Category Archives: Publications and reports

Sonia Livingstone was recently asked to write the foreword for Children and Families in the Digital Age: Learning Together in a Media Saturated Culture edited by Elisabeth Gee, Lori M. Takeuchi, and Ellen Wartella. Here’s what she had to say. Where shall we start, and where shall we focus our gaze, when making sense of the influx of digital devices that fill our homes and workplace, absorbing the attention of both children and parents, promising so much yet often proving frustrating,…

How did I become a researcher on children, families, and digital media? In September 2013, I started as a Cooney Center Research Fellow, trying to find my way in the world. I was just completing my Ph.D. at the University of Maryland, College Park and had done a dissertation on the development of science ownership in children as they engaged in social media use for science learning. One of the insights from my doctoral work was that the families in my…

Welcome 2017!  For the Joan Ganz Cooney Center team, this is a very special year.  In December, we will celebrate our tenth year as an organization dedicated to advancing learning for children in the digital age. For those who follow our work closely, you will recall our first report—an analysis of the rapidly evolving digital landscape of educational toys, software and games called D is for Digital which found that the marketplace was full of products that may have had…

Today, we are thrilled to release the latest publication from the Families and Media Project at an event at the Stanford Graduate School of Education. Diverse Families and Media: Using Research to Inspire Design,  by Amber Levinson, Sinem Siyahhan, Briana Pressey, and Katie Headrick Taylor, is a casebook and design guide to inspire educators, practitioners, and designers who create media and programs for children and their families. Diverse Families and Media was created as a response to a call from…

Family Time with Apps is a free interactive guide for parents and caregivers that highlights some ways that families can use technology together. The book features comic strips that parents and children can enjoy together, as well as tips on selecting apps that can help turn screen time into family time. The guide provides tips on how using apps together can support a child’s learning and development. It is available from the iBook Store. This week, Jason Boog, author of…

EdSurge has assembled a great primer on  games and learning Playing Games in School: When games make a difference in education. This online resource takes a high-level look at Games and Learning and features insights from leading scholars and practitioners in the field, including James Paul Gee and Joel Levin. The collection features a guide to twenty great educational games and examines the many roles that games can play in education, especially when students create their own. The Cooney Center’s…

Executive Director Michael Levine and former Cooney Center fellow Sarah Vaala have co-authored Games for Learning: Vast Wasteland or a Digital Promise?, the conclusion to the new anthology Digital Games: A Context for Cognitive Development, edited by Fran C. Blumberg and Shalom M. Fisch. The volume takes a broad look at the many positive impacts digital games can have for children’s cognitive and social development, opening with a call for developmental psychologists to recognize how digital games present an important…

Today we are thrilled to release a new report, T is for Transmedia: Learning through Transmedia Play. This report, which we have co-authored along with Erin Reilly, and which begins with an introduction by Henry Jenkins, is the product of a year-long collaboration between the Cooney Center and the Annenberg Innovation Lab at the University of Southern California. Transmedia is an idea that has evolved over the past decade to describe the complex relationships that exist between media texts, media…

The Cooney Center’s Executive Director Michael H. Levine and Rafi Santo (Indiana University) have co-authored a chapter called “Upgrading Afterschool: Common Sense Shifts in Expanded Learning for a Digital Age” in the new book from the Expanding Learning & Afterschool Project. The compendium presents bold and persuasive evidence—as well as examples of effective practices, programs and partnerships—that demonstrates how summer and afterschool opportunities are yielding positive outcomes for authentic student, community and family engagement in learning. It features studies, reports…

As readers of this blog already know, many people are hopeful about the opportunities that online environments can provide for children. There is great promise for learning technical literacies, developing social skills and contributing to our shared culture through participation in online sites. And indeed, kids are participating in growing numbers on online social sites, both at school and at home. Meanwhile, commercial companies and educational non-profits alike are eager to provide new spaces for such participation, even though that…