Joan Ganz Cooney Center

IEEE Conference on Virtual Reality and 3D User Interfaces
2022-03-12 - 2022-03-16
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.

ASU+GSV Summit 2022
2022-04-04 - 2022-04-06 | San Diego & Virtually
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 am COVID, Innovation, and the Future of Early Childhood Education 2:10 pm – 2:50 pm Playtest with Kids, a New Free Online Resource from the Joan Ganz Cooney Center 3:00 pm – 3:40 pm The Growing Importance of Social & Emotional Development and Learning 3:50 pm – 4:30 pm Co-design with Kids: Enabling Meaningful Child Participation in the Private Sector in a Digital Era 4:40 pm – 5:20 pm Kids Media Confronts the “New Normal”: What Blended Learning Will Look Like Post-Pandemic WEDNESDAY, APRIL 6, 2022 10:10 am – 10:50 am Early Childhood AI and Voice WEDNESDAY, APRIL 6, 2022 11:00 am – 11:40 am The Edge of Early Childhood Education

The conference will be held simultaneously virtually on HopIn and in-person in San Diego, CA, from April 4-6, 2022. To register to attend virtually, click here. To register to attend in person in San Diego, click here.

2022 AERA Annual Meeting
2022-04-21 - 2022-04-26 | San Diego & Virtually
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 Diego and virtually. To register for the event, click here.

By/With/For Youth Workshops: Promoting Teen and Tween Collaboration with Public Media
2022-04-26 - 2022-07-13
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 work from outside of the public media ecosystem and will hear from program leaders and youth about impactful approaches. Each workshop will be 90 minutes long. During the first 30 minutes, researchers from the Joan Ganz Cooney Center and panel guests will share research and related program examples. Participants will then take part in working sessions with break-out groups to reflect and consider how to apply insights to their contexts. Please join us. More details regarding speakers will be announced in the coming weeks.

Workshop III: Content and Platform Innovation with Youth /July 13, 2022, 1:00 pm EST
Now more than ever, youth are looking for opportunities to use media in creative, interactive ways. Whether creating videos, spearheading social media campaigns, or sharing original artwork, today’s youth are proficient content creators and sharers. In order to reach youth audiences, public media creators are finding innovative ways to engage youth as not only viewers, but as co-creators as well.Drawing on research about youth-adult collaboration, and insights from the Joan Ganz Cooney Center’s Next Gen research, this workshop will provide content creators with effective strategies for engaging in collaborative projects with youth.Dr. Yalda T. Uhls, professor at UCLA and founder of The Center for Scholars and Storytellers, will join as a featured speaker, along with members of the Center’s youth engagement team. They will share insights about ways in which adults and youth can co-design innovative media projects.

The Joan Ganz Cooney Center’s youth fellows will also share their areas of expertise, providing creators with ideas for ways in which they can engage with youth who have diverse technical and creative skillsets.

Previous Workshops:

Models of Youth-Adult Collaboration for Public Media / April 26, 2022
Ben Kirshner, Professor of Learning Sciences and Human Development at the University of Colorado Boulder, will discuss his work with CU Engage, a center at the University of Colorado that works with community groups to address complex public challenges through academic courses, research projects, and creative work. Ben will discuss his experiences developing equity-oriented partnerships with youth organizations and his approach to youth-adult partnerships.
We’ll also hear from Molly Josephs, the founder of This Teenage Life podcast, and youth crew members about what it takes to create an authentically collaborative experience for young contributors.

Understanding Youth: A Prerequisite for Creating Programs By/For/With Tweens and Teens /May 26, 1:00 pm EST
Public media stations know young children well, informed by decades of work and research. Work with tweens and teens, on the other hand, is new for most. Learning about this Next Gen audience requires relationships and connections– with youth themselves, with others doing this work, and with research– in order to generate insights that inspire experimentation and innovation. Drawing from the Cooney Center’s upcoming research brief, Understanding Youth: A Prerequisite for Creating Programs By/For/With Tweens and Teens, this workshop will help stations consider strategies for deepening understanding about youth. Dr. Jason Yip, associate professor of digital youth at The Information School at the University of Washington and Director of KidsTeam UW, will join as a featured speaker. Dr. Yip will share insights on participatory co-design of new technologies with youth, including equity-based strategies for relationship-building and adult roles of facilitation and support. Participants will engage in small-group breakout sessions to share approaches for centering youth needs and building connections with t(w)eens, partners, and research in order to strengthen work and innovate new approaches.

WNET Virtual Event: The Role of Media & Technology in the Future of Education
2022-04-28
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 DeBarger, Program Officer, Education, The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation

• Michael Preston, Ph.D., Senior Vice President and Executive Director, Joan Ganz Cooney Center

• Ron C. Smith, Ed.D., Senior Director, Education Initiatives, Salesforce

• LaVerne Evans Srinivasan, Vice President, National Program, and Program Director, Education, Carnegie Corporation of New York

This free virtual event takes place at 5:30 pm ET. Register here.

Dust or Magic Asimolar
2022-06-03 08:00 - 2022-06-05 17:00 (America/New_York) | Venue Monterey, CA, Monterey, CA
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 previous Dust or Magic events at Asilomar.

The Cooney Center is proud to present the Playtest with Kids toolkit at Dust or Magic.

Games for Change 2022
2022-07-13 - 2022-07-16
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 – 2:30 PM EDT
Location: The Microsoft Technology Center (11 Times Sq, New York, NY, 10036) Immersive media is relatively new to the classroom but has the potential to inspire and empower students and educators. Our panel of teachers, developers, and researchers will explore XR’s potential for engagement and impact, immersive media experiences that support student-centered learning, and the results of the XRA’s recent survey of teenagers on their understanding and use of XR technologies. Michael Preston, ED, Joan Ganz Cooney Center
Peirce Clark, XRA
Idris Brewster, Movers and Shakers NYC
Ellen Flaherty, Unity
Kevin Merges, Rutgers Prep Learn more and register.

Public Media Development and Marketing Conference 2022
2022-07-19 - 2022-07-21
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 long-neglected audience – the Missing Middle or Gen Z tweens/teens who have graduated from PBS Kids programming. Stations are experimenting with new production models to meet these younger audiences where they are – on TikTok, in podcasts, and other non-traditional content platforms. How can stations use these new initiatives and platforms to “patch” a leak in our audience and (eventual) donor pipeline for long-term sustainability?
With:
Kay Coz, Director of Institutional Giving, The WNET Group
Amanda Granger, Director of Community Engagement, The WNET Group
Anne Guttridge, Associate Producer | Twin Cities PBS/TPT
Elizabeth Rood, Senior Fellow, Joan Ganz Cooney Center
Learn more

All Tech Is Human: Youth, Tech, and Wellbeing Panel + Mixer
2022-08-17
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 & Safety team Chanel Cornett, and Arielle Geismar, an organizer around mental health, social media wellbeing, and women’s & LGBTQ+ rights.

Learn more.

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.

2022 NETA Conference and CPB Thought Leader Forum
2022-09-18 - 2022-09-22
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 field study conducted with public media stations across the country. Based on both quantitative and qualitative data gathered from over 200 public media stations, this study aims to create a baseline understanding of where the field is at in 2022 when it comes to tween and teen programs, content, and engagement. Following a presentation of findings, the session will invite participants to think together about its implications: What do they want to see happen to support greater impact when it comes to youth audiences? Where do they think the field should go? And how do they want to be a part of it?Learn more and register for the conference here.

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.

Media Literacy Week: Building Toward Digital Well-being for Children
2022-10-26 20:00
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 landscape for children.

Wednesday, October 26, 2022
8:00pm – 9:00pm ET
Register here

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
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 for Digital Well-Being at SRCD 2023
2023-03-24 | Salt Lake City, UT
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 together multidisciplinary experts in social-emotional learning in children’s media; learning through games; youth co-design of technology; and inclusive technology design. The conversation will address questions around how developmental science can help identify opportunities and pathways to design equitable, accessible, and enriching digital experiences for children and families.

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

Growing Up Online: Youth Mental Health in a Modern World at Milken Institute Global Conference
2023-05-03
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 a Modern World
Wednesday, May 3: 11:50am PT /2:50 pm ET

Growing up in a radically transformed modern world, the way children and adolescents communicate and consume information all affects their mental health. Now there is a growing movement to ensure youth’s safety online and to design tools that foster positive outcomes. With a host of intensified social and environmental issues affecting Generations Z and A, how can we empower children and adolescents to learn emotional regulation, develop creativity, and connect with others in an inclusive environment? How might we lay the foundation for youth to live more resilient, healthy, and meaningful lives?

IDC 2023
2023-06-19 - 2023-06-23
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 Hu (Lando Interactive) and Jillian Orr (GBH Kids) on Wednesday, June 21. She will also be sharing a paper with Mona Leigh Guha as part of the Works in Progress group on Wednesday as well.

The conference agenda can be found here.

Designing Digital Play for Well Being at Games for Change 2023: Panel and Workshop
2023-07-19
Panel: Designing Digital Play for Well-Being at Games for Change 2023
July 18, 2023 at 1:45pm
The Times Center | Main StageHow 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 their work?In this session at the Games for Change Festival, Michael Preston will explore these questions with Jeffrey Burrell (Riot Games), Carolina Giuga (The LEGO Group), and Kevin Bedau (Scratch Foundation) while diving into the challenges and opportunities for creating digital spaces that contribute to the thriving of both kids and adults.

Speakers will highlight two initiatives seeking to provide answers, resources, and communities of practice to help answer these challenging questions: Responsible Innovation in Technology for Children (RITEC) and Digital Thriving.

WORKSHOP: Building Digital Play for Well-being
July 19, 2023 at 5:00pmMicrosoft Center | Music Box

Please join the Joan Ganz Cooney Center, the LEGO Group, and the Fair Play Alliance for an interactive workshop. Participants will take part in a 1.5 hour playful and interactive session to generate new ideas for designing better digital play experiences for well-being. Attendees will envision and construct a physical representation of a digital space that allows children and adults to thrive – drawing from the Responsible Innovation in Technology for Children (RITEC) and Digital Thriving initiatives – and work in groups to explore case studies of how to integrate concepts of well-being and thriving into design.

Participants will leave with concrete ideas on ways that they can incorporate these concepts into their work and a connection to communities of practice looking to learn from each other to advance this work.

Learn more

ARVR Policy Conference
2023-08-29 08:00 - 17:00
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 should make sure these technologies are designed with young people in mind. Policymakers on both sides of the aisle have regularly called for making technology appropriate for young people to use, making safety a priority in the implementation of immersive learning programs. What are the unique benefits of immersive learning in comparison to other technologies (e.g., mobile and personal computing)? What are the special accommodations that educators should take in mind when deploying AR/VR tech in the classroom? How can policymakers ensure that immersive learning programs don’t widen the digital divide?

Speakers include Brooke Morrill (Schell Games); Muhsinah Morris (Morehouse College); Monya A. Ruffin (NSF); Medha Tare (Joan Gantz Cooney Center, Sesame Workshop); and Stephanie Montgomery (XR Association) – Moderator
The conference is free to attend.

Register here.

FOSI Webinar: Digital Learning: Prepping for the School Year Ahead
2023-09-07
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 as everyday life.

Cooney Center Executive Director Michael Preston joins a discussion with Amanda LaTasha Armstrong, Janell Burley Hoffman, Judy French, and Yalda Uhls about how parents and kids can set themselves up for success this school year in the midst of a quickly evolving digital environment at home and at school.
Learn more and register here

2023 IES Math Summit
2023-09-12 - 2023-09-26
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 (IES), joined by the Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO); the Council of the Great City Schools (CGCS); the National Assessment Governing Board (NAGB); the National Science Foundation (NSF); and the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy will convene a free three-day summit to bring together national, state, and local leaders to explore efforts to address this crisis.Leading experts will discuss the latest scholarship on strategies for mathematics instruction and academic interventions; highlight solutions rooted in research and successful classroom practices; and explore emerging resources.Tuesday, September 19 at 3:45 PM ETEveryone can teach, everyone can learnThe Joan Ganz Cooney Center’s Executive Director Michael Preston will speak with Sonny Rodriguez-Mena (Bilingual Special Education Teacher at the NYC Department of Education) about how K-2 computer science provides opportunities for joy, expression, agency, and intergenerational learning – especially for bilingual students and students with disabilities.
Learn more and register here

ED Games Expo
2023-09-20 - 2023-09-21
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 ED Games Expo.

Attendees are invited to stop by the Joan Ganz Cooney Center’s table between 4pm-6pm on Thursday, September 21 to learn more about techniques for playtesting products for children, how to engage in co-design, and how to design for childrens’ well-being in digital spaces.

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.

FOSI 2023 Annual Conference: New Frontiers in Online Safety
2023-11-14 | Washington, DC, Washington, DC, Select a Country:
The FOSI Annual Conference gathers experts in Washington, DC to debate topics such as content moderation, privacy policies and practices, digital wellbeing, and more. This year’s program features research around critical issues such as AI, and practical approaches to ethics, safety, and parenting in the online space.

Senior Director of Research Medha Tare on a panel moderated by Richard Culatta (ISTE), with Megan Fromm (NAMLE), Matthew Johnson (MediaSmarts), and Gwen Oldham (AT&T) at 1:10 pm:

Media, Digital, and Social Emotional Literacy: A Holistic Approach

How do we develop a comprehensive understanding of media, digital, and social and emotional literacy in order to navigate our information-dense world? At a time when the importance of these literacies are paramount, experts will debate the best ways to teach people of all ages about the importance of topics such as critical thinking, identifying misinformation, and cybersecurity, and how these skills are strengthened by media, digital, and social emotional literacy. As we continue to navigate new technologies such as genAI, panelists will provide guidance on how to use these literacies to have safe and positive online experiences.

Learn more and register here.

Co-Design for a More Inclusive EdTech Ecosystem at SXSW Edu
2024-03-07
March 7, 2024
Austin Convention Center Room 12ABThe current edtech market is full of products that claim to fulfill lesson plans and make assessment easier for teachers. But what if, in addition to helping kids master important concepts, digital products could make learning truly impactful, and help diverse students and teachers feel empowered and engaged? We’ll talk about how we can bring kids and teachers into the design process in order to create kid-centered products that students enjoy using. We’re excited to talk about how innovators & funders can work together to create a more inclusive edtech ecosystem that inspires real learning.
Medha Tare, Joan Ganz Cooney Center, moderator
Joanna Cannon, Walton Family Foundation
Shayla Cornick, Digital Promise
Maria Janelli, Scratch Foundation
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Cultivating Citizenship Through Digital Connections at SXSW 2024
2024-03-10
Please join us in Austin for SXSW 2024!March 10, 2024
2:30-3:30 pm | JW Marriott Salon 6Can we create online spaces that foster positive behaviors and social experiences that teach users the skills they need to create strong and resilient connections that help them thrive? Video games and social media have been at the center of debates about mental health and a myriad of social issues, but not all digital experiences are created equal. We’ll talk about how we can create a healthier internet by developing good citizens through digital interactions, as well as some of the frameworks that designers can use to build online spaces that foster good citizenship among users of all ages.
Michael Preston, Joan Ganz Cooney Center at Sesame Workshop, moderator
Tami Bhaumik, Roblox
Jeffrey Burrell, Riot Games
Katie Salen, UC Irvine
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