Initiative opens online world to Hub child-care givers
By Maggie Jackson, Globe Correspondent, 1/15/2006
'We wanted them to be right up there with the most modern technology possible, to do a very important job, which is taking care of our future -- the children.'
- Robert Coard, president, Action for Boston Community Development
Doris Spoor recently downloaded a lesson on hand washing for the half-dozen kids she cares for in her Dorchester home, then presented them with a certificate -- also gleaned from the Internet -- after they had learned to scrub heartily for a requisite 20 seconds.
That seems like an unremarkable event, except that Spoor not long ago feared even to touch a computer. Now she surfs the Web, manages her budget and trades notes with other family day-care providers by e-mail.
Understand that her quiet transformation marks a small victory for both the troubled state of early child care and our as-yet unsuccessful efforts to close the digital divide, and you'll realize Spoor's teachings affect not only her charges and their working parents, but you and me and our society.
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Spoor's schooling in computers occurred as part of a recently completed three-year initiative to give computers and high-tech training to small, mostly home-based, child-care providers in the Boston area.
With $1.4 million in federal and other funding, the nonprofit Action for Boston Community Development gave 168 child-care providers a computer, printer, Internet connection, house calls by a technician and access to a rotating roster of seven or more weekly classes in grant writing, online billing, and more.
"They opened a whole world for me," says Spoor, an unfailingly friendly woman whose English is spiced with the accent of her native Ecuador. "My first computer, and I love her."
Before the MassKidCare program, 60 percent of providers lacked Internet access and 42 percent didn't have a computer. Many didn't know how to type. They were pencil and paper entrepreneurs trying to operate in a digital world.
"We wanted them to be right up there with the most modern technology possible, to do a very important job, which is taking care of our future -- the children," says Robert Coard, the president of ABCD.
One program can't solve the many problems plaguing the early childcare field. Turnover is high because teacher pay is low. Only one-quarter of educators at Massachusetts center-based programs have four-year college degrees. That's better than the national norm, yet less than half the number of university grads who were working at Massachusetts programs in the mid-80s, according to the Economic Policy Institute.
Currently, just one-quarter of home-based providers have a college degree.
Still, MassKidCare is making a dent in this cycle of challenges. The training has helped Chris King, who runs two nonprofit centers in Chelsea and Charlestown, produce better grant proposals and more professional letters. And a better-run child-care business benefits the children, she says.
"You are an educator and believe me that's your first priority. But you can't do it if you're fiscally in the hole," King says.
The camaraderie sown by the workshops and now sustained by e-mail and an online message board also has helped pierce the isolation experienced by many caregivers, especially when they work solo at home.
"The confidence gained from learning to use the technology together, and laughing together and learning -- it was very empowering," says Jeff Doretti, who coordinated MassKidCare and now manages intergenerational programs at Elderhostel. "Some would say that was the best part of the program."
Although the initiative has ended, ABCD is giving some training in-person and online at www.masskidcare.net, while trying to find funds to offer the full program to more of the state's 12,700 licensed child-care centers.
As well, the state is considering similar efforts, says Ann Reale, the commissioner of the newly formed Department of Early Education and Care.
"The new department is very much focused on building the IT capacity of our child-care providers," she says. "It's better for the kids and families they serve, for the businesses they run and for the state."
MassKidCare lives on in Doris Spoor's and 167 other child-care centers. But I hope the initiative is expanded, and not just because it boosts the quality of early childhood education and supports urban business owners who reflect their diverse neighborhoods.
Its equally powerful legacy has been the creation of a thoughtful approach to narrowing the digital divide. Too often, we throw computers into schools, workplaces, even family life and walk away, thinking these machines alone will solve our ills.
MassKidCare married the power of face-to-face relationships with the Internet's considerable resources, and never lost sight of the fact that learning should not be machine-led. Teaching our children's first teachers about technology proved time consuming and complex, but that shouldn't be surprising. Using technology well isn't just pushing buttons.
Maggie Jackson's Balancing Acts column appears every other week. She can be reached at .
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