Notice: National Standards and Guidelines for Career Development Practitioners
December 1, 1999Work Trends: Recent and Far
June 11, 2000By Marc Verhoeve
Formatting Our Future …………in Washington, D.C.
The American Counseling Association hosted their Millennial Conference in Washington, D.C. from March 20 to 25. Donna Ford, ACA President, chose the theme, “Formatting Our Future” because of her belief in the need to understand the impact of technology on counseling, specifically, cybercounselling. Thirty-two hundred counselling professionals attended over 400 workshops and meetings sponsored by the 25 sub-associations of ACA. In addition to Canada and United States, delegates represented countries as far-reaching as Israel, Japan and South Korea.
I had the opportunity to present two sessions [“JVIS.com: Cyber-Innovation in Career Assessment” and “The Future of Career Counseling in Cyberspace”]. The internet impact is evident in the range of topics from “High Tech and High Touch: Incorporating Technology into Career Development Courses” and “Buyer Beware: Data on Web Counselors’ Non-Compliance With Ethical Standards” to “The Report of the ACA Technology Taskforce” and “WWW.CareerCounseling.Tools”.
The Journal of Technology in Counseling, a new web-based journal housed at Columbus State University [http://jtc.colstate.edu ] indicated at the conference that they are soliciting articles. For details, refer to their website or email questions to [baltimore_michael@colstate.edu.].
ACA also published at the conference a new book, Cybercounseling and Cyberlearning in the New Millennium. In addition to the 25 articles, the book includes abstracts of 10 “cyber manuscripts” found on the accompanying website [http://www.eric.ed.gov], hosted by ERIC/CASS. [I had the privilege of authoring two of these articles.] The site also contains Powerpoint screenshows, including those presented by the ACA Technology Taskforce at the conference. It is the hope of John Bloom, the editor, that this site be used as a communication vehicle of exemplary projects in cybercouselling and cyberlearning.
As the keynote speaker, Moira Gunn, a national talkshow host [as well as a former NASA scientist and engineer] stated in her address, the use of internet technology is not a problem for our clients [they thrive on web-communication]; the issue is the fact that we, as counseling practitioners, must make the transition to effectively utilize this remarkable new medium!
Marc Verhoeve
Career Pathing Consultant
[verhoeve@sympatico.ca]
