Thing 3: Why Digital?

Technology is now a large part of daily life for a mast majority of the western population. It has been successfully integrated into all of our emergency services and has had profound success with very limited and rare downsides. Technology is everywhere, where you eat with the new self order in fast food restaurants, when you shop online, heating your home, when you book appointments by email or even use an app to book and track your taxi. It is becoming the new way of life. Almost every home has at least one smart device and the average for Scotland is 2 devices.

So why should this not roll into our workplace keeping our practice current and vital when teaching the future generation who will most likely be using technology that at the moment does not even exist. Everyday at work I see the gap between those who are confident and enjoy using technology and those who are not, this gap is made more apparent when the children discuss apps and programs they use at home and only some staff are able to understand and respond.

When looking at the provided infographic by Skills for Care, I found that the perception of skills to be higher than I would link to my own workplace and a surprising difference between staff and their managers.

I then completed the attached self assessment form on which I had to grade myself on Capability, confidence and Relevance. I scored myself a 4 on both capability and confidence but only a 3 for relevance because most of what I know about technology does not apply to my work as an early years practitioner. 

My nursery is slightly behind the times as we still use paper for almost everything and we have not yet moved to digital profiles. However we do you use computers with the children and we record their play experiences and activities with a camera. The technology we use at the moment is very limited but hopefully that will change and improve in the coming years. The same is said for staff in their own development of digital learning and to make use of the many opportunities that are their for professional development via digital platforms. This 23 step guide being one of many that provides some of the basics, provided by SSSC.

Rebecca.