The technological landscape looked very different in 2007. At the time, early childhood educators could not have guessed at the impact of the release of the first iPhone on their lives – and more importantly the lives of the children whose learning and development they support. For many of us, the iPhone shifted computing profoundly.

User experience design professionals from The University of Queensland are combining their skills for the 10th year to create a playful, hands-on exhibit for all ages, seeking to find ways to bridge the gap between the physical and digital worlds, in the wake of statistics showing children are spending more than 30 per cent of their waking hours engaged with a screen.

Australia’s largest study into play-based education, set to inspire educators and parents to develop “the next generation of thinkers” in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) has been announced, with researchers from Monash University to work with esteemed early childhood education and care (ECEC) professor, Marilyn Fleer.

A new cloud-based childcare management software, called Cubsta, has been launched by a digital agency in Sydney, with the aim to become a complete software solution that allows early childhood education and care (ECEC) services to manage their entire operation.

A Dolly Parton Imagination Library has launched to support families from Queensland’s Beaudesert to encourage reading from an early age.