Category Archives: People

A Collaborative Experiment On January 23, 2015, researchers, educators, and digital media professionals spent the day at Stanford’s Hasso Plattner Institute of Design (aka the d.school) to imagine how to better support the needs and interest-driven learning of families with children through digital media. The “Designing Media for Underserved Families” event, funded by the National Science Foundation’s Cyberlearning and Future Learning Technologies program, continued in the cross-sector collaborative spirit of the LIFE Center and the Families and Media consortium, in…

At the Joan Ganz Cooney Center, we are constantly documenting the rapid changes in the digital media landscape, and we are now getting ready to embrace changes in our own neighborhood. This summer, Mel Ming, one of the Founders of the Cooney Center (along with former CEO Gary Knell) announced that he would retire after 15 years at the Workshop, first as COO, and since 2011, as the President and CEO. Mel serves as the Chairman of the Board of…

This excerpt originally appeared on New Learning Times and appears here with permission. New Learning Times is produced by EdLab, a non-profit research, design, and development unit at Teachers College Columbia University. EdLab’s mission is to facilitate the future of learning through technology. Read the full post here (registration required). As Founding Director of the Joan Ganz Cooney Center, located independently at Sesame Workshop, Dr. Michael Levine serves at the nexus of research, innovation, and transformative partnership-building. With a distinguished career…

Last night, Joan Ganz Cooney was honored at Sesame Workshop’s Annual Gala.  This is the first time that Joan, who co-founded the Children’s Television Workshop 45 years ago and remains Chair of the Workshop’s Executive Committee, was honored by her colleagues.  It won’t be the last honor conferred—though Joan, who is incredibly modest given the revolutionary contributions she has made—might prefer less pomp and circumstance as she looks back at her unprecedented impact in the children’s media space.  At the…

Editor’s Note: Want to join the Joan Ganz Cooney Center team? Apply to be the 2016-2017 Cooney Center Fellow! We are accepting fellowship applications now through April 4, 2016. Former Cooney Center Research Fellow Jason Yip opens up and shares his experiences and offers advice for those who are interested in applying. Here are just a few of the reasons why you should think about applying to one of the premiere fellowships in children and digital media. The mission of the…

We are pleased to introduce you to our newest Cooney Center Fellow. Jason Yip joins our team from the University of Maryland’s College of Education, where he is completing his Ph.D. in Curriculum and Instruction with an emphasis on science education (chemistry). Jason is a former K-12 math and science teacher whose interest in kids and the blending of formal and informal education led him into the world of research. At Maryland, he was a member of Kidsteam, an intergenerational…

Interested in applying for a fellowship at the Joan Ganz Cooney Center? Former fellows Christina Hinton and Anna Ly have the scoop. Here they answer some frequently asked questions about the program and provide a tour of our office space at Sesame Workshop! And see a special message by our Executive Director Michael Levine below. We are accepting 2016-2017 fellowship applications now through April 4, 2016. What is special about the Joan Ganz Cooney Center at Sesame Workshop? Christina: When television was…

This Fall, I became the newest Cooney Center alum.  After completing my year-long stint as the 2011-2012 Cooney Center Research Fellow, I am now a post-doctoral fellow at the Annenberg Public Policy Center at the University of Pennsylvania.  Having had a few months to reflect on my Cooney Center fellowship, I have gained some perspective on what made it such a rewarding experience.  My first draft of this blog post was titled “The Top 100 Best Things About Being a…

The Cooney Center is thrilled to introduce our new fellows, who have joined us in our New York City office this month. Please join us in giving them a warm welcome!   Hello all! I am Anna Ly, one of the fellows here at the Cooney Center, and it is my pleasure to introduce my colleague, Christina Hinton! Christina has spent a lot of time at Harvard. She completed her doctorate and master’s in mind, brain and education at Harvard…

Neil Shapiro, of New York City’s WNET13,recently interviewed Joan Ganz Cooney, the founder of the Sesame Street and co-founder of The Joan Ganz Cooney Center, for the Pioneers series.  The Center applies Ms. Ganz Cooney’s ground breaking 40 year old question, “How can emerging media help children learn?” by bring it into the 21st century digital space. (If the video doesn’t load, click here.)   Watch Pioneers of Thirteen: Joan Ganz Cooney on PBS. See more from THIRTEEN Specials.