Tag Archives: digital media

It’s August—which means it’s SXSW PanelPicker time! We are looking forward to sharing ideas and learning together with friends and colleagues in Austin in March 2023. The SXSW panel selection process relies on input from the community, and we’ve got a PanelPicker proposal we’re incredibly excited to share. To vote, please visit panelpicker.sxsw.com/vote before Sunday, August 21st and log in or create a free account. It’s super easy! You can find our proposal here. Designing Tech for Children’s Well-Being There…

The Joan Ganz Cooney Center is excited to welcome 10 youth fellows from around the country to participate in our initiative, By/With/For Youth: Inspiring Next Gen Public Media Audiences. These teens were selected from an applicant pool of more than 60 talented youth to join a four-month, paid fellowship program to help shape the future of public media. In the 1990s, the disability rights movement brought us the mantra, “Nothing about us, without us.” We believe the same needs to…

Conducting playtesting with kids can be tricky. It can be challenging to get feedback from children that can really help producers make great products—but it’s definitely not impossible. We are thrilled to share Playtest with Kids, a new digital toolkit that shares best practices gathered from dozens of kids researchers. “Do you like this?” seems like a very reasonable question to ask children. But we’ve noticed that asking this seemingly-straightforward question will often result in an immediate “yes!” —not because…

What are Child Rights in our digital world? Sonia Livingstone is working to ensure a balanced approach to design and policy to allow kids to make the most of opportunities afforded by technology while protecting them. Balance might mean weighing risks of being online with opportunities for learning, or finding approaches to parenting that let the family strike a balance with digital spaces and face-to-face experiences.

When it comes to raising healthy and smart kids in the digital age, there really are no easy answers. Parents are often the gatekeepers or guides of our kids’ relationships with technology—and it’s so easy to be overwhelmed by warnings about the dangers of screen time that it can be difficult to think about how to steer them towards safe and healthy digital experiences. But parents are not alone. Policy makers, pediatricians, tech industry leaders, and researchers are working to…

With the recent announcement of the new umbrella name “Meta,” the Facebook/Instagram/WhatsApp behemoth is shifting its place of business to the “metaverse.” It seems timely, then, to consider what we mean when we use that term and, particularly, how it can be made transformative and beneficial for children and teens. There is, as yet, no true metaverse, so it’s early enough that all stakeholders can shape a positive trajectory. In Dubit’s vision, we might start by imagining the metaverse as…

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…

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…

With children growing up in ever-changing conditions in the digital age, digital parenting becomes more crucial than ever before. The predominant focus for parents, policy-makers, and researchers has long been on minimizing the risk of harm. Yet the swift transition to children’s online learning during lockdown caught many off guard. Children from disadvantaged families struggle to get online due to a lack of device or internet connectivity. Safety issues such as online child pornography are also in the spotlight. In…

One could say the only constant during this unprecedented time is change. Childcare centers and schools are adjusting from one day to the next in order to keep the children and families in their communities safe. Another constant, however, is the value of connecting with well-trained children’s library professionals. This is why the Association for Library Service to Children (ALSC) developed Look to Libraries, a collection of materials intended to assist parents and caregivers during the COVID-19 pandemic. ALSC is…