Category: Main News

Any posts with this will be shown on the home page (latest) and new page

Scottish Digital Literacy Week 2025

Scottish Digital Literacy Week is back for 2025!

LIVE events for learners and educators will start from 12th May. There will be sessions run by the Education Scotland digilearn team and lots of guest partners.

The aim of the week is to raise awareness of digital literacy – what it is, why we all need it and how educators might teach it.

Click the link below to find details of upcoming events and sign-up details

Click here for our events page!

AI in Schools Week 2025 – Catch Up Resources – CLPL and Live Lessons

Welcome to out Catch Up Gallery of recordings from AI in Schools Week 2025.  You  will find recordings of CLPL sessions and live lessons on this page.

Full resources to support the delivery of the live lessons in class can be found at

Playlist

thoughts on critical play: radical games design by mary flanagan

Recommended reading: Critical Play; Radical Game Design by Mary Flanagan

This blog is a summary of Mary Flanagan’s book Critical Play; Radical Game Design. This was recommended by Dr Tom Brock, who is a Senior Lecturer in Sociology at Manchester Met, after he spoke at the recent Scottish Esports Conference 2024. With the book on order, it was only possible to access the first chapter on Google Scholar. This post is a summary of those initial points but are subject to change with further reading. 

 

Flanagan starts off by identifying games as “a significant cultural medium across a wider range of social, economic, game and gender categories” that are still new and not as valuable as other forms of play. These points might be useful to consider games as art, as media and as play.  

Defining games 

For a definition of games, Flanagan refers to Salen and Zimmerman’s (2003) definition of games as an artificial system with player, rules and a quantifiable outcome or goal. The artificiality of games aligns with Tina Bruce’s ‘12 features of play’ (2020) as ‘possible, alternative, imagined worlds which involve ‘supposing’ and ‘as if’ situations.’  

In addition to these features, Flanagan refers to Greg Costikyan (1994) who says that while ‘stories are inherently linear’ and games are ‘inherently non-linear’ the more a game is story-driven then the more linear and less of a game it becomes. This distinction on linearity would separate games from other media, such as books, film and music in most cases.  

 

Are games play? 

However, the requirement for outcomes puts games at adds with the Scottish Government’s National Play Strategy and another of Bruce’s ‘features of play’.   

The Scottish Government defines play as ‘freely chosen, personally directed and intrinsically motivated. It is performed for no external goal or reward’ (2013). Bruce also makes this distinction between play and games as play does not have ‘externally imposed rules, goals, tasks or a definite direction’ (2020).  

Agreeing that games and play are distinct, there are still valuable similarities worth exploring. Both play and games include their being ‘freely chosen, personally directed’ (Scottish Government, 2013) and being ‘not-work’ and ‘diversionary activities’ (Flanagan, 2009). Flanagan states that games can ‘create cognitive and epistemological environments that position the player or participant with the experiences [of play] in meaningful ways’ (2009). Similarly, Bruce identifies that play “helps children to function in advance of what they can actually do in their real lives. They can drive a car, perform a heart operation, be a shop keeper.” (2020) 

 

Are games art? 

Might games be considered art? Flanagan considers games may be ‘outlets for creative expression, conceptual thinkings or to examine or work through social issues?’ There are similarities between this and another of Bruce’s features of play: “Play is about wallowing in ideas, feelings and relationships and the prowess of the physical body. It helps the process of becoming aware of self in relation to others and the universe. It brings unity and interconnectedness” (2020). 

As well as ‘playing’ games, Flanagan also explores the concept of ‘making for making’s sake’ to distinguish being creative with games from the commercial development that is traditional games design. She considers that games can be ‘a medium of expression but using elements common to games as the materials.’ In his book, The Element, Ken Robinson states that creativity can be thought of as “a conversation between what we’re trying to figure out and the media we are using” (2009). For Robinson it is impossible to separate the idea from the medium because creativity is “about making things […] it always involves using media of some sort to develop ideas” (2009).  

 

Conclusion 

In conclusion, games should be considered distinct from play. This does not devalue their cultural significance – there are many similarities between games and play and we should explore these. Indeed, we may want to explore games as a medium through which to explore ideas, of ourselves, others and the world around us. Realising the Ambition (Education Scotland, 2020) states that: 

The experiences and spaces for play we facilitate for the children should reflect the children’s ideas, aspirations, curiosities and next steps in their learning. It is through play that children learn about themselves and make sense of the world around them.  

In this sense we should certainly encourage games as part of their learning. 

 

 

 

playing games

Playing games

go to the Games in Education page

This section aims to support educators to provide opportunities to play games in education. Games are valuable, meaningful and engaging to people of all ages, including children and young people. Play is a valuable and recognised aspect of learning and child development.

Below are links to information, ideas and resources to help educators implement playing games in their setting.

restore by glitchers - land use game
Restore by Glitchers – a game about land use

Restore by GLITCHERS   Restore is part of an academic research project called RestoreID (HORIZON-CL6-2023-BIODIV-01-17). This research project investigates the relationship between nature restoration, biodiversity, and disease prevention. The restore game is led by Dr Brad Duthie and Prof Nils Bunnefeld at the University of Stirling. The game will take… Read more

Tinderbox games club
Tinderbox Games Collective

Tinderbox is a collective of young people, musicians, artists and youth workers in Scotland. Their work uses music and the arts to bring people together and strengthen communities, providing exciting opportunities that support young people to build their confidence, skills, self-esteem, and professional experience.  Find out more about Tinderbox here… Read more

AI CodeAlong – Control A Fish With Your Voice – Recap

This is a recap for you and your class to follow along to that will show you how to create a voice recognition AI using https://machinelearningforkids.co.uk/ and connect that to a simple Scratch project where you can use your AI to control a fish sprite!

Based on the activity done as part of the code along during AI in Schools Week 2025.

The video takes you through how to build the program.  Pause/rewind as you need!

YouTube player

 

Resources

This project is based on the excellent Fish Food project from Raspberry Pi Foundation.  Just one of many AI based coding projects for you to discover!

Download Fish Food PDF Instructions

Check out the full set of AI Raspberry Pi Foundation resources here:

Machine Learning With Scratch Activities

AI Toolkit: Explore a selection of AI and Machine Learning platforms

 

 

cyber comics for young people 2

Cyber Resilience Comic 2 – created by young people

Exciting new resource created by young people for young people. Education Scotland supported North Ayrshire youth work to work with young people to create cyber resilience comics. You can read them here:

Password Generator – Scratch Code Along Recap and Resources

Cyber Scotland Week 25 – Scratch Code Along Recap and Resources

Create a strong password generator using Scratch as part of Cyber Scotland Week 2025!

In this session, you and your class will learn to use lists and random numbers to generate and store random strong passwords using three random words as advised by the National Cyber Security Centre. 

This Scratch activity is suitable for learners who have some prior experience with Scratch, and likely for learners in P5 or above. 

Resources

Video Tutorial

Use this with your class – feel free to pause when you need to!

YouTube player

AI generated image of pre school children playing with loose parts and small globe lights in a play room

Light as a Loose Part.

When you think of loose parts, do you ever consider light up resources? 

Small, inexpensive, battery operated torches, touch lights, string lights? 

 

The Thrive Outdoors Loose Parts Play Toolkit explains the origin and theory of loose parts, making reference to Simon Nicholson’s research from 1971; The Theory of Loose Parts: How NOT to Cheat Children. 

Nicholson believed moveable materials that can be constructed and taken apart, create limitless possibilities for creativity, central to loose parts explorations. 

He described loose parts as ‘variables’ and provided examples such as materials and shapes; smells and other physical phenomena, such as electricity, magnetism and gravity; media such as gases and fluids; sounds, music, motion; chemical interactions, cooking and fire; and other humans, and animals, plants, words, concepts and ideas. With all these things all children love to play, experiment, discover and invent and have fun. 

The ideas of variables become tangible outdoors and indoors, in both natural and artificial light. Nicholson shares the dynamic interaction between children and the loose parts, the landscape, elements, and seasons, fosters a constantly evolving and growing play environment.  

In his theory, Nicholson illustrated also variables as naturally occurring and disappearing phenomena like water, ice, snow, shadows, cobwebs, dappled light and rainbows.  

Loose Parts Play Toolkit

Related reading:

Blog post by TTS – Importance of Light and Shadow Play in the early years. 

In this TTS article, you can read about the benefits of light and shadow play. Through this intrinsically motivating force, children develop spatial awareness and actively learn about shapes, sizes, and dimensions, cause and effect and the wonder of experimenting with moving objects in front of a light source to change the shadow it creates.

Importance of Light and Shadow Play in the early years

 

Blog post by TTS – Bringing joy through light By Ben Kingston-Hughes. 

In this second TTS article, the author Ben Kingston-Hughes describes how light can bring unique moments of joy and explains how we respond and pay more attention to things that fascinate us. 

Kingston-Hughes illustrates that through shadow explorations, children being to recognise that shadows are bigger the nearer to the light source, and how innately mathematical and simple shadow play with children can help embed complex scientific concepts, whilst providing them with joyful explorations.  

The value of sensory play to developing brains cannot be overestimated and our early explorations with light and shadow are a wonderful way to embed sensory play into our settings. 

 Bringing Joy Through Light

 

Book – Exploring Natural Connections with light reflection and shadow Halton, Treveon, Buchan. 

After chatting to Niki Buchan at a recent practitioner festival about the power of light in children’s scientific investigations, I was very much inspired to purchase a copy of this book she co-authored, to deepen my understanding of the interplay of light and materials and to to learn how children explore light interacting with different objects. 

You can read accounts of many different experiences, (clearly illustrated with photographs), where children are learning about concepts of light, reflection and shadow,  transparencies and translucency.  The book also highlights the affordances of light tables and light boxes, which in turn can create various visual and stimulating sensory experiences. It also shows how bringing digital and non-digital resources together,  to explore how they connect and interact, is both an inviting and intriguing experience. Children can literally be immersed in their own explorations and investigation. 

Exploring Natural Connections with light reflection and shadow

 

Additional related links: 

Please feel free to share your thoughts on this topic via this Microsoft Form

Header image generated by Microsoft CoPilot. 
Images in blog post belong to post author. 
image of a toddler pressing the buttons on the LED panel of a washing machine

First of its kind study focusing on digital experiences of children under three years old.

Sharing our reading with you……  The two-year Toddlers, Tech and Talk study, funded by the Economic and Social Research Council, was conducted by researchers from Manchester Metropolitan University (MMU) in collaboration with Lancaster, Queen’s Belfast, Strathclyde, and Swansea universities. The study examined how technology, such as Amazon Alexa and Ring doorbells, influences early talk and literacy among 0- to three-year-olds in various communities across the UK.  Although some argue that children under three should avoid screen time entirely, studies have shown that digital technology can provide significant developmental benefits for young children.

Read about the research methods, study findings and access publications and media coverage here: Toddlers, Tech and Talk

Or alternatively you can skip to the key findings and recommendations here:   Policy Summary

What are your thoughts on the policy recommendations? In particular;
  • National early years curriculum frameworks, safeguarding guidance and related policies should be rescrutinised to take account of very young children’s rights to digital media access and healthy use.
  • Investment is needed in the ECEC sector to ensure high quality training and continuing professional development in the use of digital media in early childhood, including liaison with families.

Please feel free to share your thoughts via this Microsoft Form

Post image is not associated with the study.

AI Strategy, implementation & leadership project for school and local authority leaders in Scotland

Course Objectives:

Build awareness and understanding of AI in education (AI Essentials) and the potential threats associated with AI (AI Safeguarding) as well as adopting a strategic, purpose-driven approach to AI use in schools (AI Strategy). Drop-in clinics will provide follow-on support as participants begin to apply what they have learnt to their real-life contexts.

This is a 3 part series to support schools and local authority leaders develop AI in education settings.

  • Workshop 1 – AI Essentials: 24th February 2025 – 4- 5:30pm
  • Workshop 2 – Safeguarding the use of AI in Education: 10th March 2025 – 4- 5:30pm
  • Workshop 3 – Building an AI Strategy: 24th March 2025 – 4- 5:30pm

There will also be opportunities to attend drop in clinics if you have specific questions or are looking for specific support. These will be held on 

  • Drop-in Clinic 1- 3rd March 2025 – 4- 5pm
  • Drop-in Clinic 2- 17th March 2025 – 4- 5pm
  • Drop-in Clinic 3- 31st March 2025 – 4- 5pm
  • Drop-in Clinic 4- 12th May 2025 – 4- 5pm
  • Drop-in Clinic 5- 2nd June 2025 – 4- 5pm

Drop In Clinics

Drop in clinics will be informal sessions where participants are invited to come along and share their progress, ask questions and receive support as they navigate the series of workshops and begin to implement AI in their schools and teaching, learning and working practices.  Participants will benefit from the thoughts, experiences and feedback of their peers and colleagues as well as the EVR CPD team (Dave & Dina) in these drop in sessions.

Registration details for each event below:

Workshops

Workshop 1

AI Essentials

This session will provide leaders with an introduction to the fast-developing field of AI in education and encourage them to consider how AI could be used in schools to enhance pedagogical practices.

Mon, 24 Feb
16:00 – 17:30 GMT

Register

Workshop 2

Safeguarding the use of AI in Education

This session will look in detail at how we must safeguard our learners as we implement AI across educational practices. Participants will gain a deeper understanding of the ways AI can change existing threats (such as access to inappropriate tools) and generate new safeguarding concerns (such as misplaced trust).

Mon, 10 March
16:00 – 17:30 GMT

Register

Workshop 3

Building an AI Strategy

This session will support leaders to identify and adopt a strategic approach for the use of AI within their school(s) building on Prof. Rose Luckin’s strategic quadrant approach.

Mon, 24 March
16:00 – 17:30 GMT

Register

Drop-In Clinics

Drop-in Clinic 1

Mon, 3 March
16:00 – 17:00 GMT

Register

Drop-in Clinic 2

Mon, 17 March
16:00 – 17:00 GMT

Register

Drop-in Clinic 3

Mon, 31 March
16:00 – 17:00 GMT

Register

Drop-in Clinic 4

Mon, 12 May
16:00 – 17:00 BST

Register

Drop-in Clinic 5

Mon, 02 Jun
16:00 – 17:00 BST

Register