Technology-Enhanced Counselor Training: Essential Technical Competencies.

Counselor educators must consider the possibilities associated with technology-enhanced counselor training and research. The focus of this article was to identify the technology competencies that should be acquired by graduate students who successfully complete the counseling programs.

The counselor educators have an opportunity to model efficient, meaningful and educationally sound use of technology. According to a survey by the American College Teacher (The Chronicle of Higher Education, 1999), among 33, 785 faculty members at 378 colleges and universities, the aging of the faculty plays into several trends--like the fact that older faculty report being more stressed by information technology even though they aren't using it as much as younger faculty. Keeping up with information technology was a source of stress for 67 per cent of the academics--more so for women than for men, and for older professors than for younger ones.

Age also affected how professors use computers. More than 90 per cent of those less than 45 years old communicated via Email at least twice a week, compared with 67 per cent of those 65 or older. Among professors fewer than 35.61 per cent used a computer at least twice a week to "conduct scholarly writing," and 45 per cent to do research using the Internet. For professors in the 55-64 age group, the proportions for those activities were 48 per cent and 28 per cent respectively (The American College Teacher, 1999).

ACES' (Association for Counselor Education and Supervision) Technology Interest Group Network report has recommended ten technical competencies (T. Hohenshil, Personal communication via E-mail to The Education Trust, April, 1998). However, recently, the Network has recommended twelve technical competencies for counselor education students (T. Hohenshil, 2000). At the completion of a counselor education program, all students should:

1. Be able to use productivity software to develop web pages, group presentations, letters, and reports.

2. Be able to use such audiovisual equipment as video recorders, audio recorders, projection equipment, video conferencing equipment, and playback units.

3. Be able to use computerized statistical packages.

4. Be able to use computerized testing, diagnostic, and career decision-making programs with clients.

5. Be able to use E-mail.

6. Be able to help clients search for various types of counseling-related information via Internet, including information about careers, employment opportunities, educational & training opportunities, financial assistance/scholarships, treatment procedures, and social and personal information.

7. Be able to subscribe, participate in, and sign off counseling related listservs.

8. Be able to access and use counseling related CD-ROM data bases.

9. Be knowledgeable of the legal and ethical codes which relate to counseling services via the Internet.

10. Be knowledgeable of the strengths and weaknesses of counseling services provided via Internet.

11. Be able to use the Internet for finding and using continuing education opportunities in counseling.

12. Be able to evaluate the quality of Internet information.

According to a survey by the ACES' Technology Group Interest Network (Myers & Gibson, 1999), counselor educators and students lack a uniformly high level of competencies in each of the 12 areas. More research is needed to determine the technology competencies in counselor training and preparation.

For this study, the researcher sent a modified survey to ascertain the perceptions of counselor educators and counselors regarding the technology competencies that should be incorporated into the counselor education curriculum. The survey contained a set of 15 technology competencies that counselor education graduates should have at the completion of their counseling program. The survey instruments were randomly sent to counselor educators (n=125) and counselors (n=75) requesting them to rank the technology competencies that counseling graduates should have at the completion of their graduate programs. One: hundred ten counselor educators and sixty-five counselors returned the survey with relative ranking and additional recommendations. The relative rank order and percent of responses of each technical competencies selected by the counselor educators and counselors are shown in Table 1.

Table 1 The relative rank order and percent of responses from Counselor Educators and Counselors Regarding Technical Competencies Needed in Counselor Training

Rank     Technology Competencies               N= 110       N=65
                                             Counselor   Counselors
                                             Educators    Percent
                                              Percent

1.       Be able to use word                    100         100
         processing software

2.       Be able to use E-mail,                 100         100
         Bulletin Boards, etc.

3.       Be able to use Audio-                  100         100
         Visual Equipment

4.       Be knowledgeable about the             100         100
         legal and ethical codes
         related to counseling
         services via the Internet

5.       Be able to use computerized            100         100
         testing and career-
         decision-making programs
         with clients and others

6.       Be able to assist clients              100         100
         via Internet to explore
         various types of
         counseling-related
         information such as careers,
         employment, education, training
         opportunities, financial
         assitance, social and
         personal information
         and treatment modalities

7.       Be able to use statistical              98          92
         packages such as SPSS,
         etc.

8.       Be able to guide students in            98          90
         the use of Internet for
         research and development

9.       Be able to use counseling-              96          90
         related listservs

10.      Be able to use Internet                 95          90
         for continuing education
         opportunities in counseling

11.      Be able to access and use               92          90
         counseling-related CD-
         ROM and other databases

12.      Be able to screen the strengths         82          75
         and weaknesses of
         counseling services
         provided via Internet

13.      Be able to evaluate the                 82          70
         quality of information
         provided via Internet

14.      Be able to use productivity             75          65
         software to develop
         web pages, presentations, etc.

15.      Be able to offer courses                75          63
         via distance learning
         (Web-based and Web-assisted)

Even though some technical competencies have been identified for integrating: technology into the counselor training curriculum, particular attention should be paid to the technology integration process such as selection, acquisition, implementation and integration into the counselor training activities. Awareness of these phases enables counselor educators to adjust their focus as they move through the process of determining how to use technology to enhance counselor productivity.

Counselor training should provide the technical skills and theoretical knowledge essential to integrate technology into counselors' work with all students, school personnel, parents, colleagues and the community (Hartman, 1998). The trainees must have a framework on how technology is and is not impacting students, teachers, families, and their community. Specifically, it is expected that counselor trainees will be knowledgeable about state and national technology initiatives, quantitative and qualitative research on the use of technology in and out of schools, pedagogical issues and concerns, instructional intervention methods, social and cultural inequities, and an overview of current literature on the subject.

Counselor educators must consider the possibilities associated with technology-enhanced counselor training and research. The use of appropriate electronic tools can profoundly impact and enhance counselor training and the counseling services provided to the clientele. The goals of technology-enhanced counselor training should guide the trainers in the following directions: (1) advance a vision of how information technology is used as an essential tool by helping counselors in their work, ((2)) extend counselor understanding of the productivity demands made on counselors and of the potential tools that facilitate productivity, and (3) rethink how counselors and other helping professionals work in light of available information technologies. Counselor training must incorporate a component that introduces technology and the use of electronic tools in counselor productivity.

The widespread availability of computers and productivity software provides counselors with new opportunities to work more effectively and efficiently than in the past. There is enough research evidence to show that the development of information technology tools will continue to impact the knowledge and skills needed by counselors and other helping professionals (Baker, 1996; Friedheim & Faffee, 1999; Hammer & Champy, 1993; Kennedy, 1993; Sherry, Billig, Tavalin & Gibson, 2000). There seems to be an urgency to understand the potential benefits of information technology in order to provide efficient and competitive services in the community and the world (Peppers & Rogers, 1997). Currently, educational institutions in the United States are trying to incorporate new technologies by spending an increased percentage of their annual budgets on technology (Quality Education Data, 1997; Stith, 2000). Unfortunately, in contrast to the business community, colleges and universities are still lagging behind in the use of information technologies.

Although the potential of technology to impact the work of counselors has been generally recognized (Harrison & Stephen, 1996), the day to day work of counselors appears largely unchanged. This may be due to the fact that traditional efforts to use technology have focused on the integrated software package (Edyburn, 1999).

In conclusion, a critical component of counselor education training is technology competencies. Because counselor competence in using technology has a direct bearing on the quality of counseling services received by the clients, an effort has been made to identify specific skills that are being used in the counseling process. The purpose of this article was to identify the technology competencies that should be acquired by students who successfully complete the counseling programs and this study suggest further development in this area.

References

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Hammer, M., & Champy, J. (1993). Reengineering the corporation. NY: Harper Business.

Harrison, T. M., & Stephen, T. (1996). Computer networking and scholarly communication in the twenty-first century. NY: State University of New York Press.

Hartman, K. E. (1998). Guidelines for a technology component to the DeWitt Wallace school counseling project. Washington, DC: The Education Trust.

Hohenshil, T. Personal communication via e-mail to The Education Trust, April, 1998.

Hohenshil, T. Mid Year Report of ACES Technology Interest Group Network via E-mail, March 10, 2000.

Kennedy, P. (1993). Preparing for the twenty-first century. NY: Random House.

Magner, D. K. (1999, September 3). The graying professoriate. The Chronicle of Higher Education, XL V(2), A 18-A21.

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Sherry, L., Billig, S., Tavalin, F., & Gibson, D. (2000, February). New insights on technology adoption in schools. The Journal, 27 (7), 4346.

Stith, B. (2000). Web-enhanced lecture course scores big with students and faculty. The Journal, 27(8), 21-28.

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Dr. Kan Chandras, Professor and Head, Department of Counseling Psychology, fort Valley State University.

Correspondence should be addressed Dr. Kan Chandras, Professor and Head, Department of Counseling Psychology, Fort Valley State University, Fort Balley, GA 31030.