Tag Archives: children

Before the Future of Childhood: Immersive Media and Child Development salon took place in November 2018, we invited experts to share their visions about the ways VR and AR might impact childhood 10 years from now. Jesse Schell is the CEO of Schell Games, the largest full-service education and entertainment game development company in the United States. Here, he explains why we should explore VR and AR—despite our current concerns—and their potential benefits for children. While many people think of virtual reality as…

So many of today’s parents complain that their children spend too much time staring at “addictive screens.” According to the grownups, kids never want to do anything else and therefore, they’re losing out on the real joy of childhood. But the statistics tell a different story. On average, today’s kids get roughly the same amount of screen time as their parents did. The only difference is the kind of screen. The previous generation watched cartoons on the television. Now, kids…

This partial transcript of the App Fairy podcast has been edited for length and clarity.  Carissa Christner: Today I’m very excited to bring to you an interview with Caroline Ingeborn of Toca Boca. Toco Boca makes the very best play apps that I have seen anywhere, and if you have been playing apps with your children and you haven’t heard of Toca Boca I’d be very surprised. I think the last time I checked out the top 10 paid apps…

Thanks to the wonderful Dr. Jessica Piotrowski on behalf of the Center for Research on Children, Adolescents, and the Media in Amsterdam as well as Northwestern’s Center for Media & Human Development and the Joan Ganz Cooney Center, I was fortunate to be part of a preconference of the International Communication Association’s Children and Media Division this past May. The goal of the preconference, titled “Invention & Intervention: Blending Research with Practice to Develop Effective Media for Youth” was to…

In 2013, 25 per cent of public school children in the U.S. were Hispanic-Latino, and this number is expected to grow to 29 per cent by 2025. Within this vibrant and diverse population, many students, particularly those from immigrant families, face challenges in school. Many are tasked with mastering a new language, and their parents often struggle to understand an education system that is completely new to them. But Hispanic-Latino families can bring enormous strengths to school communities. How can educators…

When I was nine years old, an American boy named Kyle moved to our neighborhood in suburban Stockholm. When we met him, my best friend Gustaf immediately switched to English. I had never heard him speak much English before, but Gustaf had spent a couple of years in an American school in Germany and spoke it fluently. I only knew a few English words, but I don’t remember it ever being a problem. We played well, and I always had…

As part of our Families and Media Project, the Joan Ganz Cooney Center conducted a survey of nearly 700 parents whose 4-13-year old children play video games. We are pleased to present this data as a series of infographics, each featuring a particular facet of video games and family life. Here, we explore the genres and titles of digital games played by children and their parents. Stay tuned for more installments of this series over the next few months. Learn more about the…

This month we’re kicking off a series of posts on media mentorship, a term coined by Lisa Guernsey in 2014. We’re thrilled to have Claudia Haines and Cen Campbell, authors of the recently released Becoming a Media Mentor: A Guide for Working with Children and Families, share their expertise as librarians. Have you been to your local public library lately? On any given day, all across the country, something amazing happens. Herds of young children, caregivers in tow, tumble through…

Once a novelty restricted to arcades, video games have become a deeply embedded part of our lives. As digital game platforms have become increasingly more affordable and more accessible over the past forty years, it has become clear that games aren’t just fun to play, but can motivate people of all ages to learn more deeply and to improve productivity. As part of our Families and Media Project, the Joan Ganz Cooney Center conducted a survey of nearly 700 parents…

Empow Studios brings technology, arts, and play together to help young learners discover and build on their creative talents. They teach classes in programming, robotics, video game design, animation, design, audio engineering and other creative skills for the 21st century at over 20 locations in Massachusetts. Many of the students enrolled in their summer programs are designing games that are eligible for submission into the 2016 National STEM Video Game Challenge. When 22-year-old Lynne Richman had her first taste of…