Needs
Future Needs:
The Family and Child Welfare Technology Project has demonstrated
through its many projects the potential of a regional social service
teaching Internet network. The potential benefit to both welfare
reform, professional training and education has also been
demonstrated. In January, the network will go on-line regionally. At
the same time, the department's first interactive field placements
will begin and faculty will teach new computer-based courses. The
focus of the past year has been to develop tools for case managers
and students. Thus, tools such as databases, instructional manuals,
resources libraries, ways of sharing information quickly over
distances, courses, virtual tours, and on-line experts were developed
and implemented. Future developments for the network could include
"audio on demand", desktop video conferencing, direct
classroom-to-field conferencing, and direct social services delivered
electronically. Such service expansion will require a team of
professionals who are trained in network design and usage and in the
delivery of social services. Such people exist. What does not exist
is the framework described above. Fitting such personnel into the
project could result in a small revolution in social service delivery
and education. All that is needed now is money.
Structure for Expansion:
The project is now at a crossroads. One road leads to a future of
simple demonstrations to students and to limited services to a few
local agencies. The other road leads to a new model of instruction
and to real tools for full time social service professionals
throughout the region, the state, and as a model for the nation. The
department would like to follow the latter road. To bring such a
network on-line and to develop the models that will allow transfer of
the knowledge, technology and skills to other areas of the state is
now possible.
Below is a proposed organizational structure that could be used to
incorporate and manage a regional network serving the purposes of
education, development and practice. Many possible structures for
such an organization are possible. An independent institute is
described, however other structures are also possible.
The Community Internet Solutions Institute
Virtual Social Service
Mission:
The mission of the Community Internet Solutions Institute is to
strengthen and empower the social service community of Southwest
Arkansas through interactive information and support networks. These
networks will effect positive change in the lives of at-risk persons,
families and communities. The mission will be accomplished through
research, understanding, teaching, and developing the role of virtual
social services. The Community Internet Solutions Institute strives
to make available the information, knowledge, skills and intervention
models to any person or agency in Southwest Arkansas to advance the
quality of life of persons and families in our community.
Philosophy:
The role of interactive communications in the adaptation process
is vital. The greater the access to needed information the greater
the potential for successful adaptability. In an age of rapid
transition and emerging complexities, information acquisition is
fundamental to successful problem resolution. With the vast amount of
information readily available, simply not knowing is becoming less
acceptable. The current state of social transition ( information
economy, welfare reform, demographic migration, and globalization)
demands sophisticated information processing to enable goal-directed
planned change. Without adequate, flexible, adaptable information,
goal-directed planned change is not possible.
Information is power. In a free democratic society, power to
effect change must exist at the local community level. Social service
communities without this power will be at a great disadvantage to
respond efficiently and effectively to community social problems. The
logical conclusion is that in an age of information networks, any
group outside those networks quickly loses power. The ability for
self -determination is then diminished, decreasing the chance for
successful change. It is now a major responsibility of social work to
develop models of technology use that promote positive, planned,
dynamic self determination and inclusiveness in the problem
resolution process as a means of enhancing basic human dignity and
worth.
Goals:
- To collect and make available expertise in problem solving.
- To provide Internet-based interactive education.
- To maintain serving capacity to meet regional needs.
- To provide an interactive link between public and private
not-for-profit providers.
- To collect, create and serve requested databases.
- To provide flexibility to service provisions.
Institute Board of Directors:
Below are the proposed constituencies of the board of
directors and their roles.
| Board Member Represents |
Board Member's Role |
| Psychology/Sociology Chair |
Coordinator |
| Southern Arkansas University |
Professional Education |
| Academy for Family-Centered Practice |
Field Education |
| DCFS |
Public Provider |
| DHS |
Public Provider |
| Winthrop Rockefeller Foundation |
Private Providers |
| IV-E Partnership |
Child Welfare Reform |
A diagram of the proposed
organizational structure shows the relationship of the board of
directors to the remainder of the Institute structure. Note that the
model encompasses the traditional division of academic work:
research, teaching, and service.
For more information about this page please e-mail
Edward Kardas or
Tommy Milford
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