Here are some upcoming events that we think will be of interest to our readers. If you would like to submit an event to be listed here, please contact us.
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…
The 9th annual ED Games Expo will occur in Washington, DC, at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts REACH on Wednesday, September 20 and Thursday, September 21, 2023. The ED Games Expo is designed to provide an engaging and meaningful experience for children, students, parents and caregivers, educators, and all stakeholders interested in learning about emerging forms of education-related technologies and the government programs that support EdTech innovation and research. There is no cost to attend the…
In October 2022, The Nation’s Report Card revealed that fourth- and eighth-grade students assessed in the 2021-22 school year experienced the largest declines in mathematics performance in the program’s history. These national declines highlight the unprecedented learning crisis facing students following the COVID-19 pandemic. Even before the pandemic, gaps in mathematics achievement of students with the highest and lowest performance were already widening. In September 2023, the U.S. Department of Education’s National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) and the Institute of Education Sciences…
Getting kids back in the classroom this Fall means tackling tech use from many different angles. In the coming months, parents will be contending with how to balance the extra screen time needed for homework, helping kids navigate complex social dynamics online, and striving to teach them what good behavior looks like by example. Additionally, both parents and kids are learning about generative AI in real time, and how these brand new technologies will impact academics and learning as well…
On Thursday, September 14, the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation (ITIF) and the XR Association present the third annual AR/VR Policy Conference in Washington, DC. The event will feature a series of expert talks and panels discussing critical policy questions covering privacy and safety, the use of AR/VR in education, children and teenager safety, and more. Panel #4: Back to School in the Metaverse (2:25 PM ET) As AR/VR technology becomes a valuable tool for educational purposes, developers and educators…
Panel: Designing Digital Play for Well-Being at Games for Change 2023 July 18, 2023 at 1:45pm The Times Center | Main Stage How do we define well-being in a digital world and what does it mean to thrive? How can developers incorporate diverse perspectives into game design to benefit players from different backgrounds around the world? How can we balance responsible design with business pressures? How can we empower game designers to embed designing for well-being and digital thriving into…
The 22nd annual ACM Interaction Design and Children (IDC) Conference will be held on June 19-23, 2023 at Northwestern University in Chicago, Illinois. IDC is the premier international conference for researchers, educators, and practitioners to share the latest research findings, innovative methodologies, and new technologies in the areas of inclusive child-centered design, learning, and interaction. This year's theme is "Rediscovering Childhood." Senior Director of Research Medha Tare will participate in an industry panel discussion chaired by Bill Shribman, with Felix…
The Milken Institute Global Conference takes place May 1-May 3, 2023 in Los Angeles, California. This year’s theme of 'Advancing a Thriving World' will tackle the most pressing challenges and capitalize on the most exciting opportunities of our time. The conference is available to view via live stream here. Cooney Center Executive Director Michael Preston will participate on the following panel, moderated by Savannah Sellers, with Jean Accius, Nina Davuluri, and John McPhee: Growing Up Online: Youth Mental Health in…
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…
On Friday, March 24, the Cooney Center's Senior Director of Research Medha Tare will moderate Designing for Digital Well-being: Frameworks for Optimizing Positive Media Experiences for Children and Families, a roundtable at SRCD 2023 in Salt Lake City. Panelists include Amanda LaTasha Armstrong, New Mexico State University and New America; Bruce Homer, The Graduate Center, City University of New York; Remi Torres, University of California, Los Angeles; Sesame Workshop; and Jason Yip, University of Washington, Seattle. This conversational roundtable brings…
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…
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…
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…
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:…
Join Children’s Media Association, the LEGO Group, the Joan Ganz Cooney Center at Sesame Workshop, and NAMLE for an interactive virtual session where we will investigate the questions: what is children's digital well-being? why is it important? and how can we all build towards it? We’ll share new research and plans from the Responsible Innovation in Technology for Children (RITEC) initiative and hear from experts in child development, gaming—and you! Let's explore how we can all play a role in building a better digital…
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…
The NETA Conference is dedicated to providing public media professionals with meaningful and relevant connections to the people and ideas that are at the heart of our mission to educate, engage, and entertain. This year's event is a hybrid conference, taking place September 18-22, 2022, in Charlotte, NC and online. The Cooney Center is pleased to present "A Seat at the Table for Tweens and Tweens in Public Media: Lessons from Established Youth Programs," featuring some early results from a…
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,…
All Tech Is Human and the Australian Embassy in DC are teaming up for a mixer + panel gathering for researchers, designers, advocates, technologists, academics, and more that are working at the intersection of technology, wellbeing, and youth. This will be a 2-hour panel + mixer for 75 org leaders, researchers, youth advocates, Trust & Safety professionals, academics, designers, entrepreneurs, and more! Speakers include the Cooney Center's Senior Director of Research Medha Tare, PhD, Zoom's Counsel on the Trust &…
The Public Media Development and Marketing Conference (PMDMC) is public media’s largest conference devoted to issues surrounding revenue generation, marketing, and management. This year's conference meets in Chicago. Cooney Center Senior Fellow Elizabeth Rood will speak on a panel on July 20 at 3:30 pm to share findings from our Next Gen Public Media research: New Platforms & New Audiences: Engaging Gen Z for Long-Term Sustainability Public media stations across the country are launching projects and initiatives to engage a…
For nearly two decades, the Games for Change Festival has been a destination for developers, educators, researchers, students, and other game-changers who want to make an impact through video games or immersive media. This year, the Festival is back in person in New York City on July 13-14, and then online from July 15-16. Please join the Cooney Center for our panel on XR and learning! XR’s Potential for Student-Centered Learning Date: Thursday, July 14 Session Time: 1:45 PM -…
Dust or Magic Asimolar is an opportunity for participants to catch up on the current state of children’s media, in one of the most beautiful locations in the world by way of talks, laser critiques and demos. Dust or Magic has a long tradition of deep dive conversations and honest critiques in a commercial-free setting. Participants leave with a sense of where things have been, and where they are going framed in child development theory. Watch this overview video from…
How have teachers, parents, and students adapted to effectively teach and learn in the face of the growing digital divide? What resources, innovations, and solutions have emerged that could help us strengthen and transform our education systems going forward? Join preeminent experts in the field to examine these questions and more, as we look to a brighter, more equitable future for education. Moderated by award-winning journalist Hari Sreenivasan, the panel will include: • Jean-Claude Brizard, President and CEO, Digital Promise • Dr. Angela Haydel…
As part of our By/ With/ For Youth: Inspiring Next Gen Public Media Audiences initiative, the Joan Ganz Cooney Center at Sesame Workshop invites you to mark your calendars for an upcoming series of capacity-building workshops about collaborating with youth in public media. Designed for producers, directors, and others committed to growing youth participation in public media, the workshops will highlight research-backed best practices for engaging tweens and teens. Attendees will leave each virtual workshop with examples of youth engagement…
Each year, the American Educational Research Association Annual Meeting is the world's largest gathering of education researchers and a showcase for groundbreaking, innovative studies in an array of areas. The 2022 Annual Meeting is a dual-component conference with sessions offered on-site in San Diego, CA, and other sessions offered on a virtual platform. This year's meeting theme is "Cultivating Equitable Education Systems for the 21st Century." The conference will take place Thursday, April 21 – Tuesday, April 26 in San…
Started in 2010 with a collaboration between Arizona State University (ASU) and Global Silicon Valley (GSV), the annual ASU+ GSV Summit connects leading minds focused on transforming society and business around learning and work. Their north star is that ALL people have equal access to the future. The Joan Ganz Cooney Center and Sesame Workshop are presenting a number of sessions: TIP OF THE SPEAR: EARLY CHILDHOOD (IN PARTNERSHIP WITH SESAME WORKSHOP) TUESDAY, APRIL 5, 2022 11:00 am - 11:40…
The IEEE Conference on Virtual Reality and 3D User Interfaces (IEEE VR) is the premier international event for the presentation of research results in the broad areas of virtual, augmented, and mixed reality (VR/AR/XR). Since 1993, IEEE VR has presented groundbreaking research and accomplishments by virtual reality pioneers: scientists, engineers, designers, and artists, paving the way for the future. This event will be held entirely virtually from March 12th-16th. To register, click here.
The SXSW EDU Conference & Festival takes place each March in Austin, TX as a four-day event offering compelling sessions, in-depth workshops, engaging learning experiences, mentorship, film screenings, future-focused competitions, an expo, networking opportunities, and so much more. This year, the dates are March 7th-10th. SXSW EDU 2022 will be a hybrid event with an online component. Register for the event here.
Join Promise Venture Studio for show+tell: promising ventures fellows, an interactive, virtual event, where participants will hear from and connect with some of the most promising — and innovative — in the early childhood development (ECD) space, the ventures of the third cohort of Promise’s highly selective promising ventures fellowship. These ventures - led by diverse leaders and spanning birth equity, early literacy/education, community support, ECE workforce development, and policy - have done incredible work to meet the moment and…
On February 8, 2022, the 5Rights Foundation and the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Standards Association will host an expert panel to discuss how the new IEEE Standard for an Age-Appropriate Digital Services Framework Based on the 5Rights Principles for Children (IEEE 2089™-2021) will equip organizations with the tools to put young people’s best interests at the heart of the design of digital products and services. By following the practical steps outlined in this new framework, designers can ensure that children…
This two-hour interactive workshop will help applicants transform their aspirations into compelling proposal concepts. Facilitated by Cooney Center project leaders, applicants will engage in design exercises that help generate ideas that align with Next Gen Public Media Accelerator goals and expectations. View agenda Friday, Nov. 12, 2021 1:00 - 3:00 PM ET Register here.
This two-hour interactive workshop will help applicants transform their aspirations into compelling proposal concepts. Facilitated by Cooney Center project leaders, applicants will engage in design exercises that help generate ideas that align with Next Gen Public Media Accelerator goals and expectations. View agenda Wednesday, November 10, 2021 1:00- 3:00 PM ET Register here
Public media professionals are invited to join us for this one-hour information session about the Next Gen Public Media Accelerator RFP. The session will focus on the purpose of the RFP, an overview of its guiding priorities, the key activities that will happen during the Next Gen Public Media Accelerator, and opportunities for potential applicants to ask questions about the opportunity. Monday, Nov. 8, 202 1:00 PM ET View the session recording here. <!--Register here-->
Learning at Home While Under-Connected: Lower-Income Families During the COVID-19 Pandemic follows up on 2016's Opportunity for All? Technology and Learning in Lower-Income Families to uncover the perspectives of lower-income parents with children ages 3 to 13. In March and April 2021, researchers Vikki Katz and Victoria Rideout led a national survey of more than 1,000 parents. The report delves into the experiences that these families had while many children were learning at home during a time when many school buildings…
In the last decade, augmented and virtual reality (AR/VR) have evolved from niche tools for enthusiasts and high-tech industries to more widely adopted communications technologies that have the potential to transform the way people communicate, collaborate, and learn. As AR/VR solutions gain traction across sectors, they will raise important policy considerations-some of which are already a part of broader tech policy discussions, while others will be unique to these technologies. Through a series of expert talks and panels, this half-day…
As schools around the United States were forced to turn to remote learning methods last spring, research teams around the country mobilized to study how families were adjusting to the pandemic. Join the Cooney Center, Stanford University, the University of Washington, and the University of Michigan at the Connected Learning Summit for a discussion about family learning as aided by technology during the pandemic, as well as how we as researchers can study such learning remotely. The symposium will take…
Tuesday, May 25, 2021 1:00 PM ET Today’s tweens and teens feel they have outgrown the programming offered by public media as they begin to discover a world of information and entertainment at their fingertips. Yet even though they have access to an abundance of options for watching, listening, playing, and communicating, they are often underserved by quality content appropriate to their developmental stages and needs. The Joan Ganz Cooney Center and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting have partnered to…
2020 was a year unlike any we have experienced before … until 2021. We have witnessed the “hoaxification” of the COVID-19 pandemic, massive civic unrest in response to long-tolerated systemic racism and injustice, continued denial of climate change in spite of an increasingly inhospitable natural environment, and most recently, a violent insurrection seeking to disrupt democracy and encourage authoritarianism. At the root of these issues is more than a conflict between change and the status quo: it’s the difference between…
The Joan Ganz Cooney Center is thrilled to share our work at SXSW EDU this year. Michael Preston and Senior Fellow Mary Madden will present highlights from our research on youth media practices in this conversation with Debra Sanchez (Corporation for Public Broadcasting) and Milton Chen (Edutopia.org, Sesame Workshop, Kellogg Foundation). Tweens, Teens, & Public Media: The Missing Middle. While most young kids watch PBS, they leave public media behind in their tween and teen years. But youth still need…
On World Children's Day, November 20, 2020, the Digital Futures Commission will launch ‘The future of free play in the digital world.' The work of the Digital Futures Commission will be introduced by Baroness Beeban Kidron, 5Rights Foundation, followed by a panel discussion chaired by Professor Sonia Livingstone OBE, London School of Economics, with Ann Phoenix, Kate Cowan, and Chris Batemen, to mark #WorldChildrensDay. They will introduce Digital Futures with a panel exploring the future of free play in the…
This year’s Family Online Safety Institute's Annual Conference, “Building Resilience,” will cover the many changing elements of online life, for ourselves, our families, and our world. The inherent obstacles and vast benefits of the digital world have become apparent to all of us now more than ever, and we look forward to the new challenge of examining these issues against the backdrop of a quickly changing social and cultural landscape. Join Cooney Center Senior Fellow Mary Madden in a fireside…
Wednesday, July 29, 2020 9:00am PT / 12:00pm ET / 5pm BST Please join the Joan Ganz Cooney Center in celebrating the release of Parenting for a Digital Future, a new book by Sonia Livingstone and Alicia Blum-Ross that offers a balanced, in-depth exploration of the realities of parenting today. The authors will be joined by Anya Kamenetz, an education correspondent for NPR and author of The Art of Screen Time in a conversation hosted by Michael Preston, Executive Director…
During COVID-19, children are spending more time in front of screens than ever before, with virtual school, video streaming, social media, and multiplayer games. Given that kids' brains are still developing, should parents be concerned? What are the long-term effects? Is there such a thing as too much screen time? What will happen to kids and teens in a post-COVID world? How will they adjust to a life with less screen time? This panel will bring together experts in pediatrics,…
