Tag Archives: digital media

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.…

Children and Families in the Digital Age: Learning Together in a Media Saturated Culture brings together insights from several years of work by a multidisciplinary team of scholars who comprise the Families and Media Project (FAM). As members of FAM as well as co-editors of the volume, we’re delighted to have been a part of this project and to have helped bring this book to fruition. We feel that the book, and the work of the FAM researchers as a…

We’re thrilled to announce the publication of Children and Families in the Digital Age: Learning Together in a Media Saturated Culture, edited by Elisabeth Gee,‎ Lori Takeuchi,‎ and Ellen Wartella. The book is based on research conducted by the Families and Media Project (FAM), a multi-disciplinary consortium comprised of researchers from the Joan Ganz Cooney Center at Sesame Workshop, Arizona State University, California State University-San Marcos, Northwestern University, Rutgers University, Stanford University, Sesame Workshop, and the University of Washington. Members…

In his new podcast series, No Such Thing, host Marc Lesser surveys the current landscape of digital learning through lively interviews with students, practitioners, researchers, and more. To learn more about the show, we asked Marc to share how NST got its start—along with a few highlights from recent episodes.  Thanks for taking the time to speak with us, Marc! First off, can you tell us more about your background in the digital learning space? Currently I’m the Senior Director of…

As a children’s librarian at a small library, a significant part of my job is to find and purchase the best books, audiobooks, puzzles, apps, websites, devices, and even toys for kids and teens ages 0-18. I’m also tasked with making sure families can find them in the library. Some of these items will go on shelves for check out, some will be used in programs like storytime, the maker club or a long list of other programs held throughout…

This was originally published March 21, 2017 on the TEC Center blog and appears here with permission. Katie Paciga, a Fred Rogers Center and TEC Center Early Career Research Fellow, and Mary Quest, a doctoral student and instructor at Erikson Institute, recently published a study on e-book reading with young children. The full citation of the research article is included below and is available for download here. Here, they share several research-based tips to consider as you plan for e-reading…

Librarians are perfectly situated to become media mentors for families seeking help navigating the digital landscape, but not all librarians are comfortable in that realm themselves—yet. Perhaps you are (or know) a children’s librarian who would like to start using apps in the library, but you’re not sure how to get started?  I have teamed up with the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction to create a free, self-directed online course called Digital Storytime: Kids, Apps & Libraries that is available…

Almost every child in the United States plays video games—91% of children ages 2-17, according to NPD. But how many kids make their own video games? I could not find any reliable statistics. Nowadays, one barely needs to write a line of code in order to build a video game because there are so many platforms that make the process simple. Gamestar Mechanic, Unity, GameMaker, and Scratch are probably the most popular. Each one involves a different amount of complexity…

Today, we are thrilled to release the latest publication from the Families and Media Project at an event at the Stanford Graduate School of Education. Diverse Families and Media: Using Research to Inspire Design,  by Amber Levinson, Sinem Siyahhan, Briana Pressey, and Katie Headrick Taylor, is a casebook and design guide to inspire educators, practitioners, and designers who create media and programs for children and their families. Diverse Families and Media was created as a response to a call from…

On August 12th, returning and new participants of the Aprendiendo Juntos Council gathered at Sesame Workshop for the 3rd annual working meeting of the consortium. The Aprendiendo Juntos (Learning Together) Council is a multi-sector group of researchers, practitioners, media producers, and policy experts who seek to identify new models and practical strategies to improve educational outcomes for multicultural Hispanic-Latino families through the wise deployment of digital technologies. The group, which strives to take a strengths-based approach to optimizing educational outcomes…