Category Archives: People
The New Coviewing Workshop at DML 2011
March 30, 2011
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…
A Cooney Center Fellow’s Confession: I Came for the Muppets
March 28, 2011
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. I’ll be honest—I applied for the Cooney Center Fellowship for the Muppets. As a lifelong fan of Sesame Street, the idea of working in an environment that valued Bert and Ernie, Big Bird, and Grover as much as I do was extremely appealing. Upon learning more about the Joan Ganz Cooney…
Video: Generation Mobile Panel
March 1, 2011
On Being a Fellow
February 25, 2011
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. “This can be a pretty quirky place–do you think she would feel comfortable here?” Apparently, this is one of the questions that Michael Levine asked Bárbara Brizuela, my dissertation advisor, before I became a Cooney Fellow in 2009. I think Bárbara was particularly proud of her response: “She went to MIT, how much quirkier can…
Lecture at the Edward Zigler Center in Child Development
February 10, 2011
If you are in New Haven on Friday, February 11, we invite you to attend the Zigler Center’s weekly social policy lecture series. Michael Levine will present a preview of Always Connected, a collaboration with the Sesame Workshop that will be published this spring, and The Impacts of Media Multitasking on Children’s Learning and Development. He will discuss the results of some recent studies about the constant flow of media that kids are consuming — often simultaneously — and the…
What’s the good stuff?
February 10, 2011
In my first week on the job at the Joan Ganz Cooney Center I learned about two terrific Websites — Poptropica and Whyville. I dutifully recommended them to my brother and sister-in-law, who are ever in search of “good” digital media for their 8-year-old. “Thanks so much for these,” Debbie responded. “So helpful. I was just about to search the web for some good math sites for Marta… she definitely needs practice that is also fun. She’s holding her own…
Cooney Center Fellows Program: Now Open for Applications
February 2, 2011
Want to join the Cooney Center Team? Apply to be the 2011-2012 Cooney Center Fellow! The Cooney Center Fellows Program encourages research, innovation, and dissemination to promote children’s learning. Fellows participate in a wide range of projects and, in doing so, develop broad exposure to scholarship, policy, and practice in the field of digital media and learning. Learn more about fellowship projects, eligibility requirements, and how to apply.
Looking Back to Move Ahead: Some Reflections on 2010
December 22, 2010
This past year has been a difficult one for many families, especially for the nation’s most vulnerable children. By some estimates, nearly half of all young children in the U.S. are at risk of falling into poverty should their parents face more economic stress. And the litany of disturbing statistics that were released this past year — only 14 percent of African-American children are proficient readers by the 4th grade, and more than one-half of Latino youth drop out of…
Podcast on iPhones, Educational Apps, and Young Kids
December 16, 2010
Check out this great interview about the Cooney Center’s report report, “Learning: Is There An App for That?” with Carly Shuler, the study’s co-author, and Lisa Guernsey, Director of the Early Education Initiative at the New America Foundation. They discuss the phenomenon of the “pass-back” effect, in which parents share their devices with their young kids, what it is about these apps that are so appealing to young children, as well as how to determine whether apps are developmentally appropriate.…
Grantmakers for Education Remarks
November 5, 2010
The following remarks were delivered by Sesame Workshop CEO Gary E. Knell at the Grantmakers for Education annual conference last week. The end of World War II was a pivotal moment in our nation’s history – it was the first time in 150 years that the government made a serious investment in public education. And it was the beginning of a long-term demographic shift of historic proportions. Soldiers returning from war were given opportunities to a higher education long considered…