Children, Technology and Play - Focus Groups Data

The Focus Groups Data forms part of Children, Technology and Play (2019-2020), an 8-month co-produced study by academics from the University of Sheffield and University of Cape Town, South Africa, the LEGO Foundation and Dubit. The study explored the contemporary play environments of children to identify the ways in which their play is shaped by technology, examine the relationship between digital play, learning and creativity, and explore the role of adults in mediating digital play. The UK research included focus groups with children in 5 Sheffield schools in a range of year groups from Foundation Stage 2 (Reception) to Year 7. A range of qualitative data collection methods was employed. This dataset comprises the transcriptions of the audio-recorded discussions and photographs of drawings and LEGO models they made, and of an image sorting task, plus a spreadsheet containing relevant metadata. Personal and school names have been pseudonymised. The project received ethical approval from the University of Sheffield (no. 028701). The research tools and other datasets from the study are deposited elsewhere in ORDA and have been brought together in the Children, Technology and Play collection.