With Horizon Europe in full force and the BIK+ strategy just launched, there is a strong European commitment to making digital media and the internet a safe environment for children and young people, and research and knowledge-based decision making may be as necessary as never before. The CO:RE project therefore sees it as its central task to collate and organise existing knowledge on children and young people in the digital age so that it can be made easily accessible and useful to as many decision-makers as possible. Pop in on core-evidence.eu once in a while to see how it's been growing and learn about new features and functions forthcoming over the next weeks and months. 😉

💡 Request for input to CO:RE theories toolkit

Could you help us with theories for researching children’s digital lives? We are asking a wide range of researchers which theories they use in their work. Tell us:

1. What theory do you cite most often in your work?

2. How is this theory helpful in your work?

3. Can you give a brief summary of what this theory says?

4. What sources are useful for researchers to read about this theory?

➡️ Submit your answers here by 24th June!

We would really appreciate your input. We will draw (anonymously) on your answers to enrich the free online theories toolkit for early career and experienced researchers and research users.

🎬 Two new episodes: CO:RE Theories Vlog Series | Understanding Children's Online Lives

This time, Ola Erstad, Professor at the Department of Education at University of Oslo (Norway), discusses how he became interested in the socio-cultural theory of learning and how this approach informs his work on media literacy. Exploring the different traditions within the socio-cultural theory of learning, he talks about the scholars who influenced his thinking. He draws on ideas from Lev Vygotsky, Bronfenbrenner, Shirley Brice Heath, Henri Lefebvre, Jay Lemke, and Michael Cole, amongst others, and discusses the critical thinking needed to bring together these diverse theoretical insights. Watch/listen here and find the full playlist of all episodes on our YouTube channel.

And, Kate Cowan, Lecturer in Education at the University of Sheffield (UK) and Honorary Senior Research Fellow at IOE, UCL's Faculty of Education and Society, discusses her interest in the changing landscape of play and communication and the increasingly central role of the digital in children's lives and practices. In her work, she draws on a multimodal social semiotics approach to explore and theorise children's learning and play in the early classroom, the school playground and home environments. Watch/listen here and find the full playlist of all episodes on our YouTube channel.

This vlog series is coordinated by Sonia Livingstone and Mariya Stoilova (CO:RE at LSE) and is part of the CO:RE Theories Toolkit.

💭 New CO:RE Theories Blog: "Talking theory to stakeholders: the challenge of changing the public discourse."

Guest authors Elena Martellozzo, Associate Professor in Criminology at the Centre for Abuse and Trauma Studies (CATS) at Middlesex University (UK), and Paul Bleakley, Assistant Professor in Criminal Justice at the University of New Haven, Connecticut (USA), and Associate Researcher with the Centre for Abuse and Trauma Studies (CATS), discuss useful tips and point to important considerations when planning the next logical step after researchers have completed their empirical work and published their outcomes in scientific journals. Translating theory and evidence into practice is necessary not to limit one's research. Yet, making such a plan can itself be challenging, especially in contested and controversial fields. Read it here!

The CO:RE work package on theories is coordinated by Sonia Livingstone and Mariya Stoilova (CO:RE at LSE).

📃 Two new CO:RE Short Reports and Blog Posts: #YouthDigitalSkills & #DigitalLearningOutcomes

In the short report on key topics launched in May, Verónica Donoso (CO:RE at EUN) discusses the latest outcomes from our H2020 partner project ySKILLS and shows that while possessing digital skills is a basic necessity in today's digitised societies; there is little evidence on how these skills are acquired in practice. From this discussion, she draws conclusions for researchers, policymakers, families and carers, educators and industry. You can find the short report published here on SSOAR!

Together with Signe Opermann and Veronika Kalmus (CO:RE at UTARTU), she summarises and zooms in on selected aspects of the short report in the latest addition to the CO:RE Key Topics Blog Series.

And in the latest short report on key topics, Margus Pedaste, Äli Leijen, Külli Kallas and Doris Kristina Raave (University of Tartu) discuss how to increase digital learning potentials in achieving both cognitive and non-cognitive learning outcomes against the backdrop of recent ongoing home schooling and remote learning contexts. Read more about the topic here and find the short report published here on SSOAR!

The short report and blog series on key topics are coordinated by Veronika Kalmus (CO:RE at UTARTU).

🤝 Inspiring cross-project meeting in Oslo

How do children grow up in digitised media environments, how do they deal with digital challenges, how can different concepts be measured, and how can we make the results more accessible to different stakeholder groups?. In May, the four H20202 partner projects, DigiGen, DIGMATEX and ySKILLS and CO:RE, met in Oslo to discuss the results of two and a half years of work as well as upcoming challenges and pressing issues. You can find some impressions here!

Stay healthy and stay tuned.