Digital playgrounds
The evolution of children's play, AI literacies, AI and coursework, three Wemyss things, match chat, Lego resources and much more...
What’s happening
Playing the archive: from the Opies to the digital playground
A major research project on children’s play, which we have been following for several years, was celebrated at a book launch event we attended this month. In the 1950s and 1960s, Iona and Peter Opie built a vast collection of children’s street and playground games, stories, sayings, rhymes, beliefs and habits as told to them by children all over Britain. These accounts are now held in the Bodleian Libraries and were the focus and inspiration for a new study by researchers from UCL, the University of Sheffield and Goldsmiths. New stories and games were gathered from today’s children in different parts of England and comparisons drawn between play experiences at these two different points in time. Here’s Michael Rosen introducing the work the research team did with the British Library on examples of children’s play, a film playlist of childhood games, rhymes and jokes and a recent BBC Radio 3 programme about the Opies’s work.
Among the many aspects the researchers explored was how media cultures of the 21st century feed into children’s play repertoires in the same way as the media cultures of the 1950s had found their way into the rituals, narratives and landscapes of play of that time. As part of the project children wore Go-Pro cameras recording their playground games, drew and mapped their play, interviewed their parents and grandparents about their experience of play and made animations of the interviews. In the contemporary playgrounds, hand clapping and chasing games co-existed with reenactments of video games, online dances and role-playing YouTubers.
A seven year old told the researchers about a game she had learned called iPhone where the battery dying denotes the end of the game.
OMG
Chat chat chat
On my iphone
Snapchat
OMG
Chat chat chat
On my phone
Snapchat
Turn around
Oh no my battery’s dead - freeze!
A few days later the children created a new clapping and cartwheel game in a ‘play as media remix’, referencing points from media in a familiar rhyming pattern.
Bluetooth
WiFi
Connecting my phone
Evie
Cartwheels
Jumping
SpongeBob
Squarepants
Dancing like
A skeleton…
A primary pupil in the project coined the term game-evolution: “the games that will stay are the ones adaptable to change. Games have to evolve to people’s interests. It needs to keep modifying”.
The book is a deep and rich collection looking at play, games and digital media, “positioning children as creative, engaged agents in their play culture”. It’s available as a free open access book from UCL Press.
AI roundup
AI should be the making of coursework – not its breaking
AI shouldn’t mean the end of coursework in schools, argues Mark Grogan in Schools Week. “The more alarmist reactions risk throwing away the baby (non-examined assessment in subjects like art, design technology, drama, and film studies) with the AI bathwater. Doing so would only narrow opportunity,” he argues. He calls for creative adaptation: “we can’t safeguard creative learning by eliminating it, and we can’t preserve humanity (or protect children’s future prospects) in the age of AI by retreating into exam halls.” This was a strong theme of a conference Michelle attended this week on AI and assessment in HE - more on that next week.
On which topic, the Guardian has investigated academic integrity violations in UK universities and found that cases of traditional plagiarism are falling but there were almost 7,000 proven cases of cheating using AI tools in 2023-24, equivalent to 5.1 for every 1,000 students, up from 1.6 cases per 1,000 in 2022-23. That’s almost certainly an underestimate given how hard it is to detect.
BBC Bitesize and agentic AI
A little-noticed speech by BBC Director General Tim Davie last month set out how investment in the BBC’s educational offering will create innovative ways for deploying AI and education technology for good including:
“The exploration of whether BBC Bitesize and agentic AI could create a personal learning companion for every single child aged 7-16. Evolving for those at different levels of attainment and with different needs; with a commitment to safety and quality so users can fully trust it; and to support teachers and complement learning across the country.”
AI literacies
Check out the latest AI literacies work from We Are Open Co-op (with some great visuals from Bryan Mathers. Plus, an AI fluency framework and course from Anthropic.
Three useful things from Matthew Wemyss
AI school audit
Use the code AUDIT25 to access Matthew Wemys’ AI audit tool for schools free until 31 July. Check the tools you are using in your school, how and why staff are using them and whether they are using them safely.
A prompt example of creating a retrieval based quizzes based on Matthew’s own content
What the EU’s AI Outlook Report means for schools
AI and child exploitation
The UK government is taking action against the rising threat from AI-generated child abuse material, with new legislation that will make the country the first to criminalise the possession, creation and distribution of AI tools designed to generate such material. However, as this LSE blog explains, the practical impact may not be so straightforward – and the role of big tech companies must not be overlooked.
Match chat
A few years ago, at the Connected Learning Centre we worked with schools in partnership with IBM and Wimbledon Tennis to explore with pupils all the ways IBM supports the tennis tournament using technology. So, we were interested to read about Match Chat, an interactive AI assistant for Wimbledon that will allow tennis fans to ask for and receive real-time match insights.
Quick links
A Common Sense Media opportunity, including a digital leaders programme, is on offer for Devon and Cornwall schools.
Jan Ander from the Raspberry Pi Foundation describes how to give your students structure as they learn programming skills and introduces the 'levels of abstraction' framework as a tool for teaching programming to young people.
The Guardian’s reporting a study that suggests that teenagers who exhibit compulsive use of social media, phones and video games are at greater risk of suicidal behaviour. However, the study could not prove that technology use caused mental health problems. An alternative explanation would be that poor self-control could be the root cause for problematic screen use and mental health outcomes.
Meanwhile, Dublin City University researchers say that smartphone bans cannot ‘definitely demonstrate’ an impact on education, online bullying and wellbeing among students.
What to do if your phone is hacked or stolen.
We’re reading, listening…
Can education cope with change?
In this very sensible (in a motherhood and apple pie way) article, Olli-Pekka Heinonen, Director General of the International Baccalaureate, argues that education must radically adapt to our rapidly changing world, which he calls a "change of era." Rather than retreating from challenges such as AI and student mental health crises, education systems need to actively engage with them. Heinonen emphasises that wellbeing should become a core life skill, preparing students to navigate constant change with confidence. True stability, he suggests, comes from fostering adaptability and empowering students to imagine and create new solutions for global issues. He also stresses the importance of equipping teachers and leaders with the skills to implement these changes effectively. He argues we should be teaching students to embrace new technologies while setting boundaries and supporting their sense of agency.
Are you living two hours in the future?
Regular readers will know that we are both Oliver Burkeman fans. In his latest newsletter, The Imperfectionist, Burkeman expands on the concept of "onedayism" – waiting for a perfect future to truly live. This is the tendency to believe that your "real" life will begin just a few hours later, after a current task, email batch, or the workday is over. He goes on to explore the power of ‘closed’ to-do lists and how the underlying principle is that these methods force you to acknowledge your limited capacity and make conscious choices about the best use of your time, rather than trying to fit everything in. Have a deeply present and happy weekend!
Give it a try
This isn't specifically digital but it links to problem solving, logical and computational thinking. The University of Surrey has produced primary maths resources and approaches for teaching the crucial aspect of spatial reasoning for mathematics using structured Lego sessions. Give the resources a try.
Connected Learning is by Sarah Horrocks and Michelle Pauli
