Secure website with web cam????

[KellysChildCare]

Anyone know how to do a secure cam? That only parents can access? I use webs.com ... their free site can I do it with this? or do I have to upgrade or make a link for parents to a different page? I think this would make parents feel better about leaving their little ones.

[angelina]

there was one launched by a daycare center in toronto. i don't now what they use, but they were on the news, saying its the new trend and parents should be able to see their kids on camera. and yes, it was secure, parents were suppose to register to use the service and have passwords for it.

google that toronto center, i thought it was located downtown, pricey --- parents say it was worth it.

Angie

[KellysChildCare]

Ya I found a local one sent her an email saying how I loved her site and her center it was amazing ... anyhow asked her but havent heard back.. just thought maybe someone here has done it!

[Inspired by Reggio]

This has been around for over a decade - worked for a centre who offered it back in 2000 ...it was an expensive service and that was with 150 families sharing the cost of it ...the cameras are expensive, the web hosting service expensive and so forth - I can not imagine budgeting for this in a home setting to be honest ...to pay to have images being uploaded and constantly streamed uses ALOT of bandwidth?

I get it is a great communication tool with parents but in our homes just not sure how practical ... there are places I do not want cameras, there is not online presence truly SAFE from hackers and what if you forget to turn the system off after hours?

Open door policy and I take and share a lot of photos and video of our days to share with parents as communication tools - way more within my budget!

If you google daycare web can hosting you should get a place to start your research.

Watch me grow use to be popular back in early part of last decade not sure if they are still around or not?

ETA ... found their link for you still around
https://www.watchmegrow.com/

[playfelt]

My concerns with a webcam is that it allows the parent to see things in isolation and out of context and does not truly reflect the whole day.

Besides that the parent is supposed to be working and doing anything that promotes them not giving their best at work means they run the risk of being fired and not needing care.

Another issue for me is equity - not everyone is an executive sitting in an office with free use of computer - many are in the factories, hospital wards and grocery store and not able to use the service anyways.

I dont' like that it takes away from the child because the parent that was "spying" on their child is bound to try and use that information to make conversation with the child that night or to drill them on why they weren't part of the fort making group or why.... and the child can't remember the details of the day and spoils any fun they had.

[Momof4]

I'm with playfelt, you don't want that in your daycare. I have nothing to hide and know that I'm a great provider but I wouldn't want to know that somebody was watching during the day. Yes, how would parents have time to look at it when they are at work? Aren't they working?

Playfelt brought up good points. Suppose a child does something outside of camera range and then you are putting them in a timeout or having a serious talk with them in camera range and you look unreasonable to the parents?

It would be great for them to experience their child's circle time and dancing and playing with toys and friends but I take lots of pictures and put them on my website. We craft and colour and eat in the other room so would you need two camera? Too much stress!

[Inspired by Reggio]

These were common concerns from staff new to the idea when I was in centre care Playfelt as well ... it is definitely something to get use to the being 'watched' so to speak.

However the reality for the majority of people who work in settings like this is that for the most part they FORGET that the cameras are there and just do their job as normal any way and IME with regards to those concerns is that they are totally able to be turned into pros ...

For concern 1) being able to view the entire day and life of a group childcare experience from both the child and the providers view points creates a much greater understanding and empathy to enhance the provider / client relationship as it opened communication avenues and allowed parents to develop empathy for how busy and active the day can be at some portions ~ verses that moment at drop off or pick up when it is quiet due to lower ratios and they think all we do all day long is sit on the floor and read books so why is their kid got a dirty shirt or what not. And yes while someone might tune into something 'out of context' that raised a question because there was transparency through the VOI where they could see so much of the day that it was much easier at being able to explain that 'yes what you missed prior to tuning into that was XYZ which is why the provider handled it in that manner' and the client would be cool with that there was much more trust and benefit of the doubt in the relationship specially over time. And the reality is that this concern can arise even without the cameras ... it is no different than when parent has their child 'tell' them something in the evening out of context and the parent jumping to the wrong conclusion and so forth ~ yes it happens but you deal with it and IME having worked in both settings it is much easier to resolve when you have the 'picture is worth a 1000 words' to back you up than when it is your child's word verses the providers so to speak ... trust is such a huge requirement in this field and well blind trust takes WAY LONGER to build so being able to 'see' the program helps create trust quicker.

For concern 2) that the cameras in the classroom actually HELPED newly returning to work parents to focus on their job because it quickly created trust and put them at 'ease' to be able to take a quick peek that their child was doing well in the program and return to concentrating at work verses having parents spending the day 'worrying' and not able to concentrate ... we actually had partnerships with some of the local employers at our one centre who paid for the VOI service for any employee who enrolled as a 'perk' ... so not all employers would see this service as intruding but instead promoting employees who can concentrate and do their jobs.

Concern 3 ~ for 'equity' this is true not everyone would be able to afford to subscribe to such a service or to make access to it ... the centre I worked at it was an 'added feature' that they had to to pay extra for and another local centre from my home town that adopted the practice later had it built right in to the fees ~ however by that time there were 'apps' that poeple could download for their phone and so forth to view it anywhere so it was 'easier' to be able to access it and well they were able to 'save/record' so you could basically log onto the system after hours and 'review' the day your child had and so forth.

Concern 4 ... working in that environment it was never viewed as 'spying' but an extended addition to an open door concept that we are all use to working with anyway in that environment as well as a reflection tool for staff to use on what worked or did not work or to look at the 'whole group' when trying to determine solutions to challenges in the classroom ... in centre care there are often two way mirrors in classrooms that allow parents, administrators and government inspectors to 'view' the program without having any immediate 'affect' on it cause we all know that the minute you put a stranger or someone else in the room the dynamics change for some children and so forth so you might not get an 'accurate' portrayal of how that program actually runs most of the time. Also ironically most parents who use the service actually said it AIDED in communication around their days and helping to increase children's recall memory ... because instead of sitting around the table at dinner time and stating 'hey what did you do at daycare today' and getting the typical 'nothing' parents could ask more direct open ended questions to start conversations 'i noticed that you spent a long time at the block area can you share with me what you were doing' ... being able to prompt the memory about the time spent with the blocks aids in recall as well as for children the fact that their parent was 'a part of their day' even when a way is awesome at building security and trust in their daycare experience as they are connected over the 'moments' that were shared even though the parent was not actually there! The reality is that some parents are going to 'drill' their children anyway about what happened at daycare and cause stress in the kid either way even without the VOI only difference is that when they keep getting the 'nothing' answers in a normal setting than that is when parents start to get that 'doubt' growing that perhaps my kid does do NOTHING at daycare and you get them asking you lots of questions or wanting you to keep journals about what I did to today and other time consuming things to help them feel 'connected' and so forth ... when dealing with a client like that the VOI really did help cause if the child would not 'answer' they at least had an idea that they did indeed do things ~ their child not wanting to talk to them about it was an issue separate from 'daycare' and something they needed to resolve at home

[KellysChildCare]

Think this is getting off topic ... the question wasn't what do you think about live feed cameras it was do you know how to do it.... ????? Everyone has their own opinion on it that's cool but wasn't the question... I'm just trying to find someone who's done it.... as for making a secure page that you have to sign into well even webs.com has that... might for starters have them skype or something if they want to see them at play.... just a fun option...

[Inspired by Reggio]

Ya I have no clue how to set one up Kelly - Skype is free that might be a nice alternative

[KellysChildCare]

Ya I have no clue how to set one up Kelly - Skype is free that might be a nice alternative

I figure skype also they call you... but I use a laptop and it doesn't stay on by itself! My son has a little mini laptop not sure if it has a cam on it or not but setting that up with a cordless cam might be cool! I was going to have it done... but well then my sister broke up with her bf... theres got to be a way...