Category Archives: Conferences and Community Events

To mark this year’s National Media Literacy Week, the Joan Ganz Cooney Center joined the Children’s Media Association, the LEGO Group, and the National Association for Media Literacy Education to present an interactive virtual session called “Building Toward Digital Well-being for Children” on October 26, 2022. Moderator David Kleemen (Dubit) served as host of this “news magazine” evening exploring the questions: “What is children’s digital well-being?” “Why is it important?” and “how can we all build towards it?” with New…

The Joan Ganz Cooney Center is thrilled to collaborate with NAMLE during U.S. Media Literacy Week to present three conversations between experts and youth around topics in youth digital culture, moderated by educator Dwight Dunston. Together, adults and teens explore issues like what kids are watching online, where they get their news, how they maintain a sense of well-being in the digital world, and what it’s like to collaborate with public media professionals to produce content.   Group Chat: Adolescent…

On September 14, 2022, the Joan Ganz Cooney Center was thrilled to co-host Building a Better Tech Future for Children with our colleagues at All Tech Is Human. Dr. Elizabeth Milovidov, Senior Manager, Digital Child Safety at the LEGO Group, delivered a keynote address that inspired us all. She discussed the Responsible Innovation in Technology for Children (RITEC) project and the importance of designing digital media experiences with children’s well-being in mind.    David Ryan Polgar (All Tech is…

On September 8, 2022, The Children’s Media Association Bay Area Chapter hosted a virtual event featuring the Playtest with Kids toolkit. The free interactive resource from the Joan Ganz Cooney Center features methods and case studies to help teams get actionable insights when playtesting their products with children. Moderated by Lori Takeuchi (Vice President of the Children’s Media Association of the Bay Area), the panel featured Courtney Wong Chin (Noggin), Robert Tom Kalinowski (Age of Learning), Sharon Rylander (Square Panda),…

It’s August—which means it’s SXSW PanelPicker time! We are looking forward to sharing ideas and learning together with friends and colleagues in Austin in March 2023. The SXSW panel selection process relies on input from the community, and we’ve got a PanelPicker proposal we’re incredibly excited to share. To vote, please visit panelpicker.sxsw.com/vote before Sunday, August 21st and log in or create a free account. It’s super easy! You can find our proposal here. Designing Tech for Children’s Well-Being There…

In July 2022, the Joan Ganz Cooney Center hosted a panel at the Games for Change Festival in New York City. Led by Cooney Center Executive Director Michael Preston, the panel featured Idris Brewster, founder of tech nonprofit Movers and Shakers, which creates augmented reality (AR) experiences centered around uplifting Black and Brown narratives within the classroom with Kinfolk and Unsung; Kevin Merges, executive director of immersive technology programs at Rutgers Prep, a private K-12 school in Somerset, NJ; Peirce…

The Cooney Center team was honored to collaborate with our colleagues at Sesame Workshop to produce —and participate— in some panels at ASU+GSV that were full of rich insights into timely issues around early childhood, innovation, and equity. We’re grateful to all of our friends and partners who participated in our sessions and shared their expertise, and to the team at ASU+GSV for their partnership— and for these videos! If you weren’t able to attend the conference in person, you…

Can you feel the excitement? The buzz of conference-planning is in the air! We’re zooming with friends and colleagues across the country—and beyond!—as we make plans to attend our first in-person event in more than two years. The Cooney Center is thrilled to participate in this year’s ASU+GSV Summit in San Diego. We’re organizing and hosting some panels with our colleagues at Sesame Workshop, launching a project, and looking forward to talking about education, innovation, and equity! Come find us…

On October 26, 2021, the Cooney Center hosted Learning at Home While Under-Connected and the Role of Public Media, a discussion about learning at home and digital inequality, and how public media stations can help within their local communities.  Vikki Katz (Rutgers University) presented key research findings from Learning at Home While Under-Connected: Lower-Income Families During the COVID-19 Pandemic, which follows up on 2016’s Opportunity for All? Technology and Learning in Lower-Income Families to uncover the perspectives of lower-income parents…

So often the digital world of children is stated in binaries – on or offline, good or bad actors, opportunity or harm – but the lived reality of children is more complicated.  Where on and off can be seamless and simultaneous, too much of a good thing can be bad, or something meant for one purpose can be hacked for another, sometimes with harmful outcomes and sometimes joyous. On November 4, 2021 the Digital Futures Commission will launch its new…