Projects
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Toddlers and Tablets: Exploring the Risks and Benefits 0-5s Face Online
Lelia Green, Donell Holloway, Sonia Livingstone and Brian O’Neill Australian Research Council Discovery Grant, 2015 – 2017 Children aged between zero and five are experiencing an extraordinary shift in media consumption. They intuitively swipe screens and press buttons on tablet computers and smartphones, using apps and accessing the internet. With an estimated five-fold increase in their tablet usage (2012 to 2013), there is an urgent need for research and policy development to maximise benefit and minimise risk. This project investigates family practices and attitudes around very young children's internet use in Australia and the United Kingdom, and is will contribute to public debate and evidence-based policy in Australia, the United Kingdom and Ireland. It will develop recommendations for policy makers and offers guidelines for parents of three age groups: zero to one, two to three and four to five. |
Digital Play: Social Network Sites and the Well-being of Young Children
Donell Holloway Australian Research Council Grant – Discovery Early Career Researcher Award, 2014 - 2016 Children's internet use is rapidly changing. The usage patterns of tweens (aged nine to 12 years) now resemble those of teenagers five to six years ago, while the usage of younger children (aged five to eight years) is approaching that of tweens. Primary school aged children are increasingly engaging in virtual worlds with social network functions. These spaces carry with them opportunities as well as risks. Policy resources often target high school children; this project explores the internet usage of primary school students. The project will map the benefits, risks and competencies associated with these usage trends and develop recommendations for parents and policy makers. |
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Parents or peers: Which group most affects the experiences of young people online and how?
Lelia Green and Leslie Haddon Australian Research Council, Grant - Discovery Projects, 2011 - 2016 This project investigated three sets of high school students who regularly interact online to discover how circles of friends influence each other's internet activity compared with parents. An understanding these dynamics will help drive innovation in Australia, maximising the benefits of young adults' internet activities while minimising risks. |
Young Children (0-8) and Digital Technology, Australian Comparative Study
Donell Holloway and Lelia Green Funded by an ECU Collaboration Enhancement Scheme Grant 2016 Despite the growing number of very young children who go online and who are using a wide range of technologies, little is known about children’s interactions with those technologies. This project entails a qualitative study designed and implemented in collaboration with a selected group of academic partners in different European countries and Australia, that aims at pioneering the exploration of young children and their families` experiences with new technologies. These cross-national findings will show how children between zero and eight engage with digital technologies such as smartphones, tablets, computers and games; how parents mediate this engagement, and their awareness on the risks-opportunities balance. The project outcomes will include recommendations to parents, industries and policymakers. |
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Conceptualising digital play: Tablet technologies in the development of imaginative play in young children
Irina Verenikina; Lisa Kervin; Colette Murphy Australian Research Council Discovery Project 2014-2016 Interacting with digital technologies is no longer restricted to the desktop. Portable devices have become more affordable and accessible resulting in their increased use by young children. How to optimise the influence of interactions with the devices in ways that they enrich rather than hinder child development becomes critical. This study investigates the inter-relationship between the technologies and imaginative play - the renowned developmental force in the early years. By utilising theoretically based criteria, and considering the perspectives of children and their families, this study will recommendations for developmentally sound use of tablet technologies in children's digital play. |
'Digital Natives': Growing up with new and old media in Australia
Michael Bittman; Leonie Rutherford; Len Unsworth Australian Research Council Linkage Project 2009-2011 Developing a sophisticated digital literacy is important for both the future of children, the cultural, social and economic well-being of the nation. Digital literacy requires not only communications infrastructure but targeted investment in human skills. Investing in the development of a digitally literate Australian population has become an explicit means for promoting the future economic and social well-being of the nation. The information provided by this project contributes to children's healthy development in their early years. |
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Digital Media and Literacy Education in Low Socio-economic Status Community Kindergartens
A/Prof Michael Dezuanni, A/Prof Karen Dooley (Ed), A/Prof Sandra Gattenhof (CIF), Dr Linda Knight (Ed), Dr Karleen Gwinner Ian Potter Foundation Grant 2012-2013 Research shows that children in low-SES communities risk falling behind in access to and use of digital technologies and in literacy development. This project identifies how to maximise the educational potential of iPads in the community kindergarten context, for children, educators and parents, to provide children with the best possible start to prepare for primary school. |
Children's active video games: family perceptions, uses and negotiations
Bjorn Nansen Discovery Early Career Researcher Award 2013-2015 This project examines family use of active video games. It shows how these games are managed by parents and how they impact on children's other play, sedentary and physical leisure time activities. The study is significant to our understanding of the relationship between games and child health and well-being. |
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Digitised Pregnancy and Parenting
Deborah Lupton, Sarah Pedersen, Robert Gordon University, Aberdeen, and Gareth Thomas, Cardiff University. |
The digitisation of school health and physical education
Michael Gard, Deborah Lupton, Deana Leahy, Carolyn Pluim Australian Research Council Discovery Project 2015-2017 While there is growing enthusiasm for using digital technology in school health and physical education (HPE), this is happening in the absence of systematic empirical research. This project describes the forms digital HPE are taking, analyses the commercial and ideological forces shaping it, and discusses its impacts. It provides educational stakeholders with a knowledge base on which to anchor debate, policy and further research concerning the complex ethical and philosophical issues raised by the digitisation of HPE. As the first HPE research grounded in theories of digital culture, the project will challenge the intellectual foundations of HPE teacher training as well as widely held views about the public health role of schools. |
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Young People, Technology, and Wellbeing Research Facility
Amanda Third; Philippa Collin; Lucas Walsh; Ros Black; Jane Burns. Australian Research Council Linkage Project 2011-2016 Large numbers of initiatives now mobilise technology to support the wellbeing of young Australians. However, amongst communities undertaking this work, there is currently significant duplication and insufficient sharing of research and best practice models. This Research Facility consolidates existing research, and guides new research and initiatives which will improve service delivery to young Australians by: reducing duplication between organizations working with young people; providing an accessible interface with research that can help address the community’s concerns about the role of technology in young people’s lives, and inform future policy and programs; and, model effective cross-sector knowledge brokering to Australian industry. |
A legally-informed intervention for schools to prevent and intervene in cases of cyberbullying
Marilyn Campbell; Desmond Butler; Donna Cross; Barbara Spears; Sally Kift; Phillip Slee; Andrew Knott Australian Research Council Linkage Project 2011-2013 Cyberbullying is a growing problem for young people as well as amongst adults in the workplace. This project developed and trialed a legally-informed intervention, delivered by young people, in order to increase student, parent and teacher knowledge of the law to prevent and manage cyberbullying incidents. |
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Play pedagogies for teaching and learning in the early years
Susan Edwards; Jocelyn Nuttall; Susan Grieshaber; Elizabeth Wood Australian Research Council Discovery Project 2015-2017 Traditional play-based learning in early childhood education cannot account for new play: very young children's everyday play with technologies, digital media and popular culture. This project uses a recently developed web-mapping tool to create a pedagogical approach to new play. The pedagogical approach to new play comprises teaching practices and learning outcomes that capitalise on the educational potential of children's everyday play with technologies, digital media and popular culture. It will enable teachers to work from a theorised and empirically validated perspective for connecting young children's everyday play with technologies, digital media and popular culture artefacts to their 21st century learning needs. |
Australian screen content in primary, secondary and tertiary education: uses and potential
Stuart Cunningham; Michael Dezuanni; Georgie McClean; Matthew Hancock; David Sutton; Maggie Garrard Australian Research Council Linkage Project 2013-2015 This project investigated the educational market for Australian screen content and the ways students use and engage with that content. It informs policy development, shapes content production and distribution, as well as an awareness of the availability and utility of Australian screen content in educational settings. |
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Serious play: using digital games in school to promote literacy and learning in the twenty first century
Catherine Beavis; Michael Dezuanni; Joanne O'Mara; Sarah Prestridge; Leonie Rowan; Claire Wyatt-Smith; Jason Zagami; Yam San Chee Australian Research Council Linkage Project 2011-2013 Young Australian’s social and cultural experiences are increasingly digital. This project offered leadership to schools seeking to use and create games to improve student outcomes across subject areas, and generated new knowledge about how students and teachers approach digital games and the kinds of literacy, learning and pedagogy they entail. |
Digital Learning and Print Literacy: A design experiment for the reform of low socio-economic, culturally diverse schools
Annette Woods; Allan Luke; Karen Dooley; Vinesh Chandra; Kathy Mills; Beryl Exley; Michael Dezuanni; John Davis; John McCollow; Lesley McFarlane Australian Research Council Linkage Project 2009-2012 The Federal Government declared the Education Revolution as a key national priority for reform. It called for a policy focus on the introduction of digital technologies into the school lives of students and a renewed focus on equity in traditional print literacy. This project provided a new evidence base and training site for teacher and student development in print literacy and technology with a focus on low socio-economic school development. |
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Dynamics of digital inclusion
Ellie Rennie; Sarah Howard; Karl Maton; Julian Thomas; Jun Ma Australian Research Council Linkage Project 2015-2016 The project investigated the effectiveness of digital inclusion interventions in schools. Digital inclusion is the ability to use and benefit from information and communication technologies. The project was a large-scale study of the distribution and adaptation of digital practices across Indigenous and non-Indigenous low socio-economic schools. Drawing on a unique dataset and new theoretical insights into the success and failure of knowledge practices in schools, the project then modeled user and network activity. The project will identify key factors shaping digital inclusion and exclusion in schools, and develop scenarios to inform future policy. |
Acquiring physical skills: exploiting games technology to teach sign language
Kirsten Ellis; Louisa Willoughby; Julie Fisher; Nicole Rinehart; Neil Ray Australian Research Council Linkage Project 2011-2013 This project investigated whether games technology could be used to teach deaf children’s parents sign language. The learner creates a sign, the system assesses the accuracy of the sign and provides feedback to improve learning. The system has the potential to provide an inexpensive alternative to learning sign language. |
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Enhancing learning capacity and academic outcomes using novel game technology in primary school children with developmental disabilities
Kim Cornish; Kylie Gray; Darren Hocking; Kirsten Ellis; Jefferson Harcourt; Kevin McIntosh Australian Research Council Linkage Project 2012-2014 Childhood inattention has been linked with poor academic outcomes and reduced social inclusion. In children with developmental disabilities improving poor attention skills is essential. The project provides a novel and engaging evidence-based intervention program delivered as a portable, interactive game accessible in rural and urban communities. |
Pedagogies for knowledge-building: investigating subject-appropriate, cumulative teaching for twenty-first century school classrooms.
Karl Maton; James Martin; Len Unsworth; Sarah Howard Australian Research Council Discovery Project 2013-2015 To succeed in today's knowledge society, young people need to quickly grasp the organising principles for building different forms of knowledge. This interdisciplinary project explored how teachers marshaled the resources of modern classrooms to apprentice students into subject-specific principles for knowledge-building in Science and History. |
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Children’s Rights in the Digital Age
Amanda Third; Emma Keltie; Delphine Bellerose; Kari Pihl; Urszula Dawkins; Girish Lala; Lilly Moody; Georgina Theakstone; Lauren David 2014 - Ongoing Children's Rights in the Digital Age is the first project to comprehensively document children’s insights about and experiences their rights in the digital age internationally. The project is a partnership between the Institute for Culture and Society at Western Sydney University, The Young and Well Cooperative Research Centre, the Berkman Center for Internet and Society at Harvard University and UNICEF, in conjunction with international partner organisations affiliated with the Digitally Connected Network. |
Young and Resilient Living Lab
Amanda Third; Philippa Collin; Teresa Swist; Liam Magee; Louise Crabtree; Michelle Catanzaro; Tanya Notley; Milissa Dietz; Katrina Sandbach; Delphine Bellerose; Girish Lala; Lilly Moody 2016 - Ongoing The Young and Resilient Living Lab is dedicated to exploring community-driven, technology-based programs, policies and products to support young people’s mental health and wellbeing. The Lab is located in Greater Western Sydney, Australia’s fastest-growing region, home to an extremely diverse population, and where the average income sits below the median Australian income. A rapid process of urban renewal, unprecedented population growth and a static job market are leading to high levels of uncertainty. These factors have major repercussions for young people’s participation in the local economy, and for their mental health and wellbeing. |
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Engaging Creativity
Amanda Third; Emma Keltie; Peter Bansel, Nida Denson; Kerry Robinson; Michelle Catanzaro; Tanya Notley; Milissa Dietz; Katrina Sandbach; Craig McGarty; Emma Thomas; Girish Lala We know that existing services to support vulnerable young people's mental health and wellbeing do not reach up to 70% of those who need them most. Further, the Department of Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy recognises that technologies can foster creative expression to enhance a young person's connectedness and wellbeing. This project investigates how to reach, engage and connect vulnerable young people using creative content production initiatives. The project assessed the capacity for digital media functionalities such as user-generated content and social networking to reach vulnerable young people, harness their creativity, and develop effective strategies for their social inclusion. This project took a strengths-based approach to develop tools and accompanying resources to support self-efficacy and resilience. The research delivered innovative projects that build on young people's existing aptitude with social media and creative content; further develop their skills in technology use for creative endeavours; connect them via collaborative work; and build upon these foundations to imagine and realise better futures for themselves and their communities. |
Transforming Institutions and Communities
Amanda Third; Girish Lala; Delphine Bellerose; Kari Pihl; Justine Humphry; Louise Crabtree 2012 - 2016 Using a range of qualitative methodologies (eg: living labs), this project firstly evaluated existing technology-based communities designed to support the mental health and wellbeing of specific target groups of vulnerable young people. This project identified:
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