• Dr Kate Highfield
  • Partner Investigator (Industry) (Alum)
  • Early Childhood Australia

Dr Kate Highfield is an experienced leader, teacher and researcher in the early childhood education and care sector, with an interest in how technology impacts learning, pedagogy and play. Kate will contribute expertise to the Educated and Healthy Child programs, drawing on her research focus on touch and tech-toys technology as an educational tool for young children, parents and educators.

Kate brings to the Centre a national early childhood education perspective in her role as General Manager of Professional Learning and Research Translation at Early Childhood Australia. Kate has worked as an educational advisor on a range of ABC products for children, including Playschool, ABC Kids, ABC Innovation and several ABC apps. Kate is widely published and cited in the field. In 2018, she co-authored a chapter in Early Learning in the Digital Age on integrating technology to support children’s agency and transitions to school. Kate also co-authored a paper on parent reports of children’s media use in the home learning environment (2018).

Earliest digital memory
One of my earliest digital memories is getting a remote for the TV – the remote had a cord, that wasn’t able to reach the couch.