Co-designing the Digital Future with Kids, for Kids
What’s the secret to creating digital media products for kids that makes learning engaging and fun? We’ve found that including kids throughout the design process has many benefits: it empowers kids who find that their opinions are valued; designers gain a fresh perspective from the audience they’re creating for; and the product itself is often more impactful as a result.
On Wednesday, September 27, the Cooney Center hosted a webinar to discuss the Cooney Center Sandbox with some of our partners, including The GIANT Room, KidsTeam, Oko Labs, Mrs Wordsmith, and the Scratch Foundation. We talked about methods, balancing business interests with research-informed goals, and how teams have implemented findings from sessions with children into their product designs.
For more information about working with us, please contact us here.
Speakers:
Michael Preston is the Executive Director of the Joan Ganz Cooney Center, an independent research and innovation lab within Sesame Workshop that advances positive futures for kids in the digital world. The Center conducts research on emerging technologies and collaborates with technologists, digital media producers, and educators to support young people’s learning and well-being. Michael has 25 years of experience leading educational innovation and technology programs in K-12, university, and informal learning contexts. His work focuses on child-centered approaches to design, new models for teaching and learning, and systemic change at local and national levels. He co-founded CSforALL, the hub for the national Computer Science for All movement, and led digital learning initiatives at the NYC Department of Education, Columbia University, and New Visions for Public Schools. He earned a PhD in Cognitive Science in Education from Teachers College, Columbia University and a BA from Harvard College.
Medha Tare is an experienced researcher in the learning sciences and technology area. Her work centers on addressing the needs of the whole child, including considering individual differences among learners, their environments, and the media through which they learn. Prior to the Joan Ganz Cooney Center at Sesame Workshop, she was the Director of Research for the Learner Variability Project at Digital Promise, where she developed public resources on the cognitive, socio-emotional, and background factors that impact children and adults’ learning. This work involved research translation, science communication, and studies of educational efficacy with school districts and edtech product developers. She has also served as a Learning Sciences Exchange Fellow through New America, working across sectors to promote early learning and help young children and their families thrive. Medha earned her PhD in Developmental Psychology at the University of Michigan and her BA in Cognitive Science and English at Rutgers University. She has served as an advisor on national and international educational initiatives and has numerous peer-reviewed publications including in the Journal of Research on Technology in Education, Language Learning and Technology, and Journal of Cognition and Development.
With
Elizabeth Bonsignore is an assistant research professor in the University of Maryland’s College of Information Studies and Human-Computer Interaction Lab (HCIL). Her research explores the design of interactive play and social experiences that promote new media literacies, arts-integrated science learning, and participatory culture. She co-designs and advocates with youth, families, and local communities with the goal of including and empowering youth historically underrepresented in STEM/computing to advance in these fields.
Tif Gagnon is the Design Director at Scratch Foundation with over 15 years of experience in the EdTech sector. She believes in the power of creative learning and strives to combine her skills and passions to support making Scratch accessible and engaging for all learners around the world.
Chris Garrity is a developer and product manager with the Scratch Foundation (and formerly the Lifelong Kindergarten Group at the MIT Media Lab). She has many years of experience building tools, designing playful activities, and facilitating hands-on workshops to introduce creative coding to children and educators with Scratch and ScratchJr. She is passionate about lowering the barriers to learning to code through providing developmentally appropriate tools in the learners own language, and by making the tools more inclusive and accessible.
Azadeh Jamalian is founder and CEO of The GIANT Room creative STEM organization, helping the next generation of creatives and inventors to think big and act on their most ambitious ideas. Jamalian is a TED speaker, former head of education strategy at littleBits, and co-founder of Tiggly. She has a proven record of designing learning products and programs that millions of children have engaged with, and thousands of schools have implemented in their programs. Through her work at The GIANT Room, they have provided creative STEM programs to more than 30,000 families in person and online, and through their partnership with schools, museums, libraries, and cultural organizations such as TED Ed and Joan Ganz Cooney Center. She has a PhD in cognitive studies in education from Teachers College, and has publications on a broad range of topics such as designing learning platforms for children, emerging educational tech, game design, mathematical education, and cognition.
Pierre Lagrange is Executive Chairman of Huntsman and Mrs Wordsmith. Before acquiring Huntsman in 2014 and Mrs Wordsmith in 2021, Pierre co-founded GLG Partners, acquired by Man Group in 2010, and sat on Man Group executive committee. Before founding GLG, Pierre worked at Goldman Sachs from 1990, where he managed global equity portfolios. He started his career in finance at JP Morgan, where from 1985 he worked in government bond sales and trading. Pierre holds an MA in Engineering from Solvay Business School in Brussels.
Pierre has regularly invested in movie productions, executive producer of Kickass and Hollywood blockbusters Kingsman: The Secret Service and the sequel, Kingsman: The Golden Circle
Matt Miller, Co-Founder and CEO of Oko Labs, is a seasoned technologist, product leader, and business strategist in the education space. Oko is a dynamic AI-powered platform that enables small group differentiation in elementary classrooms through collaborative games, enhancing academic progress and social-emotional development for every student in an inclusive and personalized way. Prior to founding Oko Labs, Matt served as Chief Technology Officer and VP of Labs at Amplify Education, and VP of Product at Flatiron School. Matt is also an active consultant, mentor, and advisor in the education technology sector, with a deep background in AI, Machine Learning, and Information Security. Matt holds BS and MS degrees in Computer Science from Columbia University with a focus on Intelligent Systems.
Lady San Pedro is Director of Business Innovation at Mrs Wordsmith. With a solid background in product design, Lady has led the creation of Mrs Wordsmith’s extensive and award-winning print catalog of children’s literacy books. As the company expanded into the digital sphere, Lady has taken the reins in developing Planet Agora: a gamified chat app designed to foster social-emotional development in kids aged 8-13.
