It is assumed that digital tools with ubiquitous classroom use have affordances for student agency and a range of social skills. However, few studies have explored the generalised impact of everyday digital classrooms on self-regulation and empathy, perspective taking and prosocial skills. Ten and 11 year old students' (n = 115) ratings of…

Internet access and the availability of digital devices in classrooms have been growing exponentially. This has led to the development of subscription-based online platforms for mathematics learning, available for purchase by schools and individuals. Currently, research in mathematics education tends to focus on the benefits to teaching and…

The growing recognition of virtual field trips (VFTs) to support classrooms has led to increasing use of these tools in science classrooms. In Aotearoa New Zealand, the Ministry of Education has underscored the need for educational experiences that are inclusive of Indigenous Maori worldviews. Here, we present the potential of the LEARNZ natural…

In an era where artificial intelligence (AI) is rapidly transforming various sectors, including education, understanding how educators perceive and integrate AI into their teaching practices is crucial. This study addresses the growing need to explore educators' perspectives on AI's impact on education, particularly its implications for effective…

New digital technology areas were added to the New Zealand primary school technology curriculum in 2020. These areas aim to grow students who are not just passive users of technology but, instead, students who understand how computers work, who are digital creators, informed by design processes and critical thinking. The new digital areas of the…

This article unpacks the computational thinking for digital technologies (CTDT) technological area of the New Zealand primary curriculum that became mandatory in 2020. It explores computational thinking (CT), its place in the New Zealand primary curriculum, and elements kaiako can utilise to help implement the teaching of CT. The article considers…

Classroom conversation between students is complex and used for multiple reasons every day. Student dialogue also allows teachers insight into student's learning. This article presents findings from a qualitative study that used dialogism, a branch of sociocultural theory, to investigate in depth student to student (inter-student) questioning…

Information and communication technology (ICT) has become an important tool for school systems as they seek to enhance education and make it more efficient. This has become all the more apparent and urgent with the COVID-19 pandemic. But what degree of access do students from different socio-economic backgrounds have to ICT-based quality…

Before school closures due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the frequency with which teachers used computer activities to teach a class varied across education systems. However, many teachers across the board reported the need for professional development to teach using technical devices. Using results from TIMSS (Trends in International Mathematics and…

The purpose of this study is to understand the current situation where practising New Zealand primary educators have utilised ChatGPT. More explicitly, the research considered how educators perceived the beneficial affordances and used them to support their classroom practice. Concurrently, negative implications of use are noted and an attempt to…

The increasing use of digital devices by young children, has led to calls for earlier teaching for information literacy. However, some research indicates reluctance to do this, due to perceived limitations of young children and notions about what is and is not 'appropriate' for them learn. This study examines this proposition, through analysis of…

Artificial intelligence (AI) will be in the future lives of children at school today. Voice-activated intelligent personal assistant devices are used in the home and could be useful in the classroom. This article explores how two groups of New Zealand children aged 7-12 engaged with Google Home devices in their classroom. Interactions recorded…

In 2017, a change to the national curriculum of New Zealand required primary teachers to implement a new component into the Technology area of The New Zealand Curriculum. This was to be fully implemented by the start of the 2020 school year. However, unless this was a personal area of ability, no primary teacher in New Zealand has been trained or…

Mathematics classrooms have a long history of what has been termed 'unidimensional' character: a proclivity for student practice routines and teachers as experts and keepers of knowledge. This study investigates affordances of student-created digital learning objects (SC-DLOs) as transformative, design-for-learning practices in the hands of…

The rise of innovative learning environments, with multiple teachers and larger cohorts of students, can de-privatise practice as teachers have the opportunity to observe each other teaching. However, they also provide the opportunity for collaboratively planning and teaching, and engaging in reflective dialogue about specific pedagogical…