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… Read more

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… Read more

In the Eildon West Cluster in the Scottish Borders, we’ve been exploring how Artificial Intelligence (AI) can support teachers in their daily work. Through a series of Continuing Professional Learning (CLPL) sessions, created by Suzanne Pritchard and Krista Ainslie,  we’ve been learning together about how AI tools can make teaching… Read more

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… Read more

Tweedbank Primary ELC was one of the first ELC settings to be awarded with the new DSAS Digital Learning Through Play Award in ELC, earlier this year. In this blog post, Early Years Officer Amy Simpson shares a practice highlight on the whole team approach to digitally evidencing key identified… Read more

Sharing our reading with you… We recently shared a variety of recommend reading links around screen time. In this post we share some more, but this time, the research and articles focus on younger children’s screen time, some including babies. Special thanks to our National Early Language and Communication Team… Read more

This blog post is a summary of key points in Audit Scotland’s report that might be useful for educational settings, such as schools, nurseries and local authorities to consider. Read the full report with this link Tackling digital exclusion (audit.scot).   “Digital exclusion is strongly associated with poverty and people… Read more

I am currently reading my way through Digital Play Technologies in The Early Years (Stephen, C., Brooker, L., Oberhuemer, P. and Parker-Rees, R. (2020) Digital Play and Technologies in the Early Years. Paperback. Published: 30 September 2020.) and have selected a chapter to share with you. Chapter 5: Digital Play… Read more

This page contains links to articles and papers exploring the risks of ‘screentime’ and social media and the lack of data and evidence supporting its purported impact on mental health, particularly children and young people: The great rewiring: is social media really behind an epidemic of teenage mental illness? (nature.com)… Read more