Portfolios of kids created by daycare centers are interesting and valuable reflections of the learning and development in children under their care. In fact, families want to keep them as treasured records for future reference.
Daycare portfolios need a varied collection of data to present a comprehensive picture of the efforts and achievements of every child. Therefore, childcare centers find it difficult to spare the time and effort needed to generate and maintain comprehensive portfolios of children. Online portfolios are a viable solution to this challenge as they make creating and maintaining children’s portfolios a breeze.
Online portfolios advantages
A number of professionally designed preschool management software come with features to generate and maintain online portfolios. These platforms can help free up the time and resources of daycare centers to be available for the core activities of the center rather than getting wasted in the generation of manual portfolios.
Most well designed online portfolios feature amazing digital capabilities. Therefore, they can enable the early childhood educators upload their observations, learning stories, reflections, descriptions, pictures, records, analysis, artwork samples, and questions for the reference of the parents. Online portfolios can be accessed by parents 24X7 from anywhere. Parents can access the online portfolios of their kids on any of their internet enabled viewing devices like smartphone, digital device or tablet.
Commenting on the far reaching advantages of online portfolios, a manager of a daycare center says, “Online portfolios we are using have streamlined the entire documentation process for our daycare center. They help update the families eager to know about their children’s progress by bringing them all the data and information about the child’s day to day progress and activities. Online portfolios make documenting and managing children’s learning in an efficient way and the entire process keeps the families engaged and involved with their children’s progress in more meaningful and interesting ways.”
Take away
Online portfolios make documentation and reporting an efficient and easy process. They also help receive the valuable feedback about their children and the daycare center from families. By investing in good online portfolios, educators and their staff can get more time to interact with the children. The parents are provided with visual prompts about what is happening with their children. From online portfolios, families gather topics for discussions with the child. Thus, both daycare centers and parents are reaping the invaluable advantages of online portfolios.
