Tag Archives: equity

The Cooney Center team was honored to collaborate with our colleagues at Sesame Workshop to produce —and participate— in some panels at ASU+GSV that were full of rich insights into timely issues around early childhood, innovation, and equity. We’re grateful to all of our friends and partners who participated in our sessions and shared their expertise, and to the team at ASU+GSV for their partnership— and for these videos! If you weren’t able to attend the conference in person, you…

Can you feel the excitement? The buzz of conference-planning is in the air! We’re zooming with friends and colleagues across the country—and beyond!—as we make plans to attend our first in-person event in more than two years. The Cooney Center is thrilled to participate in this year’s ASU+GSV Summit in San Diego. We’re organizing and hosting some panels with our colleagues at Sesame Workshop, launching a project, and looking forward to talking about education, innovation, and equity! Come find us…

On October 26, 2021, the Cooney Center hosted Learning at Home While Under-Connected and the Role of Public Media, a discussion about learning at home and digital inequality, and how public media stations can help within their local communities.  Vikki Katz (Rutgers University) presented key research findings from Learning at Home While Under-Connected: Lower-Income Families During the COVID-19 Pandemic, which follows up on 2016’s Opportunity for All? Technology and Learning in Lower-Income Families to uncover the perspectives of lower-income parents…

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.  Every kid should have access to a playground Ronda Jackson is Senior Advisor of Government Affairs at KABOOM!, a national nonprofit that works to achieve playspace equity. The COVID-19 crisis is temporarily redrawing the map of childhood, and playgrounds are out. Mulch crunching underfoot, laughter…

What is one thing you believe must be done now to improve how children and families are faring during the current crisis, specifically as it relates to the media and technology in their lives?  Rethink media and tech leadership. Michael H. Levine is Senior Vice President of Learning and Impact for Noggin, Nickelodeon’s preschool SVOD service. Levine was previously Founding Director of the Joan Ganz Cooney Center at Sesame Workshop and is a member of the Center’s Board. Media and…

What is one thing you believe must be done now to improve how children and families are faring during the current crisis, specifically as it relates to the media and technology in their lives?  Learn the ABCDs of equitable remote learning. Vikki Katz is an Associate Professor in the School of Communication and Information at Rutgers University. She is the author of Opportunity for All and Kids in the Middle. We have just jumped into a national experiment for students…

What is one thing you believe must be done now to improve how children and families are faring during the current crisis, specifically as it relates to the media and technology in their lives?  Close the homework gap—Internet access is a right! Karen Cator is President and CEO of Digital Promise, before which she served as Director of the Office of Educational Technology at the U.S. Department of Education.  Every day, the inequities that exist between students, teachers, communities, and…

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. Chris Chin, Executive Director of VR Content at HTC Vive, believes VR has the potential to play a positive role in building pathways for more equitable learning opportunities.   From Ready Player One to The Matrix, authors, futurists, and Hollywood have painted a picture…

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…

It is not often that I come across workshops specifically related to the intersection of the design of children’s media and the issues surrounding diverse representations of children, critical race theory, and inclusivity. When I saw the call for proposals to the Equity and Inclusivity workshop at the 2017 Interaction Design and Children conference, I looked forward to  attending and meeting like-minded people who care about, study, and create within this intersection. The workshop, co-organized by Kiley Sobel (University of Washington),…