Professionally speaking
Electronic communication has shrunk the world. This editorial can reach a person on the other side of the world as quickly as someone in the next room. The technology is amazing, and fascinating. Some people get hooked up by it and are trapped into hours of playing around to see what it can achieve. Others are appalled that they too will have to get on line if they are not to be left out in the cold socially for the remaining decades of their lives.
	Apart from these reactions, faxes, mobile phones, email, the web and all the rest of the caboodle have changed our professional lives. With mobile phones, bosses are more accessible. They are not out of reach when they are travelling, and so their staff refer issues to them and decision-making is passed upstairs. We will have to learn again how to delegate and carry responsibility.

People swamp colleagues with multiple copies, first by email, then by fax, and then a hard copy just to make sure the message has got through. We end up with a pile of unnecessary communications and time is wasted sifting it to pick out the important bits.
Reports go through more stages of drafting as everyone has the chance to make a few amendments. It is also expected that they will be completed a lot faster. We have come a long way from the old systems of typewriters, carbon copies and Roneo skins.		What will this technological revolution do to childcare? Record-keeping should be more disciplined and simpler if it is conducted electronically - as long as it doesn't crash. There is no more need for lots of tatty files with illegible notes, or for secretaries to type them out.
An interesting problem for professionals is that instant communication systems and the widespread use of television and radio to discuss personal matters seems to have led people to be very open about their problems, letting millions know about every detail on camera with Jerry Springer or Oprah Winfrey. Is society becoming more open? So what about professional confidentiality? If professionals do not maintain discretion about information they have received, other people in need may be reluctant to come forward and talk about themselves. One person making public complaints about the way their family is treated may not be speaking for other family members who would have preferred matters being kept discreet. Unless matters are made public in open court, it is hard to see how helping agencies can maintain professional confidentiality and defend their actions.

	Anti-social behaviour and offending are becoming world-wide issues, with the drugs trade, the movement of paedophiles to the countries where they are least observed, the movement of refugee children, and the growth of child prostitution.
Professionals involved in childcare and social education have to use technology - among other things - to find 21st century answers to 21st century problems. This magazine is just one of many ways to share problems, ideas and - we hope - answers.  Return to Front Page
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