Abstract:
The Children’s Technology Play Space (CTPS), is a living lab for children on the University of Wollongong (UOW) campus developed for the ARC Centre of Excellence for the Digital Child. Literature on children’s museums emphasise the importance of encouraging interactions to foster creativity alongside developing knowledge through active processes. The CTPS was designed as a space to gather children and their ‘adults’. As such, place and space (sociomateriality), bodies within and in-movement around the space (embodiment), and possibilities for knowing (tacit and emplaced) framed our decisions.
In operation since 2022, more than 500 children have participated in weekly digital playgroup sessions. These playgroups are designed to translate findings from Centre projects into tangible experiences for children and their adults. In this presentation we draw upon examples from these experiences as we share our insights about the complex interplay between the emerging identity of the place, the children’s engagement with the experiences, the connections the children have made through their play, the roles of researchers and our procedures for data collection. The CTPS and its experiences have revealed new ways of seeing and knowing about young children’s digital experiences and opportunities for playing, learning and connecting with technologies.
In operation since 2022, more than 500 children have participated in weekly digital playgroup sessions. These playgroups are designed to translate findings from Centre projects into tangible experiences for children and their adults. In this presentation we draw upon examples from these experiences as we share our insights about the complex interplay between the emerging identity of the place, the children’s engagement with the experiences, the connections the children have made through their play, the roles of researchers and our procedures for data collection. The CTPS and its experiences have revealed new ways of seeing and knowing about young children’s digital experiences and opportunities for playing, learning and connecting with technologies.