Social media technologies for collaboration and communication: Perceptions of childcare professionals and families

THE PRIMARY AIM of the study was to develop an understanding of how social media technologies, such as Web 2.0, can be used to facilitate collaboration and communication between childcare professionals and families of young children. Participants involved in this project were selected from three childcare centres and included two centre directors, seven childcare workers, and eight parents of children attending one of the three centres1. Semi-structured individual interviews (n = 17) were conducted by the two researchers. Results confirmed differing perspectives about the value of using social media for collaboration and communication between families and early childhood professionals. This paper discusses participants' perceptions of influential factors in adopting social media.