During our learning journeys about childhood, it is helpful to belong to a community where the subjects are being debated, so that we can experience other people’s viewpoints and put into context what we are studying individually.
Facebook groups can be just as useful for learning as they are for social networking – in fact, it would be hard to avoid learning from many good ones.
Here are ten open Facebook groups that offer good, supportive communities for different aspects of childhood. The list reflects my own interests so it is not comprehensive, but it may be useful to view them as a quality benchmark when looking for groups in the topics you are interested in.
- Aspergers
- Asperger’s syndrome
- Autism
- Canadian Child Care Federation
- Dyslexia
- Early Childhood Education
- Early Childhood Teachers Victoria
- Family Nurse Practitioner Networking group
- Pediatric Occupational Therapists
- South Africa fighting Autism
These groups share common characteristics that make them stand out as well-developed communities offering opportunities to learn from others. They are all open; many features clear rules for participation and all the groups are well-moderated by administrators, so there is very little spam. In addition, the groups often include an archive of topical resources in the ‘files’ tab, and each features a range of members participating and contributing to discussions.
If you don’t yet belong to a community that supports your individual learning and development, any of the groups listed above would be a good place to start.
cyp-media.org 