PARENTING

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New Trend In Preschool Technology

New technology helps parents see how their preschoolers learn.

By Barbara Pash

For years, parents who wanted to know what went on in their preschooler’s classroom had to rely on the often unreliable recollections of their 3- and 4-year-olds. Or they could wait for the weekly newsletters and announcements stuffed into their child’s backpack, or listen to updates at parent-teacher conferences.

Now those days are gone — for seven Jewish preschools, at least. This fall, they are taking baby steps into a new electronic era.

Families at these schools, which have a combined enrollment of about 750 children, can expect to be part of a pilot project called Micro Steps, an interactive website for parents, preschool directors and preschool teachers.

What Micro Steps offers is a user-friendly website created specifically for that preschool. Teachers and directors can immediately post photographs, videos, comments and announcements about upcoming events, birthdays and whatever other information they want to impart. Via a private password code, parents can access and respond to the website from a variety of electronic instruments, like computers and Blackberries.

“Parents can see the learning happening,” says D.J. Jenson, the Center for Jewish Education’s director of early childhood services, who spearheaded the effort to bring Micro Steps to Baltimore. “In the past,” she adds, “it might take four days or a week to see the children’s activities from the farm field trip. Now parents can see pictures before they come home.”

Not only that, but eventually, she expects that teachers might take simultaneous photos of an activity which will allow parents to see the learning and thought processes of their children.

It is not unusual for a preschool to have its own website or, like the Jewish Community Centers’ preschools, to be part of a larger, overall organizational website.

However, the sites may be stagnant, with the information changing weekly, if that, or they may be cumbersome for individual teachers and directors to access. That’s where Micro Steps fits in.

Micro Steps also posts on the preschools’ websites an array of Jewish content such as links to Jewish resources, Shabbat and Jewish holiday home celebration ideas, games, activities, information about Israel and even a kosher chef with kid-friendly recipes.

Local educators are anticipating Micro Step’s launch. The pilot is being implemented as a result of a grant from the Center for Jewish Education, an agency of The Associated: Jewish Community Federation of Baltimore.

Michelle Gold, director of Goldsmith Early Childhood Education at Chizuk Amuno Congregation, heard about the program at an early childhood education convention. She liked it so much that she looked into starting it in her preschool, but couldn’t so do for a number of reasons.

“When CJE came through with funding and the opportunity to use Micro Steps, we jumped on it,” says Gold, whose preschool enrolls about 200 children ages 2 to 5.

Ellen Olson, associate early childhood education director at the Owings Mills Jewish Community Center, had a similar reaction. Olson, who oversees 20 classrooms with about 300 children ages 2 to 5, wanted to improve communications with parents beyond the preschool’s “page” on the JCC website.

Jenson learned of the private, Israeli company at an early childhood education conference. Currently, in addition to Goldsmith Early Childhood Center and JCC Owings Mills, Bais Lubovitch, Beth Israel Congregation, Jewish Community Center Park Heights, Learning Ladder at Temple Oheb Shalom and Tinker Tots, a private Jewish preschool, are participating in the program.

However, Jenson is not stopping there. Baltimore has about 15 large Jewish preschools, congregation-affiliated and others, as well as many small, private preschools that are Jewish-owned and/or Jewish-oriented. Her goal is to enroll another half-dozen schools by January.

Until Micro Steps is actually operational in their schools, it’s difficult for educators to say exactly how they will use it. Aileen Friedman, director of Temple Oheb Shalom’s Learning Ladder, sees it as a “communication tool,” a sentiment expressed by others.

“Each classroom will have its own section and teachers can post things that go on so we can share with the families. And we can give images, too,” says Friedman, whose preschool has 90 children ages 10 weeks to 5 years.

Gold echoes that idea. “On a daily basis, parents can communicate with the teachers. I will be able to post information and calendars of upcoming activities.”

At this point, though, educators do not know if they will use all of Micro Steps’ features. In particular, real-time streaming video of the classroom might be problematic. Not only don’t they have the equipment, educators say, but it raises privacy and security issues for which they currently do not have policies.

The Owings Mills JCC’s Olson says that real-time streaming video is common in infant-toddler day care settings as well as in some preschools.

“But I can’t imagine the expense and you get into privacy issues,” she adds. She does not even post photographs of children in her programs because of the objections of one parent.

However, Olson isn’t eliminating the possibility of videotaping a special program, like a Chanukah celebration, for her Micro Steps’ site. “That’s a more controlled situation,” she says.

“We may not use every aspect of the program,” says Gold, “but it’s beneficial for us and the parents. They can get an insight into what’s going on in the classroom.”

“There is a national trend to involve parents in the classroom,” says Jenson. “It gives parents a greater appreciation of how their child learns and how preschool education works.”

She adds that preschoolers can now see their own pictures. “Kids love it,” she says.