Editor’s view - Tech high and lows
Monday, May 15, 2017
Technology is a mixed blessing in many ways, but when it comes to launching major new digital public services it seems that glitches and frustrations are definitely par for the course.
And so it seems with Tax-Free Childcare, which launched last month, and has immediately run into tangles for both providers and parents (see News, pages 4-5).
Somewhat disconcertingly, the website is labelled as ‘alpha’ – seemingly coming before ‘beta’ in terms of its stage of development. It asks users to report problems so that it can be improved, which probably isn’t of much consolation when a parent or a setting can’t sign up to take part.
HMRC has already appeared overloaded in recent years. Handling Tax-Free Childcare is obviously adding to the burden.
You can see technology in action in a more positive way in our feature on a photography project with young children run by one childminder (pages 22-23).
Digital cameras and iPads enable even the youngest children to get to grips with focusing on objects, taking pictures, looking at images and deleting unwanted ones, and creating lovely displays of their work. It’s really inspiring stuff.
Childminder Chloe Webster, who ran the project at Pebbles Childcare, was herself inspired by the children’s photography seminar from Marc Faulder that she attended at the Nursery World Show in London in February.
And coming full circle, we’re all feeling very happy with the first Nursery World North event in Liverpool, where we brought our inspiring mix of seminars, masterclasses and an exhibition to even more of the early years community. We hope to see you in London or Liverpool next year.
