St James Primary School Celebrates Collaborative Research on Digital Play

In celebration of the collaboration St James has with Deakin University, ACMI, and the Australian Research Council , the amazing work we have done in Digital Technology has now been  published. Please see the Digital Play Report Digital Play Report FINAL 12 May 2025 Web. 

This research project builds from the existing long-term partnership between Deakin University and St James Primary School, Sebastopol, where researchers, teachers and students continue to explore and extend understandings of digital play. St James has a long-standing commitment to implementing a play-based learning approach through all year levels within the school. More recently, the school has participated in workshops and reflective practices with the researchers from the ARC Centre of Excellence for the Digital Child to generate new constructs of digital play that include both theories of play and of technology.

Little was known about how children experience and engage with digital technologies in museums and galleries, how these experiences extend beyond school, and how such learnings may be integrated into the classroom. Without greater insight into children’s experiences and engagement with digital technologies in situ, it is difficult for both teachers in schools as well as education teams and creators of exhibitions within these public spaces to support children’s learning from these digital technology experiences. The current study presented in this report aims to address this gap in the research.

Thank you to Deputy Principal/Learning Diversity Leader, Viv McLoughlin, for submitting this wonderful story!