The teams of the DigiLitEY COST Action and MakEY Horizon 2020 research projects met for an international conference in Manchester on 7/8 March 2019. The event marked the end of DigiLit EY, but hopefully it was also the first step of further exploring the topic of literacies, especially digital practices of young children and their families. Some of the research presented at the Manchester conference will also be presented to the participants of our Parent Summit in November. The Think Tank Parents International’s Director was a member of proudly presented our Smart Parenting in the Digital Age publication.
Digital technology is part of today’s children’s lives from the first month. In DigiLitEY we followed up research and worked for supporting parents in introducing healthy digital practices, to counterbalance the media focus on risks and help them find a right balance to make the most of digital opportunities taking into consideration their children’s needs and rights.
This exciting conference brought together researchers from across the world, with keynote speakers from the USA, Canada and Australia, who are interested in the ways in which early childhood literacies are being transformed in the twenty-first century. Keynote speakers presented creative approaches to today’s challenges that include rapid developments in digital technologies and increasing standardisation in early childhood curricula.
In the workshop sessions some interesting research results were presented, and we have invited researchers from Portugal, Estonia, Israel, Australia and the UK to present their parent-related research at the Parent Summit. These papers covered topics around parents’ general literacies and digital practices, sharenting (sharing by parents) practices, and family life research on daily use of digital technology in the age range 0 to 8.
The DigiLitEY and Makey programmes are in the forefront of research into the lives of young children and those who work, live and learn with them. The event’s third sponsor, the Journal of Early Childhood Literacy, is also associated with recognising creativity, diversity and social justice.
The Smart Parenting Guide can be downloaded here: http://digilitey.eu/smartparenting/ We would like to make it available in as many languages as possible, so we are inviting vonunteer translators. The Hungarian and Romanian versions will already be downloadable in a few days.
Other DigiLitEY material intended for parents can be found here: http://digilitey.eu/publications/information-for-parents/
