Tag Archives: ed-tech

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…

In July 2022, the Joan Ganz Cooney Center hosted a panel at the Games for Change Festival in New York City. Led by Cooney Center Executive Director Michael Preston, the panel featured Idris Brewster, founder of tech nonprofit Movers and Shakers, which creates augmented reality (AR) experiences centered around uplifting Black and Brown narratives within the classroom with Kinfolk and Unsung; Kevin Merges, executive director of immersive technology programs at Rutgers Prep, a private K-12 school in Somerset, NJ; Peirce…

Today’s children were born into relative peace and prosperity, however unevenly distributed. But now we are collectively encountering a world of disruption, uncertainty, and anxiety. All of us are figuring out how to cope with rapid change and maintain as much normalcy as possible, while caring for ourselves and each other. We also expect that our society’s inequities will be made significantly worse by the crisis across all aspects of our lives, not just in terms of our health and…

This article was originally published on Medium in 2016 when Sesame Workshop joined forces with Reach Capital to invest in emerging companies innovating in education, health, and social welfare for children, and appears here with permission. We are honored to partner with Sesame Workshop, one of the world’s most innovative, venerable education organizations for nearly 50 years. Sesame’s experience in children’s media, early childhood development and social-emotional learning is invaluable to our fund and portfolio companies. At Reach, we believe these…

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. Lisa Castaneda, Co-Founder and CEO of foundry10, shares an optimistic view of VR’s potential to shape learning experiences in the future.   Foundry10 is a research organization working across many domains, and we have been studying VR and students for several years. Today, students…

Last month, researchers AnneMarie McClain and Lacey Hilliard presented some exciting findings from a a study they conducted around classroom media and socio-emotional learning among elementary school students at the International Communication Association Conference in Prague. We invited them to share details of the project as well as the findings that emerged from their investigation.    At the May 2018 International Communication Association Conference in Prague, Czech Republic, we presented some findings from our longitudinal study, the Arthur Interactive Media (AIM)…

Just a few months after the publication of Children and Families in the Digital Age (Routledge, 2018), Alexia Raynal presented original and previously-published research from the Families and Media (FAM) Research Consortium at the 2018 American Education Research Association (AERA) annual meeting. In the following article, Alexia presents key highlights from her roundtable discussion on Equity and Learning Technologies with Dr. Vikki Katz (Rutgers University) and Dr. Yasmine El Masri (Oxford University) on May 17, 2018.     Some academic circles recognize a commonly held that children are “digital natives” who learn how…

Now that digital technologies—and touch-screen tablets in particular—are finding their way into preschool and kindergarten classrooms, educators are faced with multiple questions about if, how, and when it is best to introduce them to young children. On September 3rd, the U.S. Department of Education brought together nearly 60 people from across the early childhood field to think through what would be of most help. At least three needs became apparent throughout the day: Educators and parents need  succinct, research-based messages…

At LEGup (the London Educational Games meet up) we recently hosted an event on gamification and its potential to improve educational outcomes in the classroom. Gamification is something of a hot potato at LEGup – many of our members dismiss it out of hand as nothing more than the “pointsification” of educational products in a desperate attempt to make them more engaging. Increasingly though, others are taking a more nuanced view of gamification, looking at it as a method or…