Category Archives: Industry

Attention all designers, developers, and researchers: Almost 50 years ago, Joan Ganz Cooney submitted a proposal to the Carnegie Corporation that led to the creation of Sesame Street. Inspired by a conversation with Lloyd Morrisett about how children were so captivated by television that they were effortlessly learning advertising jingles, she conducted interviews with cognitive psychologists, preschool educators, television producers, and filmmakers to explore how this new medium could be harnessed to help young children learn to read and write.…

The International Game Developers Association (IGDA) Game Design Special Interest Group recently held a Mentor “Ask Me Anything (AMA)” with Game Writers in conjunction with the National STEM Video Game Challenge. Teachers and students throughout the United States contributed questions about the process of writing original video games. The expert panel moderated by Felix Wilhelmy featured: Sheri Graner Ray, an award-winning game designer and CEO of ZombieCat Studios. Sheri has worked for such companies as Schell Games, Origin, Sony Entertainment, and the Cartoon…

The Interaction Design and Children Conference took place in June 2017 at Stanford University. The conference brought together a multidisciplinary community, focused on multiple aspects related to the design of technology for children. As part of the conference, we put together a workshop to discuss Joint Media Engagement (JME) as it relates to the development and consumption of apps for children and their caregivers and peers. We framed the discussion around previous theoretical work done on this topic. We also…

This partial transcript of the App Fairy podcast has been edited for length and clarity. Please listen to the full episode here, and visit appfairy.org for more information about Ahoii. Carissa Christner: In today’s App Fairy episode I’ll be interviewing Wolfgang Schmitz from an app company called Ahoiii. Most of the Ahoii apps feature a tiny little sailor in a blue and white striped shirt, and his name is Fiete. Their newest app is one called Fiete Cars, and it’s…

This piece was originally published in the Executive Summary of the 2017 Common Sense Census: Media Use by Kids Age Zero to Eight and appears here with permission.   You may have heard that Sesame Street’s beloved Cookie Monster has learned some valuable lessons in delaying his gratification and eating right. He now knows that his favorite chocolate chip treat is a “sometime food,” part of a balanced diet of fruits, vegetables, and the occasional hubcap! The same is true…

My kitchen counter has changed a lot over the last six years. What used to be dedicated to a bowl of fruit, a coffee maker, various papers, and mail that I hadn’t gotten around to throwing away yet has since become a mess of wires coiling back to one put-upon outlet. A rotating set of smartphones, tablets, Bluetooth speakers, and headphones have made their way to the counter as well, pointing to a broader set of changes in the house.…

Recently, with support from the Joan Ganz Cooney Center, the Kids’ Inclusive and Diverse Media Action Project (KIDMAP) relaunched the former Diversity in Apps podcast under a new name: “Diversity Sauce.” Twice a month on Diversity Sauce, we discuss the latest on diversity and inclusion, and interview key players in the children’s media space. Why “Diversity Sauce”? The name was inspired by one of our founding members (and a previous guest on the podcast), Dr. Kevin Clark, director of George Mason University’s Center for Digital…

What if there was a better way to introduce math to young kids? For a parent, one of the first math concepts they teach their child is to count to 10. In this exercise, repetition is the name of the game: “Let’s count to 10!…Good! Now, let’s do it again!” While rote learning of the first 10 numbers is important, it is not sufficient for a child to grasp the deeper meaning behind these numbers, and why they are important to…

As a children’s librarian at a small library, a significant part of my job is to find and purchase the best books, audiobooks, puzzles, apps, websites, devices, and even toys for kids and teens ages 0-18. I’m also tasked with making sure families can find them in the library. Some of these items will go on shelves for check out, some will be used in programs like storytime, the maker club or a long list of other programs held throughout…

Creating inclusive children’s media is a lot like creating a beautiful garden. It requires research, planning, and mindful effort. The Joan Ganz Cooney Center is pleased to announce our partnership with the Kids’ Inclusive and Diverse Media Action Project (KIDMAP), formerly known as Diversity in Apps. This collective, made up of media creators, producers, researchers, educators, and parents, is committed to putting all kids on the digital media map. They’ve just launched a new website, www.joinkidmap.org, and are spearheading a number of initiatives that…