Spotlight on Developing in Digital Worlds

These are the three initial questions posed by the Woolf Fisher Research Centre at the University of Auckland. This study, Developing in Digital Worlds, began in July 2015 in order that parents, teachers and children would be offered the opportunity to understand developing engagement in the digital world. The concept was bolstered by the fact that “despite the promise of digital technologies, little research and development has occurred to determine the cognitive skills and the social skills children need.” This work looked into subject areas across English, maths, science and Māori contexts, informed by ‘new knowledge’ obtained from children aged 4-18. This study was the first of its kind. Focusing entirely on developing the link between teaching, engagement and game-based learning to promote educational outcomes, the research team began with three main objectives, detailed below:

One, to understand the development and learning of ‘21st Century’ skills in children and adolescents;

Two, to understand how we can prevent new digital environments opening up a second ‘digital divide’ between low socio-economic status or diverse cultural and linguistic communities, from more affluent ‘mainstream’ communities;

And three, to understand how development of these skills differs between educational environments. The study surveys ‘early adopting’ clusters of schools, in which students are exposed to high-usage digital environments in and out-of-school, as well as ‘later adopting’ clusters whose students are at the initial stages of digital interaction. The Developing in Digital Worlds study also includes Māori medium Kura, in line with the Ministry of Business, Employment and Innovation’s Vision Mātauranga policy.

Looking at accessibility

“Educational professionals, networks, and parents...