The FK&Y Pedagogy Group met in Marylebone today to review our current work and provide expertise on projects we are planning for our clients. We discussed several upcoming major research programmes as well as our work for Techknowledge for Schools. The group meets three times a year and includes Professor Colleen Mcloughlin (University of Cambridge), Professor David Buckingham (University of Loughborough), Duncan Mackrill (University of Sussex), Simon Mason (Headteacher, Honywood School) and Rachel McGowan (Headteacher,…
Read more

FK&Y was delighted to host a day with the Children’s IKEA management group from Sweden. Having visited them many times in Sweden, it was very good to have them with us in Marylebone. Our team discussed our ongoing work at FK&Y on children’s wellbeing, play and education, and also the IKEA Play Report 2015 carried out in 12 countries interviewing 16,000 parents, 6,000 7-12 year olds and 7,000 13-18 year olds.

Dr Barbie Clarke co-chaired the Policy UK conference ‘Children’s Content Challenge – Media for Toddlers, Tweens and Teens’ today at Burlington House, London. Discussion centred on the future of children’s content in a competitive digital world. Speakers included Anne Wood CBE, Founder and Creative Director of Ragdoll Productions, whose programming credits include the Teletubbies and In the Night Garden. Also speaking was Alice Webb, Director, BBC Children’s who announced the launch of BBC Children’s iPlay,…
Read more

We’ve updated our publication list. This includes over 18 reports looking at many aspects of children’s use of technology, case studies from schools, reports on children’s understanding of advertising and marketing and papers evaluating successful interventions for children’s mental health and wellbeing.

Barbie and Andrew spoke about the inception of charity Techknowledge for Schools at the session ‘Research for Good’. Andrew explained how he and Dixons Carphone CEO Seb James wanted to help children to have equal access to technology in schools, giving them the opportunity to learn to work collaboratively and independently, preparing them for future employment. He said: We thought what if every child in the 21st century, could have a real interactive tablet that…
Read more

Today Heidi Hasbrouck, Ethnographer at Family Kids & Youth, gave the Keynote Speech and Rebecca Atkinson, FK&Y Associate Director, led a session at the annual ICT conference run by King Edward VI School in Southampton. Around 100 people attended the conference for those involved with strategy, planning and delivery of ICT and the practical use of mobile and cloud technology in schools. Heidi reviewed some of the research work carried out for Techknowledge for Schools…
Read more

FK&Y’s Dr Barbie Clarke led a session at the UNICEF Children’s Rights in Business Conference held in London today looking at children’s rights in advertising and marketing. Many company partners attended, including LEGO, Millicom, Facebook and Microsoft as well as organisations including the Internet Watch Foundation and the Institute of Human Rights and Business. UNICEF has launched its guide to best practice for business with 3 objectives: To CONNECT business, governments, academics, and experts in…
Read more

FK&Y’s Heidi Hasbrouck spoke today at a Policy UK conference about the way in which children and young people want support to use the internet responsibly and the way in which families feel digital is taking over family communication. Drawing on our research for the IKEA Play Report which interviewed nearly 30,000 parents, children and young people in 12 countries, Heidi, lead ethnographer at FK&Y, illustrated that two in five parents and young people in…
Read more

FK&Y’s research published today by Techknowledge for Schools shows that while teachers are aware that technology is part of children’s lives and therefore should be used in their education, becoming sufficiently confident in using it to teach in class is another matter. The majority of teachers believe using technology in class can have a positive impact on students’ ‘character skills’ including improving confidence and resilience. Two-thirds (66%) believe that one-to-one mobile technology benefits weaker students…
Read more

FK&Y has completed a global literature review of the use of technology, particularly one-to-one devices, in schools. The research finds examples of some successful implementation but some less successful, reflecting our previous research which shows the importance of teacher engagement in using technology in teaching. The research has been carried out for the education charity Techknowledge for Schools and can be downloaded here.