I grew up in the 1970s to 1980s. Gender was viewed as sexually dimorphic, or rather, I was not aware of the variance. The acceptance of homosexuality was becoming more accepted, and along with it, the idea of there being different types of sexualities was starting to filter through. Gender roles were also fairly ingrained. …
This was a review of published studies on the effects of play in children aged 3-8 years. Compiling the findings of studies available in the British Education Index, Education Resources Information Center (ERIC), Scopus, Web of Science, and PsycINFO. 62 studies were identified that met the criteria of having empirical data, the children had been …
Read more “Power of Play (PoP): Role and value of play in supporting early learning and development”
Mailshot mailbox management I am definitely signed up to too many newsletters and mail shots. You know those newsletters by companies wanting to tell you about the latest products or offers, etc. The ones you generally sign up for in advance that are not junk – and occasionally I read one that catches my eye. …
How do you react to the idea of children being wet or messy or muddy? Do worry about the actual state of being messy? The hassle of sorting them out? Cleaning up? What others might think of you? Something else? One of my earliest experiences in youth work was seeing both children’s enjoyment of being …
It’s fairly easy to define play, or is it? “Play: any spontaneous or organized activity that provides enjoyment, entertainment, amusement, or diversion” Oxford Reference, Oxford University Press What about… “Play is often defined as activity done for its own sake, characterized by means rather than ends” Peter Smith & Anthony Pellegrini (2023), Learning Through Play, …
It’s easy to make the wrong assumptions about what we see or are told when we don’t know the full story. John Arendt wrote an article in 2017 called “The picture didn’t tell the whole story” for the Summerland Review (https://www.summerlandreview.com/opinion/column-the-picture-didnt-tell-the-whole-story-4138835). The piece centres around the image above showing a group of young people seated …
This is a possible solution if you find Windows File Explorer going slow. It is less well known and does not show up in many of the lists of solutions to try when you experience this behaviour. I always find it annoying when my computer’s behaviour changes drastically enough to affect my work and a …
Helping make online text material accessible When you create any electronic textual work be it something like Word and/or publishing online (content for websites, or teaching materials on learning platforms like Moodle, Blackboard, etc). Do you use the inbuilt heading level styles to help organise work and show headings or do you format each heading …
Read more “Improving accessibility: Using built in heading levels”
ColorVeil (https://www.east-tec.com/colorveil/) is an assistive technology. It is a totally free software programme that allows the user to create the effect of placing a film of any colour or depth of shade over their screen. What’s the point of that? Well, many individuals with dyslexia, Scotopic Sensitivity Syndrome, as well as many who are neurodiverse …
H5P is a rapidly evolving modular suite of tools that can be easily configured to present information, single or short instructional units and even short courses within a single H5P module, including various interactive exercises and media. One big advantage of H5P is that it is easy to learn, can be used by anybody to …