Bronfenbrenner’s (1979) ecological approach refers to the environment of infant development as a series of concentric systems, linked through direct or indirect hierarchy: the child lives in direct contact with micro and meso systems, while macro and eso systems are areas which individuals do not experience. The micro systems in which a child lives, such as a family, nursery school, or a kindergarten, do not always have synergetic communication, either because of the difficulty to have opportunities to meet, and moreover because of the different representations educators and parents often posses of the same child. These differences are largely perceived as an obstacle to knowledge of the child. As the family is the first micro system in which children develop and learn, parents can collaborate with educators to better understand their kids. For these reasons, an online environment was built, named Web-Ob. Web-Ob is designed to support systematic descriptive observation. Using the observational method, through Web-Ob educators can collect data on every child and write down systematic notes. Parents can access the notes related to their child and share with educators the meanings attributed to the child’s behaviour, also adding their own notes. Parents can also insert their feedback and/or other observational data collected in different situations within the family. Web-Ob gives the adults involved the opportunity to easily interact, developing a synergy that takes into explicit account the way in which a child acts and behaves in a variety of micro systems. We provide examples about the process of the co-construction of meanings between educators and parents, considering them as an enrichment at the meso system level.
Web-Ob: an online environment addressed to build shared meanings on child’s development
NICOLINI, Paola;ALESSANDRI, GIUSEPPE
2011-01-01
Abstract
Bronfenbrenner’s (1979) ecological approach refers to the environment of infant development as a series of concentric systems, linked through direct or indirect hierarchy: the child lives in direct contact with micro and meso systems, while macro and eso systems are areas which individuals do not experience. The micro systems in which a child lives, such as a family, nursery school, or a kindergarten, do not always have synergetic communication, either because of the difficulty to have opportunities to meet, and moreover because of the different representations educators and parents often posses of the same child. These differences are largely perceived as an obstacle to knowledge of the child. As the family is the first micro system in which children develop and learn, parents can collaborate with educators to better understand their kids. For these reasons, an online environment was built, named Web-Ob. Web-Ob is designed to support systematic descriptive observation. Using the observational method, through Web-Ob educators can collect data on every child and write down systematic notes. Parents can access the notes related to their child and share with educators the meanings attributed to the child’s behaviour, also adding their own notes. Parents can also insert their feedback and/or other observational data collected in different situations within the family. Web-Ob gives the adults involved the opportunity to easily interact, developing a synergy that takes into explicit account the way in which a child acts and behaves in a variety of micro systems. We provide examples about the process of the co-construction of meanings between educators and parents, considering them as an enrichment at the meso system level.I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
