Children’s Technology Spaces
Our Children’s Technology Spaces provide an interface for researcher collaboration with children, families, industry partners, teachers, health practitioners and technology designers.
Living Labs focused on children’s use of digital technologies
These dedicated technology spaces are physical sites where researchers and digital technology users investigate concepts and potential technological advances. They are research and professional learning sites for understanding children’s use of a range of different technologies.
We hold events, workshops and activities open to the public, where children (accompanied by family members or educators) will have the opportunity to learn, play and connect with digital technology.
Keen to attend a public event at one of our Children’s Technology Spaces? Check out our events page.
Children’s Technology Centre
The QUT Children’s Technology Centre (CTC) is a purpose-built space located in the Education Precinct at QUT’s Kelvin Grove campus in Brisbane.
The CTC has been designed to enable a broad range of events and research activities related to digital childhoods, for children from birth to age 8, their families, educators (including teacher education students) and other industry and community stakeholders.
Equipped with recording and other data collection tools and resources, the CTC provides a context for research conducted by Digital Child researchers across a diverse range of projects and a space for research translation.
The QUT Children’s Technology Centre is coordinated by Dr Chris Chalmers in collaboration with Centre researchers based at QUT and wider Centre members.
The Children’s Technology Centre hosts maker and play activities, and workshops and training activities for children, educators, families, teacher education students and industry and community partners.
Children’s Technology Play Space
The University of Wollongong Children’s Technology Play Space is housed within Early Start at the university alongside the Discovery Space where it serves as a living laboratory for the Centre.
Join our regular Digital Play group, facilitated by researchers from the Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for the Digital Child.
The core work of the Children’s Technology Play Space is driven by children, our research projects and connection with industry. It is an extension to the Discovery Space (through regular Digital Playgroups for Early Start members), and is a key site for Centre research projects and research translation.
The Children’s Technology Play Space bridges research, technology and children’s everyday practices and enables a dialogue between researchers, children, and industry partners. It fosters learning through the development of children’s inherent curiosity. Its engagement with the wider community and Centre partners complements the work of the university’s Early Start, Discovery Space and Science Space.
Professor Lisa Kervin provides academic leadership to the UOW Children’s Technology Play Space, in collaboration with Centre researchers based at UOW and wider Centre members.
The Children’s Technology Play Space offers opportunity for interdisciplinary and intergenerational dialogue as children and their families use technology and engage with the space.
Children’s Technology Cove
Curtin University’s Children’s Technology Cove is an interactive space in the ARC Centre of Excellence for the Digital Child, located on the Bentley campus, Perth, Western Australia.
The Children’s Technology Cove (CTC) allows for real-time, semi-naturalistic observation of children as they engage with digital technologies. The CTC is designed for approximately 10 – 15 children plus adults at any one time. The CTC contains a communal area with multiple spaces for children to participate in independent, small group or large group interactions. There is an additional digital play space in the Centre’s foyer, with wall mounted iPads, interactive wall art, flexible furniture and whiteboards for children’s use. The CTC is connected to outdoor spaces that encourage digital explorations of nature.
Key digital technologies and resources in the CTC include iPads with educational applications, supporting creative and computational thinking and exploration of augmented reality and micro worlds. A large interactive smart touch screen is central to the space, fostering virtual connections between children in a range of early years settings. The CTC was designed specifically for young children and encourages co-play with parents and educators. Additionally, there are sets of tangible coding devices for both children and adults to use. With ethics approval, activities can be video and audio recorded through existing camera infrastructure in the CTC. This allows for multimodal analysis of all captured data. Finally, the CTC is co-located with a data analysis hub adjacent to the space, that can be used for real-time video monitoring and professional development purposes.
The CTC is led by Professor Karen Murcia and is coordinated by Dr Sinead Wilson. For further information contact sinead.wilson@curtin.edu.au.
We encourage experiences where young children can engage with digital technology as active creators; connecting, constructing and playing.
