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[beibina]

Weltraum - unendliche Welten. #kinderloop https://www.instagram.com/p/CL6IEnEsKPm/?igshid=1crth0didovgr

[strickparadies-blog]

Kinderloops 9.99€ Bei Interesse einfach direct schreiben. #kinderloop #kinderschal #Schal #rundschal #affeloop #eulenloop #autoloop #Elefantloop #Tiere #kinds

[kinderloop]

Is it me or is my internet connection slow?

It happens to most of us at some time or another. We try to logon to the internet or into our Kinderloop and it seems to take forever or we are uploading a file or photo and it simply times out. So why do our internet connections fluctuate so much during the day and across the week?

Causes of slow internet connections

Well to begin with, Australia’s internet speeds are pretty slow - when compared with global speed rankings we come in at #44 at 5.8 megabits per second (Mbps), the #1 slot is taken out by Korea with average speeds of 21.9 Mbps.

So an increasing number of Australians are signing up to plans that theoretically provide maximum speeds of 24 Mbps. Therein lies the problem, because these are theoretical maximums and your actual internet speed can be effected by any number of factors, including:

The type and age of your modem.

The quality of your WIFI connections.

The distance of your modem from the nearest internet exchange.

Whether your service provider uses copper-based ADSL connections or the newer fibre connections.

The plan you signed on for with your provider.

Whether you use ADSL or the newer NBN.

The quality of the connection between your home and the exchange.

Concurrent uploads or downloads.

Traffic at the server.

Available capacity on national and international cables (the latter for O/S websites).

Traffic agreements between service providers.

Time of day (12-2pm, 7pm to 9pm is the most congested).

Even the weather, yes the copper cables are affected by rain!

And the biggest and the least known is that electrical interference from appliances/items can have a huge affect on both your internet and Wifi!!

Basically, the cause of your slow connection is due to extreme internet congestion within Australia or overseas and quite possibly that dodgy electrical item being used by a neighbour, causing slower speeds. This is what happens when lots of people try to access the internet all at the same time.

Let’s hope that the NBN rollout helps the situation, because the existing Australian copper wire connections are unlikely to cope well next year if the streaming video giant, Netflix hits Australia and then local equivalents like STAN also take a piece of the action. 

So if you have the occasional slow connection and can’t logon to your secure Kinderloop server, my advice is to put the kettle on and give it some time. If you have a mortally slow connection all of the time, then its best to contact your provider and find out the best deal for your location and your budget and maybe if its happening at the same time each evening, get yourself an AM radio, tune it to a very low frequency and wander around, you will hear the static of an interfering electrical object and can subsequently deal with it.

[kinderloop]

A world first for Kinderloop and Big fat Smile

Call of the Wild

Did you know the wingspan of an albatross is this big?’ says James MacDiarmid, stretching his arms out to demonstrate the immense size of the seabird. ‘The wingspan is six feet… that’s as tall as me!’ says James, who in November and December last year visited the land of the albatross: Antarctica. Back on the mainland after spending two weeks with a team of scientists, oceanographers, marine biologists, tree dwellers and educators on the Spirit of Mawson Australasia Antarctic Expedition (AAE), teacher James popped into Barrack Heights preschool in January to meet the children who had followed his journey. ‘They all knew exactly where I’d been as they’d all experienced the awe and wonder of Antarctica alongside me. They were full of questions about the temperature, the wildlife and what life was like aboard the ship.’

Capturing imaginations

James had been working on an entirely different project in his role as a curriculum consultant for Big Fat Smile (a not-for-profit communityowned organisation servicing the Illawarra) when he briefly mentioned his upcoming Antarctica trip to staff at Barrack Heights Preschool. The preschool had been trialling an app called Kinderloop and recognised the technology could be used to follow James’ Antarctic journey in real-time through videos and photos. Kinderloop is a secure network that allows families to remotely view children’s learning and content uploaded by educators. ‘Big Fat Smile suggested I take the app with me to stream my experiences back into Barrack Heights Preschool for the children to watch and discuss. I would take a photo of an animal or science activity and that would be uploaded for the children to observe, ask and formulate ideas about,’ he explains. It also created an opportunity for James to later visit the preschool in person, providing children with an opportunity for deeper thinking or to ask burning questions about life on the frozen continent.

Preschool director, Fay Gowers, told Rattler it was an ‘exceptional opportunity’ for the children and staff of Barrack Heights to follow the expedition and learn side by side. ‘The children really enjoyed the journey which allowed them to learn many new things and experience an opportunity many adults can only dream of.’ Barrack Heights is a suburb of the City of Shellharbour just south of Wollongong. The demographic across the Illawarra is very mixed, with pockets of 

affluence and disadvantage. Traditionally, this part of the Illawarra has a blue-collar history with heavy industry forming the backbone of this community. Barrack Heights Preschool was purpose-built in 1983 and is part of Big Fat Smile network of 40 community preschools. Fay explains that educators would check Kinderloop daily with the children to see the photos sent through, but says they also observed the children sharing knowledge with each other.

‘By making the photos available to parents via Kinderloop the children could also continue their conversations with their parents at home. It was really very easy to facilitate. Even just a few years ago pulling something like this together would have been difficult. ‘We were entirely amazed by the children’s reaction when James came to meet them. They’d already seen many of his photos but his conversation had them captivated for well over an hour. ‘Once the slideshow of photos started, the children were enthralled and totally engaged in what they saw and the information he was describing. They had prepared questions to ask James and were able to remember them without prompting. James describes the experience again and again as ‘wondrous’. And Antarctica is an environment which enchants children and adults alike with awe. ‘A lot of footage I chose to show to the children is of wildlife—animals in particular engage a child,’ he says. ‘That’s where my wonder comes into play. Since I was a young child I have enjoyed animals. It was a great privilege growing up on a farm and as I have travelled around the world I have experienced great wonder in going into the natural habitats of animals. ‘On this trip I was able to get very close to animals (on land and sea) including a yellow-crested penguin, fur seal, sea lion, elephant seal and even a whale. ‘I showed the children footage of a penguin returning to its den and audio of a 700-kilogram male sea lion roaring. They were fascinated. Sea lions are a great source of fascination. I think even the word sea lion fascinates children because of the word ‘lion’. They know how majestic and powerful a lion can be. He says his favourite experience was being in a small zodiac (inflatable boat) with a group of marine biologists and seeing a southern wright whale of at least eight meters in length. ‘We got so close that I was able to put half my body in the water (wearing a dry suit of course) to take video footage. We could see the whale’s teeth as it took in plankton from the surface of the ocean.

‘I can now take that footage back into the preschools and share the magic of that experience with them. However, I am not going to show them just yet, as I don’t want to bombard them with too much wonder or they might disengage.’ He says he was ‘blown away’ by the 

children’s questions, which ranged from what he ate and where he slept on the ship to how he avoided seasickness. The biggest challenge, he told them, was being on the boat for days on end and experiencing big swells that confined the team to their bunks. James has always had a passion for environmental advocacy and the great outdoors. He grew up in Australia’s Snowy Mountains and worked as a teacher in Sweden at several international schools. While there are some parallels between the Australian and Scandinavian education systems, he says, they are poles apart when it comes to learning through nature. He has noticed the children of the Illawarra are blessed with a rich natural environment on their doorstep, but which sadly very few children visit with their families and/or educators. ‘They might live 10 minutes from the beach or Lake Illawarra but rarely go. What is so fascinating about Scandinavia is that it’s in the arctic. They have five hours of sunlight a day during winter and nine months of the year they are engulfed in snow and yet every single day in the schools I worked in I saw children outside doing their lessons. We don’t see that in Australia despite having vast lands and year-round sunshine.’

A part of scientific history

The journey came about following a series of serendipitous events and chance meetings. An avid rock-climber, he actually met the co-expedition leader (Dr Chris Fogwell from the Climate Change Resource Centre at UNSW), while hanging on a rock. Enthused by this chance encounter and inspired by the expedition that would retrace the steps of Sir Douglas Mawson, and conduct important climate change research, James submitted a YouTube application and won a coveted berth aboard the expedition’s ship. The ship, a Russian icebreaker, later made global headlines when it became trapped in heavy ice on Christmas Eve. Luckily, James was no longer onboard, although he says this would have been ‘an adventure in its truest form’. ‘It’s funny that many people on the expedition are rock-climbers and adventurous by nature.’ While at sea, James did some handson oceanography and marine biology alongside scientists, some of which he has been able to share with the children at Barrack Heights. He was also joined by two other educators (primary and secondary teachers) on the ship and together they plan to develop lesson plans based on expedition science.

So what next?

Even though he’s back on the mainland, James told Rattler he is still in touch with his expedition colleagues and is excited to see how the educational program will evolve. He will continue to work with the staff and children at Barrack Heights preschool and several more preschool visits are planned. There may also be another adventure in the pipeline. ‘I met a fellow doctoral student from Massachusetts who is a glaciologist. We got talking on the ship and I mentioned my interest in glaciers. Next year he’s going to the North Pole, and he invited me along. If I can make this happen, then we want to extend the program to 40 Big Fat Smile preschools and potentially primary schools in the Illawarra too.’ Something tells me this story has an adventure-packed sequel. ★

[kinderloop]

The changing face of child care - a UK perspective

Cause change and lead; accept change and survive; resist change and die. Ray Norda

Change is a constant presence in all of our lives, but sometimes I feel in early years we have to deal with more change than most.  In England in the last five years we have seen the introduction of a whole new statutory framework, a large consultation on that framework three years later, numerous introductions, additions and detractions from the framework, various changes to the assessment elements of the framework with further changes expected imminently and general confusion over which documents are current at any given moment.  Most of these changes have been introduced suddenly, with little real dialogue with the profession and often with little support.  This has left a situation where childcare providers and others working in the Early Years Foundation Stage are in a constant state of change for what often feels like change's sake.

I think this leaves us with a huge problem.  If as Early Years practitioners we are constantly having to adjust (even slightly) our practice and we don't agree with the adjustments, feel frustrated by them, or are just too tired to keep up, it is understandable if we stop seeking out, or start actively resisting, change.

But- and it's a huge but- it means that most of us are missing the one change which could vastly improve our practice, develop our setting and most importantly better support the children and adults (both staff and parents). We now have a fantastic digital platform for linking families and observing and assessing children in our settings, thanks to the amazing Dans at Kinderloop.

Kinderloop provides many opportunities for improving practice. Even if we simply compare the 'old way' of recording learning with that offered by Kinderloop, we can quickly see what an amazing tool it is.  We used to take the pictures, upload them to a computer, print them out, cut them up and stick them in a learning journey (which takes long enough before you account for finding the camera cable and ensuring enough ink and paper are in the printer to achieve your task).  With Kinderloop, a couple of clicks and you have posted your photo and observation.  You don't need vast amounts of post it notes to record observations, or marathon 'sticking in sessions' as I used to think of them, you save time, money, resources and improve links to parents and the wider family.

In the last five years we have also seen a huge explosion in the accessibility of the internet, the introduction of the first iPhones in 2007 and the increased availability of Blackberrys and other devices at a similar time has meant that our accessibility to, and use of, digital platforms such as Facebook and Twitter has risen in a way that we probably would never have imagined as we played snake for hours on our Nokia handsets in the first decade of this century. So why are there not settings hammering at the door to get on board? 

I guess fear for one.  I admit (with much embarrassment) I used to be something of a technophobe, fearing the amount to which technology was 'taking over our lives'.  Until I realised technology needn't take over my life if I embrace it and make it work for me.  It's futile to try and deny the impact technology has on our lives; what I realised I had to do was inform myself, move on and pick the bits of technology that enhanced my life.  That is things which: made my life easier in some way (thanks to notes in my phone, I'll never forget my shopping list again); connected me to people I live apart from (thank you facebook); enhanced by professional life (thank you Twitter) or gave me interesting ideas (thank you pinterest).

In burying our heads in the sand and refusing to accept the world has changed, we have become an industry seriously lagging behind others in embracing digital change.  And with that we lose all that technology has to offer us, all the opportunities it brings to actually make our lives easier, the chance to grow our knowledge and pick the parts of technology which work for us.

Some brave settings of course are embracing technology and these are clearly the leaders in our field. They are taking all that technology and Kinderloop has to offer and using it to improve experiences for children and families, which at the end of the day is probably why most of us chose to do this work! So as a sector let's recognise this is a change we can control and embrace, because as the quote above says  'Cause change and lead; accept change and survive; resist change and die.' 

Thanks to our English Superlooper Hannah for your wonderful words. @EYofExcellence

[kinderloop]

Kinderloop in a Home Child Care setting

Home child care providers usually have some type of daily communication with parents.  The format of that daily communication varies greatly though. Some prefer to just give or receive a verbal update at drop off and pick up times, some use a written daily journal in a notebook, others send a quick email off in the evening to parents to let them know how the day went and some send a daily or weekly summary.  At a recent training experience I attended, the group of 25 child care providers shared their thoughts on how they communicate and the opinions varied greatly.

I have been the mom dropping off my child in a home child care.  The first day care my daughter was in we used a daily written journal, where the care provider wrote in just the basics of day -what she ate, when she slept, her general health and mood. First thing in the morning I would write in it to say how long she slept, if she’d eaten and if there was anything out of the ordinary.  The second care provider my daughter went to communicated with a daily email to keep us in the loop of how our daughter’s day was going.  Once or twice a week she would attach a couple pictures too.  Oh how I lived to get these emails!  It was the highlight of my day.  To feel like I knew what was going on in her day, and to hear if things weren’t going well was such peace of mind.  I could call or email back to offer suggestions or reasons why things may be going the way they were which made me feel like I could still contribute to her well-being and helped out the care provider. Then, to see a smile or see her happily engaged in an activity with some peers was so comforting.  She was ok.  I was ok. 

When I started my own home child care just over a year ago I wanted to give parents that same peace of mind.  I started to send a daily email giving a brief description of what their child did that morning, what they ate, how their general health and overall mood was, and what time they fell asleep for their nap.  I also included anywhere from 2-4 pictures of their child engaged in play.  They LOVED it! 

My only problem was that at times I couldn’t attach the pictures, or my computer would freeze and I would have to send things all over again.  It started to become very time consuming.  I was writing these as the children slept.  When you have 5 children and 5 families to connect with, it was taking anywhere from 45 mins to sometimes an hour and 15 mins if I was having technical difficulties.  By the time I was done the children were ready to get up and I hadn’t felt like I had any time to myself to catch my breath. 

Then, a friend of mine introduced me to Kinderloop.  I was instantly excited about having a secure, easy-to-use, professional way to communicate with parents.  As an independent home child care provider it is important that I demonstrate to parents that I am a passionate, professional and dedicated child care provider who values an open relationship.  Kinderloop has provided me with a safe and secure way to continue to include parents and extended family and friends in their child’s day, and it is easy and fast to use. 

It is also important that I show to parents that the activities and daily routines that I plan for the children are purposeful and meet developmental goals for each child.  That their children’s development in their social, emotional, physical, cognitive, communication, language and literacy domains is being fostered and scaffolded in each of their daily experiences.  Kinderloop provides me with the option of applying tags to each of my posts which highlight which developmental domain or learning skill is being worked on in the picture it is attached to.  This then provides me with the opportunity to search for pictures and posts depicting all the experiences their children had in a particular area, highlighting how they have developed over a particular time frame.  This is what every centre based and home child care is required demonstrate.  How amazing that I can do it all at once, saving me amazing amounts of programming time!

Currently Kinderloop has a fabulous App for Iphone or Ipad users.  I am a BlackBerry user and I take pictures either with my phone or camera, download them to my laptop and send the daily Kinderloop posts as the children sleep each day.  Even though this seems time consuming, using Kinderloop has cut down on the time I spend communicating with parents each day to anywhere from 25-45 mins.  This to me is a much better use of my personal time and I anxiously await the release of the app for android users like me!! 

Parents are increasingly busy and their time is precious.  Many prefer to communicate through email or text message anyway, and have a mobile device or computer with them at all times.  So this quick, immediate and inclusive method of communication and documentation works well for everyone.  They do say a picture is worth a thousand words right?!

Sandra Zito RECE www.power-of-play.net

[kinderloop]

Technology in Childcare, an Australian perspective

You guys know this only too well, In EC we are so time poor. What all educators want is to provide a learning environment for the children that is optimal for the children's learning and development. I say we should be doing this for the educators as well... This is where Kinderloop comes in. We all have responsibilities of documenting, planning, recording, assessing and evaluating. With one simple and very easy to use program, Kinderloop allows you to achieve all these things, and more through a secure loop that links families and educators together to create a holistic approach for managing our requirements under the National Regulations and NQF, with ease.

  With our experimentation with Kinderloop we have learnt lots of do's and don'ts, but now, we have figured out how to make it work for us. Not all services will use kinderloop in the same ways. I have seen this just by seeing how services are using it in our BFS services.

  What does Kinderloop allow you to do:

* (The obvious) Capture moments now (photographic, video and text) and record instantly or  come back to record when time suits you best.

* Allow all educators, no matter what qualifications or position held in the service, to contribute to the development of all children (primary educators are not the only educators who are able to record learning for the children).

* Develop secure relationships with families - help to eliminate the 'guilt factor' of child care.

* Save time and money - less printing, more posting! This is sustainable.

* Be innovative - exploring new ways for recording & documentation, while spending time on the floor with the children.

* You don't need to be tech savvy.... anyone can use it!

* Capture spontaneous moments that are not planned for to allow you follow up at a later date.

* Have accurate, up to date information on the children.

* Forces you to have an ipad, which allows educators to access the internet instantly to assist the children's learning & development. EG: We have an electronic copy of the EYLF on the ipad that we can access immediately, and we use google with the children to research for their play.

* Can document as much or as little as is needed.

* Give you an edge over other service providers - Look what we have the centre x down the road doesn't! :)

Nicole, DIrector Woronora Heights Childcare

[kinderloop]

Child care and social media, is there a risk?

Social media is changing the landscape of personal and professional risk. 

Using blogs, social networking and personal websites to communicate is now common place. Much of the appeal with social media is the relative anonymity and the speed with which information can be shared. Users can impart their views on any subject to a worldwide audience with the click of a button. However, therein lies the risk with social media. Content posted on platforms such as Twitter, Facebook, MySpace and blogs can damage the reputation of a business and attract claims of defamation or unprofessional conduct. 

Remember, Kinderloop is unlike any other social media as its a closed loop specific to your and your setting. Your Kinderloop is your Kinderloop, no-one else but invited and linked parents can see the posts!

There is a common misconception that social media only poses a risk to its users. Some people believe that if they are not using web-based technologies themselves, they don’t need to worry about the risk. However, this is not always the case. There is a growing list of examples where businesses have been significantly impacted by comments posted online by employees, clients or others. Common ways in which child care centres may be negatively impacted by social media include:

• Allegations that you or your centre has damaged a person’s reputation by making disparaging or defamatory comments

• Breaching a client’s privacy by posting images or comments about them or their child, without their consent

• Individuals working in your centre posting material on sites such as Facebook that portrays them in an unprofessional or controversial way – e.g. offensive jokes or photographs, excessive alcohol use or the like

• Theft of an individual’s personal details or confidential business information

• Clients or others posting negative comments about you or your centre. 

A proactive approach to managing social media risk can help prevent claims of defamation or unprofessional conduct against you. It can also help you to maximise the many benefits of marketing your business through social media. Key messages to share with your employees, including casual staff, are outlined below.

• Take care when making comments about anyone, including employees, colleagues, clients or other service providers. Although you may not believe your comments to be inappropriate, take the time to reflect on how they may be perceived by others. Remember, the relative anonymity afforded by some social media sites is no excuse for unprofessional behaviour.

• The rules governing client privacy equally apply to web-based technologies. Carers and supervisors must always gain the client’s express consent to what information will be used, and how it will be shared. A client’s personal information should not be shared online, except in accordance with the centre’s Privacy Policy. Ensure your Privacy Policy addresses social media. 

• Avoid falling victim to identity theft by limiting the amount of personal information you disclose on social media sites. Passwords should be changed regularly and created in a way that is difficult for someone else to predict. 

• Maintain secure access to all smart phones and computers. Regularly update passwords and develop clear procedures for people to follow when using these devices. 

• Activate password-protected screen savers on all computers and ensure employees always log off before leaving.

• When sharing information via social media, ensure you set high privacy or security settings and think carefully before divulging your home address or other personal information.

• Maintain security of any social media accounts set up in your centre’s name. Strict control of what information is added to your Facebook page or who is moderating blogs is essential for protecting your good reputation. 

• No longer can it be said that an employee’s actions outside of working hours are not relevant to his or her employment. There is an increasing trend of employers monitoring the online behaviour of their staff and potential recruits. Again, take the time to reflect on how your actions may be perceived by others. Remember, once you have posted your entry online it is very difficult to completely remove.

• Consider including specific conditions in employee contracts and policies relating to social media use. For instance, consider specifically prohibiting comment about employment and client matters and acting in a manner that may negatively impact on the centre’s reputation, whether through personal or business use of social media or otherwise. This will greatly assist you to deal with any breaches and to implement disciplinary action against staff involved. There was a recent case in another industry where an employee disclosed details of a client’s condition, as well as making derogatory comments about the individual. The fact the employer had a strong written policy and contractual clauses prohibiting the employee acting in such a manner assisted in defending the termination of the employee. 

• Periodically scan online content related to your centre. Take the time to consider how you will respond to any negative posts before the situation arises. While people may post negative comments about you or your centre, the best way to prevent this from occurring is to commit to good, open communication. Carefully explaining to clients the model of care, the fees structure and the rationale behind the rules you’ve got in place to achieve quality care are all essential for effective communication.

Thanks to Guild Insurance for their keen thoughts on this subject.