Summary

Social movements, activism, advocacy, and macro social work, in general, have all been impacted by the rise of social media and various digital technologies. The social work literature has exploded with books, articles, and trade publications being devoted to the topic. The expectation among students to become digitally competent professionals has been discussed in the literature and many recognize the need to infuse these technologies into social work education and practice in ways that can build technical competence, social and cultural competencies, and digital literacies. The purpose of this workshop is to differentiate between the concepts of digital and media literacies as they apply to macro social work practice and education. The New Macro Social Work Literacies leverage digital and new media literacies skills to develop digital technology competencies and transform the future. Participants will learn about leveraging the participatory culture of social media to understand how social movements create change. Participants will gain insight into how future technologies disrupt social development in positive and negative ways and how social workers can respond to these disruptions. Participants will gain knowledge about specific skills and strategies that are needed to engage in advocacy now and in the future. Through this workshop participants will be able to help develop the requisite technical, social, and cultural competencies to be ethical and effective social workers. Digital literacies need to move beyond the skills of critical analysis to build the capacity for engaging, understanding, and communicating with others in a genuine, authentic, and ethically appropriate manner. The New Macro Social Work Literacies\ are as much about understanding the how as they are about understanding the why. In this way, the future of social work and social development can be positively impacted and more equally distributed.

Keywords (separate with commas)

Digital Technology, Competencies, Social Media, Social Action