Aussie Childcare Network has turned 5 years old today!
We are happy to share with you that it has been 5 years since Aussie Childcare Network was first launched and today we want to celebrate our 5 years birthday with you. What a journey it has been! I would like to take this opportunity to briefly recap my journey with Aussie Childcare Network and also on what we have planned for Aussie Childcare Network next (trust me - we've got something really big coming up!).
What a Journey:
I can't believe it’s already been 5 years since we first launched this site. Time does fly really fast. When we first created this website back in November 2009, I found there was a real need for a unique website that is dedicated for Childcare Professionals and Early Childhood Educators to help and support each other. Then Aussie Childcare Network was born - as a website purely dedicated in supporting and sharing knowledge with other Early Childhood Educators. I take pride in saying that we are probably 'the first successful website with dedicated support for childcare professionals in Australia'!
What's Coming Up?
The next chapter of Aussie Childcare Network is going to be a BIG one! We have been working extremely hard for almost 1 full year on this with over 4000 hours of our time already invested in this.
We are doing a really big makeover for our entire site and we are aiming to launch these awesome changes early next year. This is going to be the biggest changes we have ever done in the history of Aussie Childcare Network. So what are we working on? Here is a sneak peek on things to come:
1) Website Restructured: We have completely re-structured our website from ground up, discarded some features and improved some features taking it to a whole new level. We have now set a more defined goal on what we want Aussie Childcare Network to achieve in the coming years. You will be noticing these changes when our revamped site is released and our goals will be transparent.
2) Mobile Responsive Site: One of the major features which will be incorporated will be a mobile friendly site making it a pleasure to browse from any devices - mobile phones, iPads, tablets or desktop. You will be able to easily browse Aussie Childcare Network from anywhere and any devices!
3) Community Feature: We truly want to develop a social network community within Aussie Childcare Network and we are going to introduce a 'Community' feature which allows users to know more about each other than just from the forum.
4) Articles and Content Management: Our main goal is to manage and distribute our articles and content in a way that makes it really easy for our users to find what they’re looking for. We have designed 'the perfect' set-up in structuring the contents in our site and have also introduced many cool new features that allows users to share comments on articles, rate articles, easily filter articles, quick search an article, tag articles, etc.
5) Notifications System: A new feature that allows users to activate notifications on whatever they would like to follow. Such as receiving notifications on new articles or activities, follow other users, follow comments on articles, watch forum discussions, newsletter notifications and much more.
6) More User Friendly: The new site will be more user friendly. Almost each and every task (from registration, usability, notifications to privacy settings) can all be easily controlled by the user which will improve the overall browsing experience in our site.
The above are just some of the main highlights that our users will be able to experience in our new site. There will be many more features and changes available which also includes:
- New website layout, new design and new colour themes for all pages
- New Menu items based on restructured site layout
- Online Tools section improved and a lot of new EYLF templates to be released next year
- Cool Badges and Points awarded based on user site activities
- Advanced User Profile features
- Advanced Social Network feature
- Improved Personal Photo Gallery and Album features
- Facebook sign-ins
- High powered Fast performance server and much more..
It has been non-stop for us here working behind the scenes to bring you a new website. This is part of the reason on why we haven’t added many new resources to our site this year. After the new launch, we will be going full-throttle with the updates and providing heaps more contents and materials to all educators and students out there. I have so many resources I can't wait to share with you all.
We want to specially thank our Donators who have supported Aussie Childcare Network. Through all of you it makes it possible for us to dedicate so much time on developing this website.
Stay tuned and I will provide updates when we are nearing the launch of our revamped site. We are aiming to release these new changes in early January 2015. I think you will be pleased with the results and I am very excited to get this released!
