Tag Archives: research

Intrepid Research Fellow, Sarah Vaala, is attending her first Digital Media and Learning Conference in San Francisco. In between convening, attending and conferencing, she is going to be blogging for the Cooney Center about what’s happening at the conference and what the big ideas of each day were. Greetings from San Francisco! From keynote speakers, to panels, to “ignite” talks, to the evening’s science fair – there was a lot of ground covered among digital media enthusiasts today. The best…

Cynthia Chong is an educational media researcher whose research focuses on how the design of educational media can affect young children’s learning and the way they interact with them, as well as how parents and teachers use these technologies to teach. She recently began reviewing educational apps for 3- to 8-year-olds on her blog, A Matter of App. We’ve invited Cynthia to tell us a little bit more about this blog and why it’s important for parents, educators, and designers…

For the second year in a row, the iPad is the most popular item that children are asking for as a holiday gift.  Given that it is the season for making wish-lists, it is in this spirit that I offer my own iPad research wish-list for 2012. The items on this list will surely keep a variety of researchers busy in the new year and would help address some critical questions about the iPad in particular, but touch screens in…

This article originally appeared in the Harvard Family Research Project’s December issue of the FINE: Family Involvement Network of Educators newsletter. Lori Takeuchi, Director of Research for the Joan Ganz Cooney Center and author of the recent report Families Matter: Engaging Families in a Digital Age, discusses her research on how children use technology across the various settings of their lives, and the implications of her findings for practitioners who work with young children and their families. Children today are…

In Families Matter, the Joan Ganz Cooney Center at Sesame Workshop’s most recent research report (released May 2011), I take an ecological approach to chronicling how digital media are shaping childhood, parenting, and family life (Bronfenbrenner, 1977). I do so by sharing findings from two complementary studies: a national survey of parents of 3- through 10-year-olds, and in-depth case studies of two young Latina girls and their families. Gabriela Guzman and Sierra Ramirez’s cases provide rich examples of the potential…

Yes, this is another piece about the SpongeBob study. I wanted to provide my thoughts on it both from a scientific research perspective, but also as someone who has to help make production decisions even when there is not enough time and resources to do a thorough scientific study. Often we have to hypothesize about why particular content supports or detracts from children’s learning.   For the 2% of you (completely unscientific poll) who might be reading this but who…

Research Assistant Meagan Bromley reflects on our most recent time in the field for the Cooney Center’s E-Book QuickStudy. Find out what our research team has been up to lately as well as how you can get involved in our upcoming follow-up study this week! “Oh yes, I read Miss Spider on the iPad at home, and I play other games on it too.” – 5-year-old boy on the “game” of reading   When Sesame Street first began, researchers were…

Just over a week ago, I had the pleasure of assisting members of the Cooney Center staff in a two-day research study at the New York Hall of Science (NYSCI) in Queens, NY. The study, conducted in corroboration with NYSCI, focused on the interaction between children (ages 3-5) and their caregivers when reading two different science books: one regular book and one on the iPad. Would the iPad serve as a distraction to children or would it actually promote as…

We are proud to announce our Cooney Fellow for 2011! Sarah Vaala will be joining the Joan Ganz Cooney Center in October of this year from the Annenberg School of Communication at the University of Pennsylvania. Sarah will be completing her Ph.D. in Communication this summer, with various research work surrounding the issue of how to uncover ways to maximize television’s potential to teach and motivate young children.   Amid clinicians’ and psychologists’ arguments for keeping children under the age…

Editor’s Note: Want to join the Joan Ganz Cooney Center team? Apply to be the 2016-2017 Cooney Center Fellow! We are accepting fellowship applications now through April 4, 2016. I’ll be honest—I applied for the Cooney Center Fellowship for the Muppets. As a lifelong fan of Sesame Street, the idea of working in an environment that valued Bert and Ernie, Big Bird, and Grover as much as I do was extremely appealing. Upon learning more about the Joan Ganz Cooney…