Tag Archives: television

As people rush to predict what’s coming next, David Kleeman reflects on Joan Ganz Cooney, and how some things about childhood will never change.

You may have heard that television programming in the 1960s was called a “vast wasteland.” by then-FCC Chairman Newton Minow. From the beginning, Lloyd Morrisett and I were both convinced that television – which was capturing the attention of children as nothing else was – did have the power to educate as well as to entertain and we set out to prove it. It was back in 1966 when I wrote my original report, The Potential Uses of Television in…

In Jackson, Mississippi, researchers visited a family of seven (including a niece and nephew), headed by a stay-at-home mom in her 20s. During the visit, the children sat around the mom as she described their latest learning activities, including 1-on-1 homework time and making “slime.” One activity—planting a seed in the yard in front of their apartment building—garnered a lot of excitement. Here’s how the mom described her family’s experience. “[My son] wanted to know, ‘How did that tree get…

A few years back, I was talking with a friend, a science specialist from the local elementary school, about the state of science education in the early grades.  Her assessment could be summed up in two words: not good. She explained that early elementary teachers were in a serious bind when it comes to science.  By and large, teachers for this age group have limited backgrounds in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) and, because there is so much pressure to…

Today’s announcement by the American Academy of Pediatrics and the joint statement of the U.S. Department of Education and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services on “media use and young minds” is a timely response to a hot debate in parenting and early childhood circles: When and how often should young children use screens? For years, the health and child development establishment has advised against exposing toddlers, and babies in particular, to screen media.  But daily life has…

Frances Nankin, Executive Producer and Editorial Director of Cyberchase, has been developing children’s media for 30 years. She is both an educator and a media producer who sees great potential in emerging media platforms to boost kids’ learning. Cooney Center: What excites you about the potential of new technologies to support learning? Frances Nankin: My first experience with kids’ media was when I was a first-grade teacher and there was a slide projector in the library where kids who behaved…

Last week I had the opportunity participate in a panel discussion at Sprockets, Toronto’s International Film Festival for Children and Youth (which, by the way, is a FANTASTIC event held in the new and equally fantastic TIFF building). The topic of the panel? Transmedia. Well of course. It seems that transmedia has blossomed into an all-out industry buzz-word — it’s a featured topic at conferences ranging from SXSW to Kidscreen. Rumor even has it that Henry Jenkins is out to…

It’s all about TV this week: who’s going to win big with internet TV — Google or Apple, as well as the big 3D changeover. The recent New York Times article, Hey, Dad, Get With the (3-D) Program, addresses the next generation gap. Like previous generations who saw the switch from Black and White to Color, this new group of kids are going to expect more — namely, things popping out of their screens. Also, read Cooney Center Fellow, Dr.…