April 5, 2023

Groningen, The Netherlands / Online (Hybrid)

Deadline: March 14, 2023

Following the conference ‘Practices of Digital Inclusion and Exclusion in Everyday Life’ organized by the University of Groningen on 3 & 4 April 2023, the University of Groningen, ECREA section Children, Youth, and Media, and Chair RTVE University of Salamanca on Children Youth and Media will host the hybrid seminar 'Playfully Developing Digital Literacies: Children's Digital Play and Media Use in Different Social Contexts'. 

Play is one of the most important activities in childhood. It allows children to experiment with social norms and to make sense of the world around them. The advantages of play for development have long been investigated by researchers in a variety of domains, including developmental psychology, pedagogical sciences, and educational studies. These studies frequently view play as an essential activity and resource for kids’ development. While there is much consensus about the importance of play in general, the implications of emerging digital technologies for play have long been a topic of discussion (Bird & Edwards,2015; Marsh et al., 2016). In recent years, children are spending an increasing amount of time with digital technology for a variety of reasons, including play (Smahel et al., 2020). While digital play has been perceived as inferior to traditional play in the past, a growing number of scholars have been advocating for a more nuanced understanding. They argue that many characteristics of traditional play translate well into digital contexts, and that digital play, therefore, should be perceived as a supplementary form of play that can foster children’s development and learning. But how can social actors support children’s development through digital play? And, as play is inherently intertwined with the environment in which it happens, how do practices of digital play differ between various cultural, socioeconomic and geographical contexts?

In this seminar, we will explore children’s playful digital practices and consider how these practices aid their development of digital literacies. By exploring digital playful practices in different social contexts, we aim to further develop knowledge within both academic settings as well as in more practical settings, such as primary schools, after school care and NGO’s. In this seminar we will not only include differing social contexts, such as primary schools, the home and afterschool care, but we will also explore how children from different socioeconomic backgrounds use digital technologies to playfully shape and develop their digital literacy skills. With our event, we aim to promote dialogues between researchers and practitioners from different backgrounds to build knowledge on playful practices of digital literacy and to join forces to promote positive growth and engagement of children with digital technologies, as well as develop new pedagogies that can by various social actors, such as NGO’s and policymakers, as well as parents, teachers and childcare workers. We invite all students, researchers, practitioners, youth workers, NGO members and others with expertise and/or interest in the topics of this pre-conference to participate and engage in a roundtable discussion, a Q&A session and participant-led discussion.

The envisioned outcome of our event is to create a:

- List of recommendations or key takeaways from the roundtable and participant-led discussions;

- A strengthened community in which participants have gained fresh ideas, in a collaborative and creative way.

Format

This post-conference seminar will consist of three elements, in which we aim to promote a fruitful dialogue between different actors that focus on child-development, digital play and digital literacy.

1. We will start with a roundtable that will gather academics, teachers and trainers, NGO members, decision-makers and professionals of the tertiary sector focused on the major issues related to the theme of the pre-conference. We invite all participants to submit questions they wish to see addressed during this roundtable.

2. The roundtable discussion will be followed by a Q&A, where we will further explore topics brought in by the participants. Participants are asked to send in questions before the seminar. The moderator will ask these questions to the roundtable.

3. Finally, we will close the seminar with a discussion in which all participants can share insights and practices from the field. This participant-led discussion will promote a critical, creative and collaborative environment to foster discussion and share experiences and knowledge among all participants.

Preliminary Program

09.00 Welcome

09.15 Roundtable

10.30 Q&A

11.00 Break

11.15 Participant-led discussion

12.00 Closing

Register now!

If you want to participate in this hybrid seminar, please register via the following link (https://santu.com/dni214). This link allows you to register for the conference ‘Practices of Digital Inclusion and Exclusion in Everyday Life’ in Groningen on 3 & 4 April 2023 as well, but you can also choose to only participate in the seminar on 5 April 2023.

When registering, please formulate a question for the roundtable and indicate whether you want to join us in person or online. If you have any questions about the event, please contact Denise Mensonides (d.mensonides@rug.nl).

Important dates

Registration deadline: 14th of March 2023

Seminar date: 5th of April 2023