Tapestry in a wifi free setting!

[rappers]

Dear Tapestry and fellow 'Weavers',

 

Our setting is currently in the exciting phase of planning a brand new purpose built nursery setting; however I've been advised by our Governors that due to concerns with the impact of radiation on young people's development that we will not have access to wifi or be able to use any form of 3G devices in our new building.

We will hard-wired Ethernet cable for internet access so will be able to use laptops but will lose our current freedom to update Tapestry on the go with our ipads!

 

Has anyone else found this a consideration? I understand that there has been legislation in France, Canada and Russia to ban wifi in nurseries but if such changes are heading our way this is going to impact most of us Tapestry users.

 

My view is that my team will need additional PPA time to enable them to upload photos and update Tapestry via the cabled laptops, which will have a knock-on financial impact. Do you have any other ideas how we could make this work for us? We have been using Tapestry for many years and would be upset to lose it now!

 

Thank you!

 

 

[Steve]

Hi rappers -

 

Hmm. I'd be interested in seeing what evidence your governors have used to reach this decision. The subject has rumbled on over many years, but as far as I know there is no accepted/uncontroversial evidence that wifi and other similar forms of radiation pose a health risk. Perhaps they are using the precautionary principle, which is simply to exclude certain things on the basis that there is no proof they don't pose a risk?

There is a wealth of material on the subject and (as seems ubiquitous these days) opinions and beliefs are ferociously attacked and defended, so I don't really want to get into a prolonged debate about it - googling "does wifi pose a health risk" will get you into those debates very quickly, although I'd advise against reading contributions below the byline too much, as they tend to get abusive and silly very quickly.

Here's a contribution from Cancer Research UK, which is at least moderate in tone. So I'll leave it to readers to decide which side of the fence you're on.

With regard to Tapestry, we hope to soon have a full offline version of the app (for apple devices only initially) for uploading observations, so if you have any iOS tablets that would enable you to record your observations in airplane mode (ie no wifi while in contact with the children). Ethernet cabled laptops are obviously fine but restrict your mobility as you say. If your school isn't banning tablets physically then perhaps you could continue to use them for recording observations, although you'd still need non-contact time for editing them properly and carrying out other admin/management activities.

Hope this helps - and we'd also be upset if you were unable to continue using Tapestry! :1b

[rappers]

Hi Steve,

I have asked for a meeting with the Governors to discuss their wifi concerns and will ask for their evidence which I'm happy to forward to you for your information.

It's great to hear that there's an apple offline version in development so we'll be able to continue our long association with Tapestry 

Many thanks

[rappers]

Hi all,

Following on from this our Governors are still keen for our new setting to be wifi free but have been invited to build my case and investigate further. 

Are there any other settings in East Sussex or Kent that have deliberately chosen to be wifi free that would be willing to let me visit or would share the benefits and drawbacks they've come across?

Has any setting ever experienced a parental comment about the use of wifi in a nursery setting?

Many thanks.