Our mobile phones could just link us to the personalised information, support and guidance we need as parents to help us raise our children to be confident and capable adults. Mobile technology can be a connection point with the people and services with entrust to care and educate our children before they start school.
Childcare and preschool are about so much more than just looking after children while parents go to work. The educators who work in early childhood services are there to foster children's learning, to engage them in activities and spaces that support their development holistically. This means supporting their socialisation, their emotional intelligence along with their early understanding of colors, shapes, letters and creativity.
However, the other key role played by early childhood staff and services is the role they play in educating parents and helping them to also contribute to raising confident and capable children. The conversations at drop off and pick up time are not incidental. These are moments of intense and important information exchange, often all too short when it comes to parents, educators and care providers sharing their insights, concerns and celebrations regarding individual children.
The effort and focus on the early years ever since James Heckman won his Nobel Prize for his longitudinal work demonstrating the economic benefits of investment in the early years of children's lives has strengthened out commitment to children's learning and development in these early childhood education services. Still, there is never enough time and definitely few resources that facilitate the dialogue between parents and early childhood professionals. But, I can see that this is beginning to change.
As our ideas and understanding of privacy and sharing change, the more comfortable we become with the depth of digital content that we capture and share there is a space for childcare services to share the experiences of children with.