IRISS
Encyclopedia
Mission
IRISS, the Institute for Research and Innovation in Social Services, is a charitable company with a mission to:
Originally the Learning Exchange was built on IntraLibrary software and access restricted to students and staff of the higher educational institutions in Scotland engaged in teaching social work. Access was password protected using the Athens Eduserve authentication system. Working with NHS Education Scotland (NES) access was extended to the entire social services workforce in Scotland, again using Athens Eduserve for password protection. These two initiatives allowed the Learning Exchange to become part of a portfolio of licensed content available to the higher education sector and the entire social services workforce.
In practice much of the content of the Learning Exchange did not require password protection, partly because in 2008 IRISS adopted a policy of releasing its own content using Creative Commons licensing. Password protection was therefore removed and a simple search interface (OpenSearch) created which queried the database by SRU.
In 2010, IRISS took a further step towards openness by migrating the Learning Exchange to a new platform built using Drupal, an open source content management system.
The ability to allow metadata harvesting by third parties means that Learning Exchange content is automatically searchable by Social Services Knowledge Scotland (SSKS), a portal to social service knowledge and information created by NHS Education for Scotland
(NES) in partnership with IRISS, Scottish Social Services Learning Networks and the Social Care Institute for Excellence
.
For example Children, Families and Child Protection is a case study focussing on the legal, ethical and practice issues emerging from a child protection case scenario. A series of five short video clips describes the case from the perspective of the key players: an anonymous caller; social workers; a neighbour; a foster carer; and the thirteen year old girl taken into care.
The Assessment Triangle is a different kind of learning resource, being more text based. In Scotland, the Assessment Triangle has been adopted within the development of the Integrated Assessment Framework of GIRFEC
. This object helps the student understand the key concepts and includes a timeline for a typical child.
The Golden Bridge represents yet another kind of learning resource. It began as a project to 'virtualise' an existing social work museum exhibition on the migration of Home Children
from Scotland to Canada in the late 19th and early 20th century. The exhibition used text, images, video, and a blend of social historical analyses with witness testimony accounts to describe this complex human story, including the real-world stories of some Canadian elders in their 80s and 90s. The exhibition included artefacts from Quarriers
organisation, a major voluntary sector childcare agency. These included a selection of 'Narratives of Facts', annual reports which detailed stories and images of children migrated to Canada. There was also a collection of photographic images from the 1860s depicting children and staff at different stages of the migration journey.
The Golden Bridge is a unique example of how new media can be harnessed to retell and interpret an old story. The rich media approach of virtual Golden Bridge adds another dimension to the story of the home children. The audio commentary from the virtual curator, the film of adult home children sharing their experiences of migration, and the ability to zoom in to high resolution images all serve to bring the exhibits to life.
These recordings are available as a podcast either direct from the IRISS website or from the iTunes Store. As an example, the launch of the National Residential Child Care Initiative in December 2009 was recorded, including a short dramatisation by ‘Who Cares? Scotland’ in which young people imagine how residential child care might look in 2014.
IRISS uses Vimeo, a video streaming and sharing service to organise videoclips into albums for different events and present, for those unable to attend the event, short overviews of the key points. A powerful example of this technique is illustrated by the stories told at the Forgotten Citizens conference held in Glasgow in 2008.
(NES) and other stakeholders to create The Knowledge Management Strategy for the Social Services which was derived from Changing Lives. The Strategy stresses the importance of a workforce confident and competent in the use of the technologies that allow them to access and share knowledge.
As the ubiquity of the web has grown, new skills are required, known collectively as information literacy
: ‘the ability to find, evaluate and use digital information effectively, efficiently and ethically'. In collaboration with NHS Education for Scotland
IRISS developed a series of manuals aimed at helping social services practitioners develop their information literacy skills, as well as a simple interactive web-based introductory tutorial.
A Champions Network has been established to foster links between IRISS and the local authority social services workforce.
The Research Advice Service was set up to support the social care workers carrying out their own research.
and social networking services such as Twitter, Delicious, Vimeo and Youtube. A further barrier is Internet Explorer version 6, which, despite its inability to handle many modern web sites and services and Microsoft's own efforts to encourage migration to later and more useful versions, remains in widespread use in the public sector.
In January 2010, SOCITIM published a report urging public authorities to ‘embrace social media and not be party to moves to block staff from using these important new tools for business’. In support of this initiative IRISS commissioned a report, Social Media in the Social Services which was published as an interactive document inviting comment and discussion. IRISS continues to urge public bodies to open up access to social media
and trust professional staff to act responsibly.
ers
The goals were:
One of the first projects was the creation of the Learning Exchange, a digital repository, or library of bite sized chunks of learning or learning object
s.
In 2007, SIESWE changed its name to IRISS which reflected an extension of the scope to include the social care workforce.
Since its inception, IRISS has been at the forefront of the innovative use of technology to disseminate and share information and knowledge. It has created a multidisciplinary team combining a range of skills - multimedia development and design, web applications analysis, knowledge management, evidence-informed practice and service design – to harness the potential of Web 2.0 technologies. to support workforce, workplace and service development.
IRISS, the Institute for Research and Innovation in Social Services, is a charitable company with a mission to:
- …promote positive outcomes for the people who use Scotland’s social services by enhancing the capacity and capability of the social services workforce to access and make use of knowledge & research for service innovation & improvement
Work Programmes
To realise the vision of a high quality, continually improving social services sector renowned for its effective use of knowledge and research-based innovation, IRISS has organised its work into three inter-related programmes:Learning Exchange
In 2005, IRISS launched the Learning Exchange, a digital repository of learning resources, catalogued in accordance with international metadata standards in order to allow interoperability with other systems. In particular the intention was that multimedia learning objects could be downloaded as IMS packages and uploaded into virtual learning environments in higher education institutions.Originally the Learning Exchange was built on IntraLibrary software and access restricted to students and staff of the higher educational institutions in Scotland engaged in teaching social work. Access was password protected using the Athens Eduserve authentication system. Working with NHS Education Scotland (NES) access was extended to the entire social services workforce in Scotland, again using Athens Eduserve for password protection. These two initiatives allowed the Learning Exchange to become part of a portfolio of licensed content available to the higher education sector and the entire social services workforce.
In practice much of the content of the Learning Exchange did not require password protection, partly because in 2008 IRISS adopted a policy of releasing its own content using Creative Commons licensing. Password protection was therefore removed and a simple search interface (OpenSearch) created which queried the database by SRU.
In 2010, IRISS took a further step towards openness by migrating the Learning Exchange to a new platform built using Drupal, an open source content management system.
The ability to allow metadata harvesting by third parties means that Learning Exchange content is automatically searchable by Social Services Knowledge Scotland (SSKS), a portal to social service knowledge and information created by NHS Education for Scotland
NHS Education for Scotland
NHS Education for Scotland is a special board with a remit to promote learning and education for NHS Staff.NES is responsible for supporting NHS services delivered to the people of Scotland by developing and delivering education and training for those who work in NHSScotland....
(NES) in partnership with IRISS, Scottish Social Services Learning Networks and the Social Care Institute for Excellence
Social Care Institute for Excellence
The Social Care Institute for Excellence, ,is a UK charity, set up by government and funded by the UK Department of Health and the devolved administrations in Wales and Northern Ireland....
.
Multimedia
Beginning in 2005, IRISS began creating web-based multimedia learning objects based on scenarios devised by social work educators. The scenarios were scripted, professional actors cast, and then filmed by professional filmmakers.For example Children, Families and Child Protection is a case study focussing on the legal, ethical and practice issues emerging from a child protection case scenario. A series of five short video clips describes the case from the perspective of the key players: an anonymous caller; social workers; a neighbour; a foster carer; and the thirteen year old girl taken into care.
The Assessment Triangle is a different kind of learning resource, being more text based. In Scotland, the Assessment Triangle has been adopted within the development of the Integrated Assessment Framework of GIRFEC
Getting it Right for Every Child - GIRFEC
GIRFEC - Getting it Right for Every Child is Scotland's approach to supporting children and young people and is an important part of child protection policy...
. This object helps the student understand the key concepts and includes a timeline for a typical child.
The Golden Bridge represents yet another kind of learning resource. It began as a project to 'virtualise' an existing social work museum exhibition on the migration of Home Children
Home children
Home Children is a common term used to refer to the child migration scheme founded by Annie MacPherson in 1869, under which more than 100,000 children were sent to Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and South Africa from the United Kingdom....
from Scotland to Canada in the late 19th and early 20th century. The exhibition used text, images, video, and a blend of social historical analyses with witness testimony accounts to describe this complex human story, including the real-world stories of some Canadian elders in their 80s and 90s. The exhibition included artefacts from Quarriers
Quarriers
Quarriers is a Scottish social care charity based in Quarrier's Village, Inverclyde. It provides care and support for people with a disability, children and families, young people, young homeless people, people with epilepsy and carers...
organisation, a major voluntary sector childcare agency. These included a selection of 'Narratives of Facts', annual reports which detailed stories and images of children migrated to Canada. There was also a collection of photographic images from the 1860s depicting children and staff at different stages of the migration journey.
The Golden Bridge is a unique example of how new media can be harnessed to retell and interpret an old story. The rich media approach of virtual Golden Bridge adds another dimension to the story of the home children. The audio commentary from the virtual curator, the film of adult home children sharing their experiences of migration, and the ability to zoom in to high resolution images all serve to bring the exhibits to life.
Audio and Video
The convenience of ‘listening again’ to radio programmes has become well established in recent years. In 2006, IRISS began a programme of recording research seminars and other events as an effective and inexpensive way of capturing and sharing knowledge.These recordings are available as a podcast either direct from the IRISS website or from the iTunes Store. As an example, the launch of the National Residential Child Care Initiative in December 2009 was recorded, including a short dramatisation by ‘Who Cares? Scotland’ in which young people imagine how residential child care might look in 2014.
IRISS uses Vimeo, a video streaming and sharing service to organise videoclips into albums for different events and present, for those unable to attend the event, short overviews of the key points. A powerful example of this technique is illustrated by the stories told at the Forgotten Citizens conference held in Glasgow in 2008.
Knowledge Management Strategy
IRISS collaborated with NHS Education for ScotlandNHS Education for Scotland
NHS Education for Scotland is a special board with a remit to promote learning and education for NHS Staff.NES is responsible for supporting NHS services delivered to the people of Scotland by developing and delivering education and training for those who work in NHSScotland....
(NES) and other stakeholders to create The Knowledge Management Strategy for the Social Services which was derived from Changing Lives. The Strategy stresses the importance of a workforce confident and competent in the use of the technologies that allow them to access and share knowledge.
As the ubiquity of the web has grown, new skills are required, known collectively as information literacy
Information literacy
The National Forum on Information Literacy defines information literacy as “...the ability to know when there is a need for information, to be able to identify, locate, evaluate, and effectively use that information for the issue or problem at hand.” This is the most common definition; however,...
: ‘the ability to find, evaluate and use digital information effectively, efficiently and ethically'. In collaboration with NHS Education for Scotland
NHS Education for Scotland
NHS Education for Scotland is a special board with a remit to promote learning and education for NHS Staff.NES is responsible for supporting NHS services delivered to the people of Scotland by developing and delivering education and training for those who work in NHSScotland....
IRISS developed a series of manuals aimed at helping social services practitioners develop their information literacy skills, as well as a simple interactive web-based introductory tutorial.
Evidence informed practice
IRISS has developed a number of tools and services to promote and foster the use of evidence to inform practice. Confidence through Evidence is a toolkit designed to help practitioners acquire, assess, adapt and apply evidence in practice. A complementary library of evidence summaries has been created within the Learning Exchange.A Champions Network has been established to foster links between IRISS and the local authority social services workforce.
The Research Advice Service was set up to support the social care workers carrying out their own research.
Innovation and improvement
The Innovation and Improvement programme promotes new thinking for social services in Scotland. The programme develops tools, training and interventions that will support and enable the sustainable transformation of social services in Scotland.Technical barriers
Learning and knowledge sharing in the workplace is severely hampered in the public sector by corporate policies that block access to social mediaSocial media
The term Social Media refers to the use of web-based and mobile technologies to turn communication into an interactive dialogue. Andreas Kaplan and Michael Haenlein define social media as "a group of Internet-based applications that build on the ideological and technological foundations of Web 2.0,...
and social networking services such as Twitter, Delicious, Vimeo and Youtube. A further barrier is Internet Explorer version 6, which, despite its inability to handle many modern web sites and services and Microsoft's own efforts to encourage migration to later and more useful versions, remains in widespread use in the public sector.
In January 2010, SOCITIM published a report urging public authorities to ‘embrace social media and not be party to moves to block staff from using these important new tools for business’. In support of this initiative IRISS commissioned a report, Social Media in the Social Services which was published as an interactive document inviting comment and discussion. IRISS continues to urge public bodies to open up access to social media
Social media
The term Social Media refers to the use of web-based and mobile technologies to turn communication into an interactive dialogue. Andreas Kaplan and Michael Haenlein define social media as "a group of Internet-based applications that build on the ideological and technological foundations of Web 2.0,...
and trust professional staff to act responsibly.
History
IRISS was established in 2003 as SIESWE, the Scottish Institute for Excellence in Social Work Education, as a sector-wide collaboration of all nine Scottish universities teaching social work with the objective of bringing about transformational change in the education and training of Scotland's future social workSocial work
Social Work is a professional and academic discipline that seeks to improve the quality of life and wellbeing of an individual, group, or community by intervening through research, policy, community organizing, direct practice, and teaching on behalf of those afflicted with poverty or any real or...
ers
The goals were:
- Achieving the policy objectives of the then new social work honours degree
- Strengthening the evidence-base for practice and education for practice
- Supporting the implementation of an employee development framework for the whole social services workforce
One of the first projects was the creation of the Learning Exchange, a digital repository, or library of bite sized chunks of learning or learning object
Learning object
A learning object is "a collection of content items, practice items, and assessment items that are combined based on a single learning objective". The term is credited to Wayne Hogins when he created a working group in 1994 bearing the name though the concept was first described by Gerard in 1967...
s.
In 2007, SIESWE changed its name to IRISS which reflected an extension of the scope to include the social care workforce.
Since its inception, IRISS has been at the forefront of the innovative use of technology to disseminate and share information and knowledge. It has created a multidisciplinary team combining a range of skills - multimedia development and design, web applications analysis, knowledge management, evidence-informed practice and service design – to harness the potential of Web 2.0 technologies. to support workforce, workplace and service development.