Norwegian version

DigiGen – The Impact of Technological Transformations on the Digital Generation

DigiGen aims to develop knowledge about how children and young people use and are affected by the technological transformations in their everyday lives.

About the project

The project takes as its focus children and young people, a group growing up today that is described as the digital generation (DigiGen).

Together with researchers from institutions across Europe, we will investigate how children and young people use and are affected by the technological transformations in their everyday lives. The project aims to achieve this by explaining the conditions under which harmful versus beneficial effects of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) use by children and young people occur in order to develop effective social, educational, health and online safety policies, practices and market regulation.

This will be achieved through the use of participatory methodologies that focus on understanding why and how some children and young people benefit from ICT use while others seem to be impacted negatively. Through sustained engagement with the digital generation as co-researchers, the project will include the use of innovative quantitative and qualitative methods and in- depth case studies. In the project the cross-disciplinary team of researchers will enhance cooperation between home, schools and the wider community to ensure safe and productive ways of using ICTs.

The overall objectives of the project aim to contribute to the achievement of Sustainable Development Goals within good health and well-being, quality education, gender equality, decent work and economic growth, reduced inequalities, and sustainable cities and communities.

The project is led by Professor Halla Bjørk Holmarsdottir at the Faculty of Education and International Studies, with participation from Norwegian Social Research – NOVA. 

The consortium consists of research institutions from seven European countries, as well as a European network of civil society associations representing the interests of families.

More from DigiGen

Understanding The Everyday Digital Lives of Children and Young People 

This Open Access book presents an in-depth portrait of the use and impact of digital technologies by learners ages 5-18 years in their everyday lives. The portrait is framed by the ecological-systems theory and situated across four domains: home, leisure time, education, and civic participation. 

The purpose of this edited collection is to shed light on both beneficial and harmful effects of digital technology from a perspective that children are active agents who are empowered to accentuate the positives of digital technology use and over common challenges that inhibit digital competence with support from education stakeholders.

Read the book (springer.com).

  • Participants at OsloMet

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  • Partner institutions

    • OsloMet – Oslo Metropolitan University
    • Panteion University of Social and Political Sciences (UPSPS), Greece
    • University of Leicester (UOL), United Kingdom
    • Austrian Institute of Family Studies, University of Vienna (AIF), Austria
    • Universitat de Girona (UdG), Spain
    • Paderborn University (UPB), Germany
    • University Babes-Bolyai (UBB), Romania
    • Tallinn University (TLU), Estonia
    • Confederation of Family Organisations in the European Union (COFACE)
Young girl sitting on a couch looking down on a tablet on her lap.
Screen quality matters more than screen time

How much time children and teenagers spend looking at screens is on many parents’ minds. Yet researchers insist it is the quality of that time that should concern us most.

Portrait of Halla B. Holmarsdottir
We do not know enough about the digital everyday lives of children and young people

Halla B. Holmarsdottir is investigating how technology affects the lives of children and young people.

Curt Rice, Halla Bjørk Holmarsdottir, Rune Halvorsen and Per Martin Norheim-Martinsen.
OsloMet research projects awarded prestigious Horizon 2020 grants

Two international research projects coordinated by research teams at OsloMet have been awarded a total of six million Euros as part of the European Union’s flagship research programme, Horizon 2020.