Performing Department
College of Human Ecology
Non Technical Summary
The child care system available to military families is rated among the best in the world. The 2009 annual release of rankings for oversight and regulations of quality in child care centers by the National Association Child Care Resource and Referral Agencies indicated that the Department of Defense child care system scored well above all state systems of child care in assuring the quality of care that is available to military dependent children. Centers are licensed and accredited at the highest standards of the child care profession. Nonetheless, the military child care system experiences the same personnel challenges that are experienced throughout the child care profession. Expectations for highly qualified and well‐trained staff are often a mismatch for the salaries earned by providers. Consequently, there is significant turnover in personnel in virtually all child care settings, and child care systems regularly seek educational and professional development opportunities for a continuous pipeline of new staff. The perpetual training needs of military child development centers will be addressed by efficient, effective, and innovative technologies in distance education and online learning. Trainers in child development centers need more sophisticated tools that increase the efficiency and effectiveness of their efforts to train room leaders, and potential room leaders, to meet the demands of providing high quality care and education to children. This initial start up project will design the system that will lead to a virtual laboratory school to meet the training needs of military child care personnel. Existing lab schools at land grant universities will be mobilized into a network of content providers who will contribute to the development of the virtual lab school.
Animal Health Component
(N/A)
Research Effort Categories
Basic
(N/A)
Applied
(N/A)
Developmental
100%
Goals / Objectives
Goal: The goal of this project is to create a comprehensive plan that will guide the development of a virtual early childhood "lab school" to support the training of military child care workers. Objectives: The objectives of this start up project are to:(1) Identify and develop the strategies and tools necessary to design and implement virtual lab school to provide ongoing learning and professional development to child care providers and trainers in military child care settings; (2) Engage a network of high quality Land‐Grant University representatives with outstanding Lab Schools to engage in the development of learning objects to be included in a virtual Lab School supporting the training needs of military child care professionals; (3) Identify and develop the standards by which learning objects will be developed submitted, and vetted for inclusion in the virtual Lab School project. (4) Identify strategies for developing a comprehensive virtual lab school environment including initial equipment acquisition and supportive infrastructure needs.
Project Methods
Methods: Project staff will work with CSREES and Department of Defense representatives (including service branch representatives) to draft strategies and tools that can be implemented as a virtual lab school to meet the training needs of child care providers and trainers in the military child care system. The necessary strategies and tools will be compiled into a comprehensive planning document and blueprints for the virtual Lab School. Details of the planning document and blueprint will include the recommended platform and technological requirements for the virtual Lab School (i.e. software, servers, security and accessibility), the standards for learning objects to be included. Project staff will identify and mobilize 8‐10 high quality Land‐Grant University based Lab Schools as a network of content providers and advisors to the project. Representatives of these programs will be convened to, a) Provide input on the overall virtual Lab School model that is proposed, B) review and provide input on the proposed standards for the creation of learning objects that would reside in the virtual Lab School, c) Develop equipment and technical support needs for participating network Lab Schools, and d) Ascertain level of commitment to the project and projected contributions of learning objects. Lab Schools will be selected to represent varying areas of expertise that will maximize broad contributions of learning objects. The virtual Lab School will be composed of learning objects that can be assembled into training modules by military child development center trainers. These objects will include activities, multi‐media examples of developmental stages and best practices for caring for children, assessments, and other educational material related to providing the highest quality care. Participating Lab School network members will be asked to contribute learning objects to the virtual Lab School as part of their participation requirements. These learning objects must adhere to unified standards of quality and format. The quality and format standards will be developed as part of this initial start‐up project. Project staff will develop the process for obtaining Lab School input into the development of these important content standards. A rapid development of a comprehensive virtual Lab School will require the accumulation of content material from a variety of sources (predominantly from existing high quality Land‐Grant based Lab Schools). Accumulating the appropriate components and standardize learning objects will require that participating physical locations have the capacity to generate content that meets established standards. This capacity will require investing in the participating Lab Schools with equipment and infrastructure support. This Lab School start‐up project will determine the necessary equipment and infrastructure to implement a comprehensive virtual training system for child care providers.