Is Computer-Assisted EBP Generating “Fast” Practice?

Abstract

In search of a model for examining the impacts of computer-assisted EBP on practice and education for practice, the authors review basic traditional “slow motion” social work practice and compare it to what one of the authors calls “fast practice.” Fast practice involves not only immersion of the practitioners in the now common electronic assemblage of horizontally and vertically linked hardware and software, but also the possible collapsing of Western practice orientations to social work that foreshadow a newly emerging decentered profession. In addition, the authors present data they collected about technology usage among human service providers to begin to assess how traditional social work practice components are being transformed by computer-assisted technology, suggesting that the electronic assemblage may be moving the profession into an entirely new and unexpected territory called “fast practice.”

Key Words:

• Hypertechnology
• computers
• practice applications