Tag Archives: youth

As our digital lives continue to evolve into new mediums and devices, traditional online safety efforts are inevitably falling short. A new Aussie project, In Real Life, is re-imagining the landscape of online safety education by centering the perspectives of young people. Reimagining Requires New Ways of Creating For our team at PROJECT ROCKIT – Australia’s youth-driven movement against (cyber)bullying – elevating youth lived experience as expertise is central to our ability to remain relevant and impactful in an ever-changing…

On Safer Internet Day on February 7, 2023, The National Association for Media Literacy Education (NAMLE) and The Joan Ganz Cooney Center at Sesame Workshop hosted a webinar with adult and youth experts to discuss issues around well-being and technology. Michelle Ciulla Lipkin (NAMLE), Elizabeth Milovidov (LEGO), and Michael Preston (Joan Ganz Cooney Center) were joined by teens representing the Headstream Accelerator and #ICanHelp.

“I know the right answer is to tell an adult, but I would not tell an adult. I would ask my friend Lucy for advice.”  This was a 7th grader’s response to a quiz question about cyberbullying.  The student was clear that while she knew the “correct” answer, it wasn’t the action she would take in real life. Schools tend to focus on talking about digital wellness, encouraging students to earn “cyber-savvy” certificates or creating “be kind online” posters- but…

The Joan Ganz Cooney Center is thrilled to collaborate with NAMLE during U.S. Media Literacy Week to present three conversations between experts and youth around topics in youth digital culture, moderated by educator Dwight Dunston. Together, adults and teens explore issues like what kids are watching online, where they get their news, how they maintain a sense of well-being in the digital world, and what it’s like to collaborate with public media professionals to produce content.   Group Chat: Adolescent…

On September 14, 2022, the Joan Ganz Cooney Center was thrilled to co-host Building a Better Tech Future for Children with our colleagues at All Tech Is Human. Dr. Elizabeth Milovidov, Senior Manager, Digital Child Safety at the LEGO Group, delivered a keynote address that inspired us all. She discussed the Responsible Innovation in Technology for Children (RITEC) project and the importance of designing digital media experiences with children’s well-being in mind.    David Ryan Polgar (All Tech is…

The Joan Ganz Cooney Center is excited to welcome 10 youth fellows from around the country to participate in our initiative, By/With/For Youth: Inspiring Next Gen Public Media Audiences. These teens were selected from an applicant pool of more than 60 talented youth to join a four-month, paid fellowship program to help shape the future of public media. In the 1990s, the disability rights movement brought us the mantra, “Nothing about us, without us.” We believe the same needs to…

On April 26, 2022, the Cooney Center presented the first in a series of virtual workshops and associated research briefs devoted to promoting tween and teen collaboration with public media. These capacity-building events are an exciting part of our work on the By/ With/ For Youth: Inspiring Next Gen Public Media Audiences initiative. Designed for producers, directors, and others interested in supporting greater youth participation in public media, the workshops are focused on highlighting research-backed best practices for engaging youth…

WHYY has been running youth media programs for 20 years. In that time, we’ve grown our program from serving a dozen kids each year to serving a few thousand. We’ve helped nearly 50 Philadelphia schools launch their own youth media programs through WHYY Media Labs. Over the past four summers, we’ve been building bridges to employment for our students through the Pathways to Media Careers program, which combines job skill training with real-world work experiences where they can use their…

The Joan Ganz Cooney Center is thrilled to announce a new opportunity for media-savvy youth to get involved in shaping the public media landscape! As part of our By/With/For Youth: Inspiring Next Gen Public Media Audiences project, we have recently opened applications to join a new Youth Fellowship program that will run from May 2 to August 31. All high schoolers between the ages of 14 to 18 in the U.S. are invited to apply! And did we mention that…

This transcript of the Into the Digital Future podcast has been edited for clarity. Please listen to the full episode here and learn about the full series here.   Laura Higgins: The work Michael Preston does around youth perspectives and technology is really important. This is one of those conversations that’s going to appeal to all different audiences —a lot of parents, and actually for a lot of industry people, I think there’s a lot they can learn from listening…