Vision and Goals

Our Vision For The Network....

In his book "Darwin Among the Machines", George Dyson quotes Samuel Butler as saying that "Life is making two and two equal five." It is only in collaboration with others that the full potential of our collective wisdom will be realized. Our learning community is designed to develop a synergy among the members so that each person builds upon the strengths of others.

The Global Early Intervention Network uses a powerful but easy to use web-based "messaging" system FirstClass™, to design the on-line environment. All participants also have access to a community-wide forum with the option of belonging to smaller discussion groups, referred to as "neighborhoods".

One assumption that has guided our structuring of the Global Early Intervention Network is that people prefer different types of online services. Thus, all participants have access to one-to-one, as well as a community-wide discussions. To maximize the productivity of the discussions, each discussion group has a facilitator, and each facilitator is supported by our community coordinators. As with all good neighborhoods, we hope people will contribute to the betterment of the community by exchanging ideas, and influencing the direction of the community.

The Goals of the Network

The goals of the Network are to provide families of children receiving early intervention services, early intervention professionals, and college faculty and students in early intervention training programs with....

A supportive and collaborative community that facilitates continuous learning about early intervention.
High quality and trustworthy information about early childhood and early intervention.
Advice with respect to challenging early intervention service and research problems.
Online courses and workshops about early intervention.
A bridge between practice and research.

In addition, we intend to evaluate the implementation and outcomes of the Network and publish relevant findings. The Network is intended to be a model of how health services can be improved by means of interdisciplinary communication.

The Need For a Network

Collaborative problem-solving, peer support, and continuous learning
These ideas are the "lifeblood" of any endeavor, including early intervention. Time and distance conspire against their health. The Internet holds enormous promise for overcoming these barriers to collaboration and learning. Indeed, one of the most widely cited advantages of Internet communication is the ability to converse, learn, and exchange information without the need to coordinate when and where the communication occurs.

Early Intervention Professionals and The Internet
The World Wide Web can be a potential boon to service providers and parents who are often confined by schedules which include team meetings, home-visits, toddler and parent groups. Hectic schedules allow little time to collaborate with colleagues and advance one's knowledge. Social support is particularly important for early intervention professionals and families because of many of the toddlers and infants have severe and multiple problems. Many service providers and parents receive infrequent and inadequate feedback about their efforts. Although the Network does not provide supervision, the participants have opportunities to give and receive feedback, thereby facilitating the learning from ones' own and others' experiences.

Early intervention professionals are uniquely well-suited to using the Internet for collaboration because of their training in team problem-solving, interpersonal skills, and group dynamics. Our assumption is that there never will be sufficient time for face-to-face collaborative problem-solving, peer and family support, and professional development. In this regard, the Internet is viewed as complementing ongoing collaborative and learning efforts.