Tag Archives: sesame street

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…

“There was a lot of emotion around 9/11, but of course there was no clear path on what to do with this.  But we had this show, this incredible entryway into homes that had credibility amongst parents and children.  How could we best use it?” -Dr. Lewis Bernstein, Executive Vice President of Education and Research at Sesame Workshop   With the 10th anniversary of September 11th this past weekend, many of us have been reflecting on what we were doing…

According to research by the Kaiser Family Foundation, the typical American child — age 8 to 18 — spends no less than seven and a half hours a day engaged with media. According to research from Sesame Workshop and the Joan Ganz Cooney Center, younger children are also consuming media heavily — about 4 hours a day for the typical five year old. Television, cell phones, computers, etc. are not just part of these children’s lives — in a very…

This post was written for the Learning at Hollywood Forum that took place at USC in May 2011.   My hope for this forum is that it helps realize, in some concrete way, the vision of the Joan Ganz Cooney Center. At this moment in time — the birth of the digital era — it is important to have the industry find a way to seize the unprecedented opportunity to entertain, educate, and make a sustainable profit through new media…

This post was originally published for the Learning from Hollywood forum held in Los Angeles in May 2011. My hope for this forum is that it helps realize, in some concrete way, the vision of the Joan Ganz Cooney Center. At this moment in time — the birth of the digital era — it is important to have the industry find a way to seize the unprecedented opportunity to entertain, educate, and make a sustainable profit through new media platforms.…

This May, a group of leaders from the creative media industries, education, research, policy, and philanthropy will come together at USC’s School of Cinematic Arts for the Joan Ganz Cooney Center’s Leadership Forum, where we will spend two days considering innovative ways to support young people’s learning with and through media.    Entertainment is often considered the antithesis of education. Children go to school and learn; then they come home and “relax” or “unwind.” The dichotomy between entertaining content and…

Kudos to the Center for the exciting and impressive line-up for the “Learning from Hollywood” Forum this coming May at the USC School of Cinematic Arts. I cannot imagine a more influential group in shaping our nation’s future than the media producers who are reaching our youngest children every day during the hours they are spending outside of school. The Forum’s dual focus on learning from Hollywood’s creative genius and challenging producers to help children learn key literacy skills could…

The domestic educational research group here at Sesame Workshop gets to have really fun conversations. We talk to experts. By experts, we mean the 3- to 9-year-old children for whom we create content. We explain to them that we’re grown ups and don’t remember what it was like to be their age and that they’re experts about what they like and what they think and know about the things they read, watch and play. We also talk to their parents…

Reprinted from Huffington Post, July 5, 2010. Written together with Esther Wojcicki, Creative Commons Board Chair America is celebrating. The Fourth of July is a time for parades, parties, BBQs, fireworks—we certainly have much to be thankful for here in America, the most innovative country on earth. But one area of American life that is consistently resistant to innovation is our education system. On our nation’s birthday–a cause for celebration of our founders’ audacity, independence, courage and innovation skills– we…

TechDrawl‘s Dave Walters interviewed our Executive Director, Michael H. Levine on May 19, 2010: View video & read more!