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NYU Silver School of Social Work is offering students a narrated virtual field trip through the Lower East Side to assess potential challenges for local residents and best prepare for their upcoming internships in the neighbourhood.
The Silver School at NYU has been a pioneer in training over 18,000 social work practitioners and leaders in every field of practice, affecting lives around the world. From 1960s gang violence to the AIDS crisis of the 1980s to 9/11, NYU’s social workers have been at the center of response efforts that turn crises into social progress.
Every year, the graduate students at NYU Silver School of Social Work complete an internship in an organization located in and around the Lower East Side. To help them best prepare for this internship, professor Nicholas Lanzieri and his team developed a virtual field trip in the Lower East Side and tested how to enhance it with conversational AI simulations.
Simulations have traditionally been a way that educators bridge classroom learning with exercises that aim to provide students with as close to “real life” experiences as possible.
Within social work they are an especially useful tool since many of its techniques and concepts are abstract and students can find it challenging to operationalize and apply them. Core classes within the graduate social work curriculum stress the correlations that exist between the social environment and an individual’s physical, cognitive, and emotional development. Yet, while students might understand those associations, they don’t consistently apply that comprehension as they navigate community contexts.
For Nicholas Lanzieri, the objective was to have graduate students take the information they’ve been given in the classroom and to start applying it within the neighborhoods and communities where they are completing their internships. I’d like students to proactively engage social work concepts as they cross a main thoroughfare, board a city bus, pass a public park or wait at a traffic light. The simulation aims to guide students on ways they should be critically thinking about the community and how it may or may not accommodate the needs of their clients.
Through this experience, NYU’s graduate students embark into a narrated virtual field trip within the very neighborhood where they will be working during their internship.
As they virtually cross a main thoroughfare, board a city bus, pass a public park or wait at a traffic light, they have the opportunity to proactively engage social work concepts
By prompting students to observe each location in 360° and trigger information hotspots, the students are provided with a new tool to think about the implications of the specific multi-layered and historical environment on their social work.
Practice in the virtual world before heading into the real world!
NYU Silver School of Social Work student Nikki Vega checks out the new VR simulation that takes you through New York City's Lower East Side to assess the environment and look for possible challenges for clients.
“It’s convenient but it’s also a safe way to explore the area” Nikki, NYU Student
Professor Nicholas Lanzieri created the virtual training program and says they’re researching the results and planning to expand the demos to other boroughs of NYC.
“I’m always excited about using different technologies to really tap into learning styles and help students acquire information in different ways.” Nicholas Lanzieri, NYU Silver School Professor
As an extension to the original field trip, the NYU Silver School team has also been exploring how to enhance the original virtual field trip with a conversational partner to help student practice their communication skills and knowledge about the Lower East Side by interactive with a digital role-play simulation.
In the "meet Evan" simulation, students need to help "Evan", a Honduran migrant on a job hunt, find crucial support services for his family in New York.
Empathize with Evan, a Honduran father who fled violence for a better future in the United States. Listen attentively to his concern for his pregnant wife's health and his fervent desire to secure decent housing. As you help direct him towards job opportunities, you will engage in an emotional experience that sheds light on the challenges faced by migrants in New York while testing your knowledge of the Lower East Side.
