Using Technology to Strenghten School Counseling Programme.

Topic 12

Technology Utilization in the Field of Counseling

Moores study (as cited in Owen, 1999) reports the following: 95.6% of the responding counselors state they use computers for word processing. 65.6% of counselors responding use computers for grade/record keeping. 64.4% use comp uters for class scheduling. 33.3% use computers for statistical analysis. 30% use computers for educational programs. 28.9% use computers for sending/receiving email. 18.9% use computers for interactive vocational guidance. 16.7% use computers for testing. 13.3% use computers for Internet research. 5.6% use computers for teaching.

Effective use of current and emerging comm unication and information technolo gies allow counselors to take advantage of new conveniences and opportunities not before available.

 Using computer conferencing, electronic mail, and voice mail applications, counselors can communicate with each other and other stake holders at any time and any place. This allows a new freedom of discussion, collaboration, and professional development no matter the size or location of ones work place.

 Interactive multimedia instructional software allow counselors to better control learning segments and explore new segments at a depth and pace appropriate to their students own learning needs during psychoeducational groups.

 Electronic links can help extend the counselor and sch ool to community partners such as health centers,community counseling centers, business and industry, government and non-profit agencies, cultural facilities and vast library resources.

 Information databases that are available for counselors and others to access and update, as authorized,allow for more convenient and efficient services such as off-site college registration; financial aid and admissions processing; student career counseling profiles; full-text databases of scholar ly publications; student progress data, and more.

 Networking technologies and software tools affect the way decisions are made by expediting the availability and distribution of data throughout a counselors school. Crossinstitutional work groups and an appropriate balance between distrib uted and centralized technical support will make possible. collaborative planning and resource management. Additionally, others have already discovered uses of computers and the Internet in particular to augment various school counseling goals. Consider the following examples of how these technologies are enhancing the work of school counselors:

 In late 1996, The Georgia Board of Regents Office of Information and Instructional Technology (OIIT) in collaboration with the Georgia Department of Education (DOE) Office of Technology Services announced that an electronic account will be provided to middle school and high school buildings as part of an ongoing project called "Connecting Students and Services." The account is intended for use by middle school and high school counselors only and provides schools with a single point of access to various Internet resources including e-mail addresses. The goal is to enhance the guidance counselor's utilization of resources available on the Internet's World Wide Web (WWW).

 Similar to tra ditional penp als that maintain a relationshi p via correspon dence using letters sent through the mail, KeyPals send electronic mail to establish and maintain a friendly peer relationship.The service provides an incredibly easy-to-use interface and database to quickly locate and contact a student or a class from around the w orld. Start a project with another class, or just create a new friendship with someone on the other side of the globe. KeyPals Club is another free educationa l service from Mighty Media, creators of the Youth in Action Network and Teacher Talk.

 School counselors can help students with disabilities by learning how computers and the Internet can serve as assistive technologies. For instance, once counselor downloaded a textto-speech converter (from www.readplease.com) to have childrens stories read to a group of children without site. Another counselor used a website (where.com/scott.net/asl/) to help teach the siblings of a hearing impaired child American sign language (ASL). The site has an ASL dictionary, interactive quiz, and text to ASL converter.

A software program called Therascribe assist a counselor in developing Individual Educational Programs (IEPs) and conducting functional assessments. The treatment planning program helps you choose from thousands of pre-written treatment statements to help you create comprehensive treatment plans and detailed progress notes.

The program recommends appropriate combinations of behavioral definitions, long-term goals, short-term ob jectives, and therapeutic inter ventions for all major DSM-IV diagnoses. It track s client demogr aphic data, m ental status and p rognosis, treatm ent modality, discharge criteria, and provider credentials; it also provides treatment outcome tracking with 3-D graphing (see http://www.parinc.com/profess/THERASCRIBE150a.html).

 Some counselors have provided websites with links to colleges, financial aid sources, GPA calculators, planning checklists, after school homework centers, and resources for parents to name a few (for an annotated directory of over 700 counseling related websites, see Sabella, 1999).

Social Networking
Student can socialize among them, with teachers using the following networking engines: Facebook Myspace Twitter Blogster etc