The second in a new series of public seminars brought together experts in children’s education technology.

The second Digital Child x ACMI seminar was held on 26 October, bringing together education technology developers, industry experts and academics to discuss ‘Australian EdTech for Better Digital Childhoods’. The seminar is part of a series focused on digital childhoods, jointly organised by the Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for the Digital Child and the Australian Centre for the Moving Image (ACMI).

Led by panel chair Professor Julian Sefton-Green from Deakin University, the panel included ABC’s Head of Digital Education Annabel Astbury, CEO and Founder of TalkiPlay Dr Annie McAuley, Simon Torok from Google’s Education Technology, and Founder and CIO of Xplor Mark Woodland. Digital Child Associate Investigator Professor Susan Edwards acted as panel discussant.

With the global COVID-19 pandemic accelerating the use and influence of educational technologies in educational settings and at home, the panel discussed the issues arising from this from varying perspectives, from the viewpoint of edtech developers to parents and educators to media distributors like ABC. Questions posed included how ‘educational’ are educational apps? What pedagogical approaches are embedded in platforms? How is the quality of digital play and learning assured? And how do we know if our data is not being misused?

“It was wonderful to bring together stakeholders from the industry, community and academia in this seminar to talk about what educational technologies mean for Australian children and how we can work together for better digital childhoods,” said event convener Dr Xinyu (Andy) Zhao, Research Fellow at the Centre.

“Such cross-sectoral conversations are much needed as to support children and families in the digital age requires input and efforts from all sectors of society. I believe this seminar is only a starting point for future conversations and collaborations on creating healthy, educated and connected futures for children.”

To view the seminar, visit the Digital Child YouTube channel here.