Category Archives: Conferences and Community Events

Frances Nankin, Executive Producer and Editorial Director of Cyberchase, has been developing children’s media for 30 years. She is both an educator and a media producer who sees great potential in emerging media platforms to boost kids’ learning. Cooney Center: What excites you about the potential of new technologies to support learning? Frances Nankin: My first experience with kids’ media was when I was a first-grade teacher and there was a slide projector in the library where kids who behaved…

To put my thoughts into context, I offer the following assertions: Our public education system is failing; Incremental change to a failing system is the same as making no change at all; Kids today spend—on average—seven hours each day interacting with and through digital media; The digital world has become the “new vast wasteland” unless, of course; We seize the opportunity to build quality, engaging digital content that reaches, teaches, and optimizes the skills and talents of the rising generation.…

As long as media have created content for children, there have been debates about what defines “quality.” From the “penny dreadfuls” to radio to comic books to music, and onward to TV and digital media, parents have been cautioned about wasted time, moral decay or learning delays. At the same time, creators and distributors of children’s media have proclaimed its great benefits; every recent media innovation from TV (and color TV!) to tablet computers has been marketed first to parents…

I hate to admit it, but I’m the one who brought Pocket Frogs into my daughters’ lives. We were at the airport, awaiting our flight. I was loathing the idea of breaking into all the carefully packed-up pens and activity books before boarding in 20 minutes. Why not find a new gaming app on my iPhone that would satisfy my girls, 6 and 8 at the time, while also giving me something fun to fool around with once in a…

At SCE, we aim to support and influence the emerging world of anywhere, anytime, any-device, access-for-all learning. Our vision, of course, relies heavily on high-quality digital media, and on aiding the people and organizations with the potential to create tomorrow’s innovative digital learning products. But we (and the field) have a problem: No one knows where digital learning’s killer apps will come from. Here is a quick take on potential sources of high-quality digital learning media—which I’ll define (for simplicity’s…

We are thrilled to have an outstanding lineup of speakers who will be participating in the Learning from Hollywood Forum. Here, Carla Sanger, President and CEO of LA’s BEST After School Enrichment Program, highlights uses of digital media for expanding kids’ experiences of the world, developing understanding and empathy for others, and energizing kids for learning. Drawing from her expertise in youth development, Sanger also emphasizes the importance of critically evaluating the media kids use and using digital media as…

This May, a group of leaders from the creative media industries, education, research, policy, and philanthropy will come together at USC’s School of Cinematic Arts for the Joan Ganz Cooney Center’s Leadership Forum, where we will spend two days considering innovative ways to support young people’s learning with and through media.    Entertainment is often considered the antithesis of education. Children go to school and learn; then they come home and “relax” or “unwind.” The dichotomy between entertaining content and…

On April 5, 2009, 11-year-old Carl Walker-Hoover hanged himself after enduring constant bullying at school, despite his mother’s weekly pleas to the school to address the problem. It was the fourth suicide of a middle-school aged child linked to bullying that year. That same spring, Cartoon Network’s audience research with young people 6-14 found that of all the concerns kids had—concerns including parents who were out of work and worries about wars Americans were fighting overseas—bullying was one that stood…

Kudos to the Center for the exciting and impressive line-up for the “Learning from Hollywood” Forum this coming May at the USC School of Cinematic Arts. I cannot imagine a more influential group in shaping our nation’s future than the media producers who are reaching our youngest children every day during the hours they are spending outside of school. The Forum’s dual focus on learning from Hollywood’s creative genius and challenging producers to help children learn key literacy skills could…

How can technology allow us to provide teachable moments and meaningful interactions across challenges of everyday life? How can a single parent who works until 9:00 at night help a child with homework assignments after school? Is there a way for distant relatives to read story books together with young children despite being far apart? What would a video game for children and grandparents to play together look like? These are just a few of the possible scenarios that characterized…