West Side at Humboldt ECFE

What did we learn from the listening sessions and

surveys?Now what?

Who did we hear from?• 55 parents in 6

classes (listening sessions, surveys)• Monday (1 survey)• Tuesday am (7,5

surveys)• Tuesday pm (15, 13

surveys)• Wednesday am (11,

10 surveys)• Thursday am (14, 13

surveys)• Friday (8, 10 surveys)

• Parent age: 32-58 (mean = 34.2)

• # children: 1 or 2 mostly

• 26% fathers• 65.4% income < $80K• 21.2% non-white• 24.1% < college

ECFE parents love being parents!

• What excites you about being a parent & where you are most confident

• What challenges you and where you are least satisfied

How do you describe ECFE?

What do you really like about ECFE?• Discussion with other parents & expressing views

with other parents• Many find ECFE parents and the ECFE parent

educator a great source of emotional support

• Information about child development & observing your own child’s development• Most say ECFE class and the ECFE parent educator is

a great source on all types of information

• Information on resources in the community

Who else helps parents be great parents?• Your spouse or partner• For all types of support (practical, emotional,

information)• 85% share info from ECFE

• Your family and friends, including friends who are other ECFE parents• Also used for all types of support

• Books, online content and professionals useful mostly for information

ECFE

Others in your life

Based on parents’ information on the information and support in their lives, what they value from whom about what…

• Increase opportunities for ECFE parents to connect with each other & with the ECFE PE • Maintain opportunities for ECFE parents to

continue to access other parents’ points of view and information about community resources• Find ways to help parents share what they gain

from books, online content, professionals with other ECFE parents• Find ways to help parents share information and

resources from ECFE with the partner/spouse (possibly w/ friends or own parent)

How can technology help?

Consider These

• Use personal computers, cell phones, digital or web cameras to

• Do THESE activities:• Send email or text• Access social networking• Look for information• Organize information• Send photos• Use mapping tools

Don’t consider these

• iPads or ebooks• Or technology to do

these activities:• Blogging• Listening to podcasts• Discussion boards• Gaming• Online classes• Recommend products

ECFE parents have fairly high attitudes toward technology as being useful to parenting and for social connections; barriers to use fairly low

What do parents need for us to consider when creating this technology?

• Privacy and a sense of security of knowing who is reading what is being said

• Degrees of control on who you connect to and who gets to connect to you• This for some is a security issue• For others it’s a matter of identity

• Easy to use! Easy to navigate!• Access to local information and to local

connections• Considerations of universal access for all

parents in the ECFE/community• Considerations of access to those who cannot

attend ECFE

What are some ways that technology might be used to help ECFE parents be great parents? • Connect with each other more easily• To see each other out of class, like to arrange play

dates, meet at the park• Share information with each other• Continue discussion from class, to receive help with a

problem• Updates on events in the community• Recommend activities for families, esp in the local area

• Access resources from the class• Retrieve documents, video links shared for later use• Retrieve information and materials to share with others

(partner, own parents, child care provider)• Beyond class access to the parenting educator• Continue to receive information and emotional support

Some initial ideas1. Increase opportunities for ECFE parents to connect

with each other & with the ECFE PE (emotional)• Access to an ECFE virtual space that offers the warmth

and emotion of the class, feeling of access to others• Easier ways for parents to make connections with each

other to arrange play dates, meet each other at the park, etc. • Email list• Facebook group• App like WAZE or foursquare

• Provide out of class access to ECFE PE• Text affirmations to cell phones• Open chat time online• PE participation in asynchronous discussion

PE

You

Parent

Parent

Parent

Parent

Parent

Parent

Parent

Some initial ideas2. Maintain opportunities for ECFE parents to continue to access other parents’ advice and experience and information about community resources (information)

• Place for continued discussion from class, to receive help with a problem • asynchronous discussion board, • chat area

• Updates on events in the community• Shared calendar, with mapping for location

• Recommend activities for families, esp in the local area• Shared activity ideas, with mapping for location

• Access resources from the class• Retrieve documents, video links shared for later use

Some initial ideas

• Find ways to help parents share what they gain from books, online content, professionals with other ECFE parents• Asynchronous discussion boards• Live chats on specific topics• Reading lists with parent reviews and ‘likes’ or ratings

Parent

• Dr rec• Book read

Parent

• New research

• Book read

Parent

• Dr behavior tip

• New research

Some initial ideas

• Find ways to help parents share information and resources from ECFE with the partner/spouse (possibly w/ friends or own parent)• Documents from class available in pdf, links for viewing,

dated and sorted by class, tagged for archiving and retrieval

• ‘Share’ feature to make easy forwarding over internet with comment option

What would you like to connect & share with other parents in your class, and what to share with parents in other Humboldt classes?

West Side at Humboldt ECFE

Tuesday am Class

Tuesday pm class

Wednesday class

Friday class

Thursday class

Monday class

Monday pm class

Monday evening

class

Discussion area for sharing advice on parenting issues

Calendar and activity area

Materials from class for retrieval and sharing with others

Ability to make easy and quick connections to other parents

Office hour time with parenting educator and/or early childhood educator

Number of friends in other ECFE classes

0 1 2 4 5 6 10 12 15 300

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

29

7

4 4 31 1 1 1 1

What about Facebook?

• 85% of Humboldt ECFE parents have facebook accounts.

• 42% Have not heard of the West Side at Humboldt ECFE facebook page (3 are unsure).

WHY ISN’T THAT HAPPENING NOW?

So, if ECFE parents want to stay connected outside of class….

WHAT WOULD INTEREST YOU IN USING AN ECFE SPACE ONLINE IF NO ONE ELSE FROM CLASS WAS THERE?

WHAT ARE SOME WAYS TO GET CLASS CONTENT ONLINE?

Would you do it? What would it take?

ARE YOU INTERESTED IN CONTINUING TO OFFER ADVICE ON THE DESIGN OF THIS NEW TECHNOLOGY FOR ECFE?