Tag Archives: creativity

In this third installment of the series, we asked experts, “How will childhood play change in the coming months and/or years as a result of the coronavirus pandemic?”  Play makes children more equipped for the future Bo Stjerne Thomsen, PhD, is the Vice-President and Chair of Learning through Play in the LEGO Foundation. The uncertainty and rapid societal change affecting all domains of children’s lives will bring greater attention to the fundamental role of play for children to learn across…

For Part 3 of the Voices on the Future of Childhood series, we asked experts to offer their insights and predictions on what play will—or better yet, should—look like when families are released from isolation.  The power of play when we need it most Helen Shwe Hadani, PhD, is a fellow in Global Economy and Development and the Metropolitan Policy Program at the Brookings Institution. Many weeks ago, I saw something that took my breath away—hazard tape around play structures…

For Part 3 of the Voices on the Future of Childhood series, we asked experts to offer their insights and predictions on what play will—or better yet, should—look like when families are released from isolation.  Discovering the genius in boredom: Life after COVID-19 Kathy Hirsh-Pasek, PhD, Professor of Psychology at Temple University, is a Senior Fellow at the Brookings Institution, popular author, and proud mother and grandmother. The post-COVID child emerges as a master of her own time and space.…

For Part 2 of the Voices on the Future of Childhood series, we asked experts to take a stab at predicting the future by offering their thoughts on “What will change in the coming months and/or years as a result of the coronavirus pandemic.”  ME to WE—and letting boredom nurture tomorrow’s Picasso Michael Rich, MD, MPH, is Associate Professor of Pediatrics at Harvard Medical School, practices Adolescent Medicine at Boston Children’s Hospital, and is Founder and Director of the Center…

For Part 2 of the Voices on the Future of Childhood series, we asked experts to take a stab at predicting the future by offering their thoughts on “What will change in the coming months and/or years as a result of the coronavirus pandemic.”  Better teaching, and rethinking Maslow’s Hierarchy Warren Buckleitner is Founding Editor of Children’s Technology Review and Visiting Assistant Professor at the College of New Jersey. I have good news and bad news. Good news: Better teaching,…

For Part 2 of the Voices on the Future of Childhood series, we asked experts to take a stab at predicting the future by offering their thoughts on “What will change in the coming months and/or years as a result of the coronavirus pandemic.”  Adults might be less judgy about teen socializing through tech Mimi Ito, PhD, is the Director of the Connected Learning Lab at the University of California, Irvine, and Co-Founder of Connected Camps, a non-profit offering online…

I fell in love the moment my dad brought our first clunky computer home. Like many other children who grew up in the 1990s, I grew up using computers to write stories and explore the Internet. The term “computer science” conjured a dark cloak of mystery, with a hoodie, or a pair of dungarees.  Yet I fell in love with computers and the possibilities that I began to see. Today, I write picture books about technology to make the world…

In May, Maayan Eldar and Ashley Mannetta discussed Me: A Kid’s Diary by Tinybop at the International Communication Association Conference in Prague. The app encourages empathy and self-reflection by inviting children to respond to a series of questions about themselves and their lives with drawings, photos, texts, or recordings. We invited them to tell us more how user-testing influences the design of an app, and what the data they have begun to analyze reveals.   Last year, Tinybop launched an app…

Finn Caspian is a human boy living in outer space.  He and his friends (both human and robot) have lots of incredible adventures across the galaxy in this serially-told podcast, but the big personality of the robot co-host steals the show. The show also has brilliant ways of incorporating listeners’ participation in the production through listener-submitted jokes, art, and sound clips. Carissa Christner: Where do you make your recordings? (at home? in a studio?) Jonathan Messinger: For Finn Caspian I do…

Attention all designers, developers, and researchers: Almost 50 years ago, Joan Ganz Cooney submitted a proposal to the Carnegie Corporation that led to the creation of Sesame Street. Inspired by a conversation with Lloyd Morrisett about how children were so captivated by television that they were effortlessly learning advertising jingles, she conducted interviews with cognitive psychologists, preschool educators, television producers, and filmmakers to explore how this new medium could be harnessed to help young children learn to read and write.…