#SWVirtualPal Hash Tagging for Connection [BLOG POST]

Amanda M L Taylor, Laurel Hitchcock

Research output: Other contribution

Abstract

Pen Pals have been a ‘thing’ for a very long time. The earliest record of their usage, that we can find, is reported as being led by an ‘innovative Iowa teacher’ called Birdie Matthews, who at the time employed the methodology to bring the realities of WW II into the classroom (Myers-Verhage, 1995). Matthews creativity in the classroom quite possibly led to one of the most famous pen pal relationships of all time, and this was between Juanita Wagner (her student at the time) and Anne Frank. So why are we telling you all of this? Well, before the internet the likelihood of a social work academic in the US, working closely and supportively with a social work academic in the UK would have been ‘virtually’ unheard of, or indeed a fairly disparate affair, which would have been laborious to maintain. However, thankfully for us technologies have changed the way we work and the way we connect. Today’s digital and social media present all sorts of possibilities and opportunities; and being social workers with our default set on creativity, we decided quite a way back now to exploit all it is that technology affords
Original languageEnglish
Type#SWVirtualPal Hash tagging for Connection
Media of outputBlog
Publication statusPublished - 24 Sept 2016

Keywords

  • internationalisation
  • social work
  • social work education
  • social work practice

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