Abstract:

This paper presents the project Observatory for Creative and Digital Learning in Families, which was submitted by a group of researchers and partner institutions (Polytechnic Institute of Viseu, University of Lisbon, University of Minho and Polytechnic Institute of Setúbal) to the evaluation for funding by the Science and Technology Foundation in Portugal (PTDC/CED-EDG/0301/2021). This project answers a current intrinsic need for research. It is important to notice that “COVID19 Pandemic has increased children's time at home and influenced children’s wellbeing (Rees et al., forthcoming in 2021). This project proposal follows up the ongoing research, the KML2 project (Miranda-Pinto, Osório, Monteiro, Valente, & Araújo, 2017). This is being developed with children and technologies in schools, and due to the pandemic, we had to adapt and rethink the research by moving it to family contexts. This new project proposal arises to respond to this new reality, for which families were not prepared, in which learning scenarios, play, creativity, playfulness and interactions between adults and children have been reinvented, aiming to contribute to the development of significant learning.

The main research question is to understand how families engage in play that integrates creative and digital learning with children? This project will contribute with a coordinated research strategy, to accompany families and children, through activities that emerge in family contexts. This will enable researchers to obtain, through various instruments of data collection duly validated, results that allow structuring activities in creative and digital laboratories. Guided by a methodological approach of action research (Bodgan & Bilken, 1994), in the perspective of social analysis of a real problem of family contexts, we will study the needs that families feel in the effective engagement of play integrating creative and digital learning with children. The Observatory will also integrate two laboratories, one for families with children between 3 and 6 years old and another for families with children between 7 and 10 years old, where workshops and creative and digital activities for parents and children will take place. The digital aspect of the laboratories allows their implementation at a national level in Portugal.

Creative and Digital Learning in Families may contribute to an effective integration of this relationship of children and families, in an environment favourable to creativity technologically measured, either by the current conditions that we find ourselves in worldwide, either by agreeing with research that tells us that: "Today, young people are connecting, playing, and growing up with technology. They can easily talk to friends and family from anywhere around the world. (…). They can play with toys that have small computers embedded in them, which can interact with their movements and voices. (…). However, unlike the activity of sewing, kids and their families are still developing their histories, practices, and identities with computing." Roque, R. (2007), p 19. We plan to provide children with diversified learning opportunities and thus consolidate the school-family relationship, as evidenced by research already conducted at the international level (Roque & Leggett, 2014); (Roque, 2016). Thus, we seek to contribute to the development of the "Connected Family" recommended by Papert (1996).

Keywords:

Creative Learning, Digital Learning, Learning through play, Family Learning.