This op-ed was originally published in the Boston Globe’s “The Podium” on September 25, 2011. For decades, America’s educational leadership has been the envy of the world. But now, in the face of globalization and economic realignment, adaptation and innovation are urgently needed. Retooling our education engine to produce better outcomes will drive our […]
Monthly Archives: September 2011

The SpongeBob Hoopla
September 22, 2011
Yes, this is another piece about the SpongeBob study. I wanted to provide my thoughts on it both from a scientific research perspective, but also as someone who has to help make production decisions even when there is not enough time and resources to do a thorough scientific study. Often we have to hypothesize about […]

2012 National STEM VIdeo Game Challenge Announced at White House Today
September 15, 2011
The Joan Ganz Cooney Center and E-Line Media were at the White House today, where U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan announced the launch of the new Digital Promise Initiative. First established as a non-profit organization created by the President and. Congress through the Department of Education as an effort to promote breakthrough technologies to […]

Education Tech: Its a Whole New Game
September 14, 2011
This interview with Michael Levine originally appeared in Literacy 2.0 in August, 2011. It appears here with the permission of the author, Robert L. Lindstrom. In 2007, the year the iPhone was introduced, the venerable children’s TV programmer Children’s Television Workshop (now named Sesame Workshop) spun off a nonprofit research and production institute intended […]

Sesame Workshop and 9/11
September 12, 2011
“There was a lot of emotion around 9/11, but of course there was no clear path on what to do with this. But we had this show, this incredible entryway into homes that had credibility amongst parents and children. How could we best use it?” -Dr. Lewis Bernstein, Executive Vice President of Education and Research […]
Policy Brief: The Digital Teachers Corps: Closing Americas Literacy Gap
September 15, 2011
The Progressive Policy Institute (PPI) has just published a policy brief authored by Michael Levine, the executive director of the Joan Ganz Cooney Center, and James Paul Gee, the Mary Lou Fulton Presidential Professor of Literacy Studies at Arizona State University. Reed an excerpt of the brief below and download the full PDF here. […]