Tag Archives: research

Creative tools for children should be designed to ensure that learning is playful and engaging. At Scratch, we believe that it is important to use a co-design process, ensuring that the needs and perspectives of our users—especially children—are taken into account at every stage. By involving young people in the design of ScratchJr and Scratch, we can create a platform that truly meets their needs and helps them to develop the skills they need to thrive in the digital age.…

Years ago, when I was a lowly graduate research intern crunching data in Sesame Workshop’s content research department, I saw firsthand the great care with which the organization created high-quality educational media for kids. My journey into education research started just as the internet arrived in NYC public schools, which kicked off an exciting movement that was mobilized by all kinds of new activity to make it possible to connect every school to each other and to the world beyond.…

In my 12 years at the Joan Ganz Cooney Center—from 2008 to 2020—I developed the research chops and professional network required to do what I do now as a program director at the National Science Foundation. But what I’m most grateful to the Cooney Center for, and what I believe made me who I am today, are the people I worked with on the fourth floor of 1900 Broadway. These people were family to me. They’re still family to me.…

Researchers gathered last month at the biennial Society for Research in Child Development conference in Salt Lake City to discuss the impacts of various technologies and media on children’s learning and development. The Joan Ganz Cooney Center was honored to organize a conversational roundtable inspired by the Responsible Innovation in Technology for Children (RITEC) initiative, founded by the LEGO Group and UNICEF and supported by the LEGO Foundation. On March 24,  2023, Cooney Center Senior Director of Research Medha Tare…

When I met Michael Levine outside a conference at UPenn in 2012, I had no idea how much that conversation would shape my career. From my earliest visits to the Joan Ganz Cooney Center office, I was struck by the infectious sense of purpose and energy there. Starting in 2013, I had the good fortune to partner with Michael, Lori Takeuchi, and the JGCC team in a multi-year research project to understand how initiatives to advance digital equity were influencing…

I started working at the Cooney Center out of college and grew to be the Research and Program Manager for the National STEM Video Game Challenge—a role that took me from Pittsburgh to the White House. As the Challenge grew, so did I. I was determined to understand how to guarantee positive outcomes from kids’ technology use. After lengthy conversations with my mentors at the Cooney Center, I pursued a dual PhD/MBA between Oxford and Yale focused on technology and…

Congratulations to the Joan Ganz Cooney Center on 15 years! This milestone is no small accomplishment and is a reflection of the Cooney Center’s heart and dedication to youth and their families. In a recent interview for a position, the interviewer asked me what my ideal work environment looked like. I told her that the first thing that came to mind was my time at the Cooney Center. In my experience, there was just so much to love and be…

Technology can be a transformative learning tool in the classroom. According to The National Education Technology Plan (NETP), technology has the potential to “affirm and advance relationships between educators and students, reinvent our approaches to learning and collaboration, shrink long-standing equity and accessibility gaps, and adapt learning experiences to meet the needs of all learners.” While these are lofty goals, to be truly effective, educators need to have the skills and support to take full advantage of technology-rich learning environments.…

It’s hard to believe 15 years have gone by since the Joan Ganz Cooney Center at Sesame Workshop launched. Due to the visionary force of nature that is Michael Levine, the Center swiftly earned its reputation for being an organization that serves as a nexus between research, policy, and practice in children’s learning and media. It also quickly became known as a launchpad for emerging scholars, entrepreneurs, and multi-sector leaders committed to advancing kids’ learning through media. I joined Sesame…

During my junior year of college, I came across the Cooney Center while looking for potential internship opportunities. To be clear, they hadn’t posted an internship, but I just knew I had to get in. After pestering Lori Takeuchi, I wore her down and I became an undergrad intern during the summer of 2012. It was worth the pestering. After spending just a few days in the corner of the Workshop that housed the Cooney Center, it was obvious that…