I have been reflecting on the role of social networks in relation to my work for the last couple of weeks. I am not a big or even medium participator in online social networking. When I do go online I find that I can use up a lot of time that may be better used in other ways. Interesting that, if a recent report on the radio is to be believed, 60% of shared posts are not even read by the people who share them. So are people just 'playing' the social network game rather than truly engaging?
As I work in early childhood education the use of online social networks in teaching children is limited. However, the e-portfolio system we have introduced to our kindergartens over the last three years is a type of closed online social network. The participants in this network are the teachers, the parents and the whānau of the children attending the kindergarten. The e-portfolios contain the narrative assessments of children's learning.
Narrative assessments in the form of learning stories are one of the main tools used by early childhood teachers in New Zealand to communicate learning to parents and children, to invite parents and children to participate in the recognition of learning, co-construct how to progress this learning, and build a learning community. Engaging parents in this pedagogical documentation is recognised as being critical to sociocultural assessment practices (Carr 1999, Stuart, Aitken, Gould & Meade 2008). Birbili & Tzioga (2014) note that for assessment to be authentic it should be a dialogue between teachers, children and parents and that parents should be active participants in the documentation not solely consumers of it. Over the last 20 years, since the introduction of the national curriculum Te Whāriki, teachers have tried many ways to facilitate a partnership with parents in the documentation of children's learning with limited success. We decided to trial the use of e-portfolios to see if this would engage parents more successfully especially as many parents are now very active users of social networks. A survey of parents at the end of our trial showed that fifty-eight percent of parents thought that the e-portfolio experience had increased their knowledge of learning stories, their child’s learning and how teachers use the learning stories to progress their child’s learning. A number of parents (52%) took the opportunity to add general comments on e-portfolios.
The great thing about this online network has been the involvement of the extended whānau. Below is a comment from a grandmother who lives in the North Island so gets limited opportunites to engage with her grand-daughters kindergarten in Christchurch;
Narrative assessments in the form of learning stories are one of the main tools used by early childhood teachers in New Zealand to communicate learning to parents and children, to invite parents and children to participate in the recognition of learning, co-construct how to progress this learning, and build a learning community. Engaging parents in this pedagogical documentation is recognised as being critical to sociocultural assessment practices (Carr 1999, Stuart, Aitken, Gould & Meade 2008). Birbili & Tzioga (2014) note that for assessment to be authentic it should be a dialogue between teachers, children and parents and that parents should be active participants in the documentation not solely consumers of it. Over the last 20 years, since the introduction of the national curriculum Te Whāriki, teachers have tried many ways to facilitate a partnership with parents in the documentation of children's learning with limited success. We decided to trial the use of e-portfolios to see if this would engage parents more successfully especially as many parents are now very active users of social networks. A survey of parents at the end of our trial showed that fifty-eight percent of parents thought that the e-portfolio experience had increased their knowledge of learning stories, their child’s learning and how teachers use the learning stories to progress their child’s learning. A number of parents (52%) took the opportunity to add general comments on e-portfolios.
I love the instant nature and being able to go back to the stories in
my own time (while the book is mainly at Kindy)
I have really enjoyed and appreciated having this tool to keep
communication open and keep me involved while I also work and cannot always be
involved with kindergarten and my daughter’s day and learning.The great thing about this online network has been the involvement of the extended whānau. Below is a comment from a grandmother who lives in the North Island so gets limited opportunites to engage with her grand-daughters kindergarten in Christchurch;
"Wow - Go Keva! You love the monkey bars and
now look what you have learned to do on them. Our Monkey Bar Girl
swinging upside down with your feet tucked into the handle - that's really
awesome, well done! We're so proud of you. Tracey [teacher], what
a neat story you've written here and I think the photos are brilliant with what
they have captured! To me they show concentration as Keva is focused on
doing what has been explained to her, and the smile as she swings off the
landing indicates she is enjoying it. (I also saw this smile recently when Keva
was doing what her swimming teacher was asking her to do.) I
recognise the expression she has in the arm resting on the handle
photo - her 'look' when she appears to have enjoyed stretching herself and is
seeming to be proud of what she has achieved. Thank you, Lynn (Nan)."
If you are interested in reading more about this way of connecting with parents and families you could read my article, E-portfolios: connecting parents, whānau and teachers in kindergarten communities, published in the journal Early Education, volume 56, Spring/Summer 2014.
Being involved with this course has caused me to explore a broader range of ways to both deliver and engage in professional development. I have started to look at what opportunities social networks may give me to broaden my professional networks and to be part of ongoing discussions on early childhood education and research internationally. At this stage I have found some groups through LinkedIn to join; The Teacher Leadership Network and NZEALS, Research in Early Childhood, and Nursery World. I have chosen these groups to join as they will address the range of knowledge areas involved in my work, leadership in education, current research in early childhood education and early childhood education thinking internationally. I look forward to putting aside some time regularly to participate in these forums. I do already engage in Twitter, kind of, and was pleased to find a link to a You Tube clip the other day on Prof Christine Rubie-Davies' High Teacher Expectation Project that I then used as a provocation with a group of provisionally certificated teachers I was meeting with last week. I would not have known about this research if I had not been on Twitter. I often search You Tube for relevant clips of researchers, theorists and best practice examples of early childhood education that I then use as part of the professional development I run for teachers.
References:
Birbili, M. & Tzioga, K. (2014) Involving
parents in children’s assessment: lessons from the Greek context. Early Years: An International Research
Journal, 34:2, 161-174.
Carr, M. (1999) Some
thoughts about effective assessment. Early Education, 21, 11-21.
Penman, R. (2014) E-Portfolios: connectiong parents, whānau and teachers in kindergarten communities. Early Education, v.56, Spring/Summer, 10-13
Stuart, D., Aitken, H. Gould, K. & Meade, A. (2008) Evaluation
of the implementation of Kei Tua o te Pae Assessment for Learning: Early
Childhood Exemplars: Impact evaluation of the Kei Tua o te Pae 2006
professional development. Wellington: Ministry of Education.
Stuart, D., Aitken, H. Gould, K. & Meade, A. (2008) Evaluation
of the implementation of Kei Tua o te Pae Assessment for Learning: Early
Childhood Exemplars: Impact evaluation of the Kei Tua o te Pae 2006
professional development. Wellington: Ministry of Education.
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