Category Archives: Industry

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…

Two of the leading researchers involved with preschool television program Dora the Explorer, Head of Education Research Mariana Díaz-Wionczek and Creative/Cultural Advisor Carlos Cortés,  describe how the show evolved from merely featuring a Latina character to intentionally teaching Spanish, highlighting dual language capabilities, and promoting Latino culture. It was the early 2000s when Carlos Cortés, professor (now emeritus) at UC Riverside, and Mariana Díaz Wionczek, researcher, joined the production team of the fledgling series Dora the Explorer. At that time,…

Last week, Sandhya Nankani wrote about the White House Conference on gender and diversity in toys. Here she describes the toy industry’s efforts to break down existing stereotypes and create new narratives that empower girls.   The toy world is abuzz with the recent launch of the newest Barbie doll, modeled after Misty Copeland, the first black female principal dancer at the American Ballet Theater. The doll is a part of Barbie’s Sheroes collection, which celebrates female heroes who “like…

We recently released Getting a Read on the App Stores: A Market Scan and Analysis of Children’s Literacy Apps, in which we discuss the challenges facing parents and educators who are looking for quality literacy apps for young children. We invited our colleagues at Common Sense Media—whom we cite as an expert source of reliable app reviews for parents—to tell us more about Graphite, which aims to help educators find high quality apps for students by criteria such as platform,…

Last month, we released Getting a Read on the App Stores, a market scan of literacy apps aimed at young children. We are thrilled to share this commentary from former Cooney Center fellow Carly Shuler, who is the co-founder and CEO of Kindoma, whose apps connect families through video and storytelling. They are currently in the midst of an Indiegogo campaign that will not only help them produce Android versions of their apps, but will allow them to donate a…

Last week we released Getting a Read on the App Stores by Sarah Vaala, Anna Ly, and Michael Levine. Here, Anna provides some tips for developers who are creating literacy apps for young children from an industry perspective. Ever since Apple’s App Store launched in 2008, business analysts, developers, and designers have been trying to figure out how to get their app to the top through bursts of marketing, thoughtful design, or carefully crafting keywords. As more apps get uploaded…

A growing number of children across the country are exposed to media and interactive technology on a daily basis, and more and more parents are accustomed to communicating via mobile phones and other tools. Many early learning initiatives are beginning to determine how they might harness these tools to engage with parents, work with teachers, or otherwise augment efforts to help children develop early literacy skills. Over the next few months, New America’s Education Policy Program and the Joan Ganz Cooney Center at Sesame Workshop…

About a month ago, we released a sneak preview of the literacy app analysis that we’re conducting with New America to discover more about the apps that families and educators are using to help children learn to read and communicate. As part of this preview, we provided a quick summary of our approach to this analysis of language- and literacy-focused apps for children ages birth to eight. Today, we are excited to share even more of our findings. In our…

This past spring, our colleagues at Sesame Workshop Publishing launched S’More, a new online magazine for kids 2-5. Last week, we got a look into some of the research that informed their publishing decisions; here, they share a glimpse into the production process. Technical Development by Paul Roberts, Manager, Digital Publishing Assets, Fulfillment, & Design, Sesame Workshop Publishing The traditional process of creating an app is often time-consuming, expensive, and complex: delays and unforeseen costs are commonplace due to changing…

This past spring, our colleagues at Sesame Workshop Publishing launched S’More, a new online magazine for kids 2-5 that is a more interactive experience than a traditional “magazine.” We invited them to share the process with us in a two-part series that looks at the research that informed their publishing decisions here, and next week, a look at the production process.   Content Development by Betsy Loredo, Executive Editor & Producer, Sesame Workshop Publishing: What experience does the word “magazine”…