Jason Yip: Reflections on 15 Years of the Joan Ganz Cooney Center

Jason Yip was a Cooney Center Fellow from 2013-2014 and remains a frequent collaborator through his work with KidsTeam UW.

My time at the Cooney Center (2013 – 2014) came immediately after a stint as a doctoral student at the University of Maryland (UMD). At the time, I was completing my PhD in curriculum and instruction in science education, with some work in child-computer interaction. While I had a lot of projects at UMD (such as investigating the way children search the internet, co-designing technologies and developing social media technologies for science learning), I felt lost and overwhelmed about the direction I wanted to head towards. I knew I wanted to continue my work in child-computer interaction, but wasn’t sure about the capacity in which I wanted to do this. I also didn’t know if I wanted to go into industry, non-profit, or academic research. I felt like I needed some help making some decisions.

I was so happy to arrive at the Cooney Center for many different reasons. First, Sesame Workshop was always a dream place I wanted to spend some time at. I am (not was) a Sesame Street kid since the early 1980s. I just had to spend some time at the place where Grover, Oscar the Grouch, and Big Bird were born! Second, I wanted to understand more about the families and technology space in research. At the time, I had spent some time reading the Cooney Center report on joint media engagement. My dissertation at the time on social media and science learning made similar conclusions about the need for families to spend time on mobile technologies together to engage in science learning. Finally, I needed time to figure out the industry, non-profit, and academic research career trajectory. I respected the fact that the Cooney Center is at the intersection and hub of relationships between all three areas.

Overall, the Cooney Center has made a tremendous impact on my career. Ultimately, I did decide to go into academic research at the University of Washington’s Information School. The Cooney Center gave me so many research contacts that I still work with today, and my research trajectory finally solidified during my time at the Cooney Center. Today, I study how families and children use technologies to collaborate in learning together. The fundamental message from the Cooney Center report on joint media engagement is at the core of my research, whether I’m building new technologies for family collaboration, investigating how current technologies support family collaborative learning, and co-designing technologies with families about collaboration. Finally, I do love telling people today that I met Big Bird and Oscar the Grouch (the late Caroll Spinney at his birthday party). Congrats on 15 great years, Cooney Center!

 

Jason Yip is an Associate Professor at the Information School and an adjunct assistant professor in the Department of Human-Centered Design and Engineering at the University of Washington. His research examines how technologies can support parents and children learning together.