Joan Ganz Cooney Center

Playtest with Kids
2022-09-08
Please join the Children’s Media Association of the Bay Area and the Joan Ganz Cooney Center for a one-hour virtual event featuring the Playtest with Kids toolkit. The free interactive resource features methods and case studies to help teams get actionable insights when playtesting their products with children. We’ll talk with experts who will share what they’ve learned about how to effectively gather insights from kids (including remotely!) and how playtesting has impacted their product design. Come prepared to learn and to ask questions!
Thursday, September 8, 2022
2:30 pm PT / 5:30 pm ET
Please see the Children’s Media Association site for details.

Group Chat: Teens and Adults in Conversation at Media Literacy Week 2022
2022-10-25 - 2022-10-27
As part of U.S. National Media Literacy Week, please join the Cooney Center and NAMLE for a “premiere” presentation of three conversations between experts and youth around topics in youth digital culture, moderated by educator Dwight Dunston. Together, adults and teens explore issues like what kids are watching online, where they get their news, how they maintain a sense of well-being in the digital world, and what it’s like to collaborate with public media professionals to produce content. We hope you and your colleagues will log on and join us live! Registration is free.

Group Chat: Adolescent Well-being Online
Tuesday, October 25, 12:00 pm ET
It’s no secret that teens are deeply immersed in online spaces – for better and for worse. How do their online activities impact their well-being? Emily Weinstein and Carrie James from Project Zero surveyed 3,500 teens to understand how youth today must navigate their digital lives. Next Gen Public Media Youth Fellows Faiza Ashar and Jaden Thompson share their own perspectives as young people who are trying to figure things out for themselves.

Group Chat: Youth Creators in Public Media
Wednesday, October 26, 12:00 pm ET
Public media stations around the country are offering unique opportunities for young people to produce content. In this Group Chat, teens from WNET’s Youth Collective “Amplify Series” and MPB’s Student Council Podcast join Hannah Dawe (WNET, public media station in New York City) and Jasmine Harvey (Mississippi Public Broadcasting) to give us the scoop on what it’s like behind the scenes when adults and youth collaborate in the studio.Group Chat: Youth Digital Culture
Thursday, October 27, 12:00 pm ET
What do young people really think about what they’re seeing online? Monica Anderson (Pew Research Center) and Joan Mukogosi (Data & Society) chat with Next Gen Public Media Youth Fellows Gabby Rodriguez and Audrey Gage about the platforms they use, how they find community online, and where they get their news.

Register for these sessions and more at the 2022 U.S. Media Literacy Week event site.

FOSI 2022 Annual Conference: Trust & Assurance: Online Safety in an Uncertain World
2022-11-14
This year’s FOSI conference convenes the best online safety thinkers, practitioners, and experts from around the world for high-level discussions and debates, engaging networking opportunities, and a first-class exhibition of online safety technologies, products, and services. Attendees will have the chance to explore topics such as content moderation, privacy policies and practices, safety in the metaverse, digital wellbeing, and much more.

Cooney Center Executive Director Michael Preston will speak at a morning breakout session at 11:30am, “Inside a Child’s Mind: Tech Use Through the Formative Years,” with Rebecca Parlakian (Zero to Three), Dr. Michael Rich (Digital Wellness Lab, Boston Children’s Hospital), and Dr. Ellen Selkie (University of Washington).

Learn more about the conference and register here.

Gen Z in the Room: Making Public Media By and With Youth for the Future
2023-01-18 13:00 - 14:00 (America/New_York)
Please join the Joan Ganz Cooney Center on January 18, 2023 for a special presentation celebrating our forthcoming publication, Gen Z in the Room. This report summarizes insights from 30 in-depth interviews with stakeholders involved in public media youth projects across the country. The report documents what public media stations have learned from these youth projects over time. By looking at the various ways participants have thought about, approached, and experimented with youth engagement, the public media system can develop more thoughtful strategies for serving and platforming this missing middle audience. We look forward to sharing highlights and discussing takeaways with you.January 18, 2023
1:00 pm-2:00 pm ET via Zoom
Register here

From Surviving To Thriving In A Digital World: A Safer Internet Day Chat
2023-02-07
The National Association for Media Literacy Education (NAMLE) and The Joan Ganz Cooney Center at Sesame Workshop are teaming up to host a webinar and Facebook Live Event with adult and youth experts for Safer Internet Day on Tuesday, February 7, 2023 (4:00 pm – 5:30 pm EST). “From Surviving To Thriving In A Digital World: A Safer Internet Day Chat” will be a conversation about the importance of designing online experiences with kids’ well-being in mind, including providing insights from young people on what they need in order to thrive when their lives are digital by default.To register to attend the webinar, visit shorturl.at/dBKW9 Watch the event live on Facebook Live (No registration required) on the National Association for Media Literacy Education’s (NAMLE) page at facebook.com/medialiteracyed.

SXSW 2023
2023-03-10 - 2023-03-11
The Joan Ganz Cooney Center is thrilled to participate in two sessions at SXSW 2023 this March. If you’re in Austin, we invite you to join us at the JW Marriott on March 10 and 11th.
Designing Tech for Children’s Well-Being
There has been a great deal of conversation about technology’s potential harms for children. But what does well-being for children in the digital age look like? Can we design digital experiences that allow children to learn emotional regulation, develop competence and creativity, feel empowered and self-actualized, and connect with others in a diverse, equitable, and inclusive environment, while also keeping them safe? We will discuss the Responsible Innovation in Technology for Children (RITEC) project—a global, multi-stakeholder, and cross-sectoral initiative that aims (1) to create a framework that maps how the design of children’s digital experiences affects their well-being, and (2) to provide guidance as to how informed design choices can promote positive well-being outcomes.
March 10 | 2:30 pm CST | JW Marriott Salon 7-8

Designing for Digital Thriving
How can we create & foster healthy, inclusive digital spaces that enable individuals and communities to thrive? Riot Games, the Joan Ganz Cooney Center at Sesame Workshop, the Fair Play Alliance & IDEO came together to host an Open Innovation Challenge to champion responsible design practices that foster healthy, inclusive communities in a rapidly changing digital world. By learning how to intentionally design online spaces with digital thriving in mind, we believe that anyone can help individuals, groups, & communities truly thrive in today’s connected world. No matter what industry you’re a part of, we invite you to share in our vision of creating a thriving digital world for all.
March 11 | 11:30 am CST | JW Marriott Salon 7-8

We also invite SXSW participants to take a break in the LEGO Play Lounge in Room 403 of the JW Marriott on March 10. Recharge and play with us!

Designing Tech for Kids' Well-Being at ASU+GSV 2023
2023-04-18 | San Diego, CA
What does well-being for children in the digital age look like? A growing movement acknowledges that it’s not enough to worry about technology’s potential harm to children; it is time to be more intentional about designing for positive outcomes. How can we design digital experiences that allow children to learn emotional regulation, develop competence and creativity, feel empowered and self-actualized, and connect with others in a diverse, equitable, and inclusive environment while keeping them safe? We will discuss recent research exploring the links between games and well-being, the value of child-centered design, and insights from the Responsible Innovation in Technology for Children (RITEC) and Digital Thriving projects that offer guidance to developers looking for ways to create digital experiences that promote positive well-being for young people.
Michael Preston (Executive Director, Joan Ganz Cooney Center at Sesame Workshop) will moderate a panel with Bruce Homer (Professor, “The Graduate Center, CUNY”), Elizabeth Milovidov (Global Digital Child Safety Lead, The LEGO Group), Natasha Miller (Senior Research Scientist II, Blizzard Entertainment / Fair Play Alliance)
Date & Time: Tuesday 4/18, 2:30 – 3:10 PM PT
Location: Harbor I, Level 2
Channel: K-12 Transformation Learn more

Co-designing the Digital Future with Kids, for Kids
2023-09-27
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.

Creating Digital Play for Children’s Well-Being: From Research to Design
2024-06-26
The Cooney Center and the NYU Create Lab are organizing an afternoon of learning and play on June 26 at the NYU Create Lab in Brooklyn. We will dive into the findings from new research from the Responsible Innovation in Technology for Children Initiative (RITEC), which looks at how digital design choices impact the well-being of kids, and explore how to apply these insights in a business environment.

Shuli Gilutz from UNICEF will introduce the RITEC project and why it is important to children

Jan Plass and Bruce Homer from NYU CREATE Lab will share results from their research with kids around the world

Pia Breum Corlin from the LEGO Group and Lise Borgstrøm Henriksen and Ole Kjær Thomasen from the LEGO Foundation will discuss how they are approaching translating RITEC research into LEGO’s work

Everyone will have a chance to play!

For more information, please contact us at cooney.center@sesame.org

Speakers:

Michael PrestonJoan Ganz Cooney Center

Shuli GilutzUNICEF

Bruce HomerCUNY Graduate School

Jan PlassNYU

Sarah Jacobstein Joan Ganz Cooney Center

Pia Breum CorlinThe LEGO Group

Ole Kjær Thomasen The LEGO Foundation

Lise Borgstrøm HenriksenThe LEGO Foundation

Fabian FroehlichResearcher, NYU CREATE Lab

Yuli ShaoResearcher, NYU Create Lab

2024 Games for Change Festival
2024-06-27 - 2024-06-28
We’re so excited for the Games for Change Festival in just a few weeks! This amazing event is back at Parsons in NYC from June 27-28. We can’t wait to talk about the Responsible Innovation in Technology for Children (RITEC) initiative and the forthcoming Design Guide for Business with our colleagues from UNICEF and the LEGO Group.

On Friday, June 28, join Shuli Gilutz, Ph.D. for a keynote talk on the Main Stage at 10:00 AM:

Designing for Well-being in Digital Play – It’s possible! How can we design digital play for children, that supports and enhances their wellbeing? How can we go beyond safety to create games kids will thrive in? What’s between child rights and wellbeing and how can they be incorporated in the design process? UNICEF & the LEGO group share their findings.

Then at 2:00 PM, join us for How to Build Digital Play for Well-being, an interactive workshop with Michael Preston and Sarah Jacobstein from the Joan Ganz Cooney Center, Shuli Gilutz, Ph.D. from UNICEF, Pia Breum Corlin from the LEGO Group, Nikita Khalid from Scratch Foundation, and Grace Collins from Snowbright Studio. In this 90-minute workshop, participants will learn about the Responsible Innovation in Technology for Children (RITEC) initiative’s research findings on how digital play can impact children’s well-being. We will share guidance being developed to assist businesses in incorporating these findings into the games they design, along with case studies.

Mark your calendars and get your tickets at https://bit.ly/G4C2024_SPEAKER

Applying Principles of Well-being to Digital Design for Kids at Play Make Learn 2024
2024-07-17 - 2024-07-19
We are thrilled to be heading to Madison for the Play Make Learn conference from July 17-19, 2024.

Please join us for a panel where we will discuss our Well-Being by Design Fellowship, a professional development program for designers and producers of interactive kids’ technology and media to center children’s well-being in their products. Our goal is to develop a supportive ecosystem that encourages tech and media creators to design with children’s best interests in mind, ultimately fostering a safer, more engaging, and more enriching digital environment for kids with well-being at the center of the experience.Our inaugural cohort of fellows met regularly from January -April 2024 to explore different facets of well-being, including creativity, social connection, and empowerment and workshopped their own products with these principles in mind. The Cooney Center’s Senior Director of Research, Medha Tare, will lead a conversation with three of our fellows, Melissa Gedney (PBS Kids), Olivia Levenson Korchagin (Global Tinker), and Keeana Saxon, Esq. (Kidogo Productions) in a panel and interactive Q&A.

July 19, 2024
10am-11am
Multicultural Greek Council Room (4th Floor)

Celebrating Designing for Kids’ Well-Being – Case Studies from the 2025 WBxD Fellows
2025-05-22 12:00 - 13:15
In this special culminating webinar on May 22, 2025, our incredible cohort of Well-Being by Design (WBxD) Fellows shared how they are designing to support children’s well-being through interactive digital experiences.With products that span a target range from preschool to high school, and representing a spectrum from startups to big tech, from physical toys to virtual reality—these innovators are reimagining what it means to build for kids.Each of our fellows will present a brief case study on how they are embedding well-being into the design of a specific product or practice. You’ll walk away with actionable insights and fresh inspiration on how frameworks like Responsible Innovation in Technology for Children (RITEC) can guide the design of better digital experiences for young people.May 22, 2025 12:00 – 1:15 pm ET Meet the 2025 Fellows

Well-Being by Design 2026 Fellowship: Office Hours
2025-09-22 - 2025-10-02
The Joan Ganz Cooney Center’s Well-Being by Design Fellowship is a professional development program for designers and producers of interactive kids’ technology and media. This is a free program supported by Pinterest with no fee or cost to participate.

We are thrilled to announce a call for applications for our third year of the Well-being by Design Fellowship. We invite mid-career professionals who work in interactive kids’ technology and media to apply to join our five-month program, in which participants will workshop their current projects, network with other children’s technology and media designers, learn from industry leaders, and collaborate with a youth cohort for honest feedback. Boost your understanding of child-centered technology and media design concepts so you can create great products for young people.

If you are interested in applying but have questions, please join us for our upcoming office hours via Zoom.

Monday, September 22, 2025 at 12:00 pm EDT
Wednesday, October 1, 2025 at 12:00 pm EDT

Celebrating the 2026 Well-Being by Design Fellows
2026-05-19 12:00 - 13:00 | Virtual
You are invited to join the Joan Ganz Cooney Center for a virtual celebration of our 2026 Well-Being by Design Fellows on May 19, 2026 at 12:00pm ET.Over the past five months, this amazing group of designers, educators, and researchers has explored how to create digital experiences that truly support children’s well-being. At this culminating event, each fellow will present a case study from their project, offering an inside look at their design process, key insights, and the opportunities and challenges of building for kids in today’s digital landscape.Together, these presentations highlight a shared commitment to centering children’s needs from the earliest stages of product development. We hope you will join us to meet some of the emerging leaders shaping the future of children’s media and technology.

Meet our 2026 Fellows:

Alexandra (Allie) Dewey, DoSeum
Amber Ivey, AiDigiTales
Asante Asiedu, Udēēsa
Christopher Gomez, Bronx Children’s Museum
Kati Baker, Social Cipher
Mariya Nikolayev, Stride, Inc.
Sarah Kelley-Luker, Nurture
Tatyerra Spurlock-McPherson, Sesame Workshop
Téo Xisto, Lifelong Kindergarten Group
Register hereLearn more about the fellows and their work
