Featuring new and updated information on computer technologies, including networking and using the Internet as a necessary tool for professionals, Human Services Technology: Understanding, Designing, and Implementing Computer and Internet Applications in the Social Services will help individual human service professionals and agencies understand, design, implement, and manage computer and Internet applications. Combining several relevant fields, this informative guide provides you with the knowledge to effectively collect, store, manipulate, and communicate information to better serve clients and successfully manage human service agencies. Human Services Technology explains basic technological terms and gives you the history of technology uses before you explore other areas of Information Technology (IT). This essential guide will also improve your ability to find and understand recent research and information on important topics. Human Services Technology will expand your technical know-how and help you better serve clients by offering you proven methods and explanations, such as: describing terms--such as hardware, networking, and telecommunications--with easy-to-understand analogies and examples using IT applications to support social policies, improve service coordination among agencies, efficiently manage agencies in order to save time, support workers’decision making with information, and assist clients solving the problems that internal and external issues cause when determining IT needs, such as working with federal reporting requirements understanding and dealing with the 10 most critical IT issues for management Containing dozens of graphs, tables, and figures, this knowledgeable book will help you with any IT problem you encounter. Symbols by certain subjects in the book indicate that you can find more information and references on that issue through links on the book?s accompanying Web site. Human Services Technology will enable you to thoroughly understand and use IT to help you offer improved services to clients and manage agencies with increased efficiency and effectiveness.

This volume provides a unique and notable contribution to the investigation and exemplification of computer literacy in human services education. A significant contribution to the development of the contemporary human services curriculum, this helpful guide introduces the computer literate curriculum, explores the nature of computer literacy and its ramifications for teaching in the human services, and discusses the computer's effect on scholarly thinking. Computer Literacy in Human Services Education is divided into two major sections, the first dealing with teaching about computers and the second addressing the use of computers in teaching. In the first section, the authors introduce the topic of computer literacy in human services education and look at some general issues which have broad implications for the educator. They also explore program-wide curriculum development and the development of individual courses. In the second section, the authors discuss computers as devices which can facilitate both learning and thinking in human services, and suggest that some theories explaining human behavior may also apply to human/computer interaction. Other topics covered in the section are the use of computers in teaching about human services, including Computer Assisted Instruction (CAI), simulations, and interactive video. The volume concludes with an examination of the ways computers can affect the thinking of scholars in teaching and in model and theory building in the human services.

Organizations today { whether public or private { exist in environment s where the pace of change is dizzying. Human service organizations fa ce both external and internal challenges: The public demands better se rvices at more reasonable costs. Clientele is more diverse, more strat ified, and more vocal than ever. The organizations themselves must kee p up with rapid changes in technological innovation and labor-manageme nt relationships. Organizational Change: The Human Services Challenge looks at the context of organizational change, describes how individua ls and systems change, and pinpoints keys to successful change. Author Rebecca Proehl then presents a proven model of organizational change, built on lessons learned from both the public and private sectors, bu t tailored for human service organizations. Proehl also discusses in d epth labor union-management issues, the political strategies leaders m ust use to implement change, and how to build collaborative relationsh ips in human services.

Cumulates abstracts which appeared in Journal of human services abstracts.