Joan Ganz Cooney Center

Joan Ganz Cooney Center Advancing positive futures for kids in the digital world Fellows from academia, industry, and policy help the Cooney Center advance its action research mission.

The Cooney Center concentrates its activities on four primary areas:

· Research: supporting interdisciplinary research among leading scholars engaged in the educational and developmental aspects of new media innovation. The Cooney Center develops practical knowledge to meet the research needs of media producers and tracks new trends through its series of industry research reports.

· Production:

collaborating with media companies (commercial and nonprofit) and independent producers to design and test models and prototypes based on academic research. Partners currently include Google, Nokia, the USC Game Innovation Lab, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, and E-Line Media.

· Investment: initiating public/private partnerships, making new applications available to commercial investors for further development, and collaborating with distributors to influence product launches. The Cooney Center also runs an annual prize competition to reward and recognize innovation in children's digital media.

· Policy: catalyzing policy change by disseminating research and convening leadership across pivotal sectors to inform national debate and stimulate effective reforms. The Cooney Center's 2009 Leadership Forum: Breakthrough Learning in a Digital Age, hosted at the Googleplex, attracted more than 200 thought leaders from research, policy, education, and industry. Recent research publications on the potential of video games and mobile platforms for children's learning have received wide attention in the media and among national and state policymakers.

Howdy Houston families! Struggling with kids and tech this summer?? Drop into a fun & hands-on experience to help famili...
06/12/2026

Howdy Houston families! Struggling with kids and tech this summer?? Drop into a fun & hands-on experience to help families navigate this challenging topic hosted by The Joan Ganz Cooney Center & The GIANT Room.

📅 Saturday, 6/20 - drop in anytime between 2:00 pm – 4:00 pm
📍 Verizon store: 215 Heights Boulevard Houston, TX 77007
👪 For families with children of all ages
💡 Stop by for as long as you like (5 minutes, 30 minutes, the full 2 hours) and take part in an engaging, hands-on experience designed to be enjoyed together. This event will create a natural and approachable way for families to begin meaningful conversations about digital well-being—helping parents and children explore healthy habits, rules, and boundaries around technology in a thoughtful and supportive environment.

Register here for the free workshop (Advance RSVP required): https://vz.to/43euvbx

Presented in Partnership with Verizon.

Cc: Mommy Poppins Houston

Happy International Day of Play! We support UNICEF's efforts to celebrate the power of play as a fundamental right vital...
06/11/2026

Happy International Day of Play! We support UNICEF's efforts to celebrate the power of play as a fundamental right vital to children’s well-being. Learn more about the International Day of Play: https://uni.cf/4gafHSQ

How do we translate decades of literacy research into digital experiences that are engaging, equitable, and instructiona...
06/10/2026

How do we translate decades of literacy research into digital experiences that are engaging, equitable, and instructionally meaningful?

In our new report, “Translating Literacy Research to Edtech,” researchers Angelica DaSilva and Diane Gifford share lessons learned from the Joan Ganz Cooney Center’s Sandbox for Literacy Innovations—an initiative that brings together literacy researchers, edtech developers, educators, and children to collaboratively design literacy tools grounded in evidence-based practice.

Check out the full report here:
https://bit.ly/4dY13Nd



Thanks to LitLab.ai, LeapFrog USA, Sago Mini, E-Line Media, Lirvana Labs, and all our product partners in the Sandbox for Literacy Innovations for the collaboration that made this report possible.

This report is generously funded by the Walton Family Foundation.

06/09/2026

⏰ See you tomorrow (6/10 at 1 pm ET) at our webinar “Building Better Learning Tools: A Look Inside the Sandbox for Literacy Innovations!” ⏰ Register here: https://bit.ly/3Q3l4bW

🧠 We’re excited to share what we’ve learned throughout our Sandbox for Literacy Innovations initiative.

We’ll also chat about two new Cooney Center resources:
📚 “Translating Literacy Research to Edtech” report
✨ “Co-Design with Kids Toolkit” website

📅 TOMORROW June 10, 2026, 1-2 pm ET/ 4-5pm PT

👤 Speakers:
Medha Tare, Angelica DaSilva, Diane Gifford, Mona Leigh Guha, Allisyn Levy (Joan Ganz Cooney Center)
Azi Jamalian (The GIANT Room), Ben Miller (LeapFrog USA), Taylor Davis (iCivics), Sarah Robertson (Khan Academy)

You might have playtested or conducted user research with kids, but have you ever tried co-designing with kids?Too often...
06/09/2026

You might have playtested or conducted user research with kids, but have you ever tried co-designing with kids?

Too often, children are treated primarily as end users, rather than collaborators in the design process. Co-design offers a different approach: inviting children into the creative process itself — from early brainstorming and requirements gathering to prototyping, testing, and iteration. The result is not only more engaging and intuitive products, but experiences that better reflect how children actually think, play, learn, and connect.

✨ Want to capture some of the magic of co-design? ✨
🐳 Swim on over to our brand new website full of resources: codesignwithkids.org 🐡

Co-designers recently helped to design new features for our product partner iCivics's elementary social studies curricul...
06/05/2026

Co-designers recently helped to design new features for our product partner iCivics's elementary social studies curriculum, which is being informed by literacy learning. Learn more about iCivics’s work in the Cooney Center Sandbox for Literacy Innovation: https://bit.ly/4bJOdBD

Thanks to our co-design partners The GIANT Room for facilitating the sessions, and to the West Side YMCA for helping us find great kid co-designers!

For today’s , we’re sharing a 2018 blog post about how parents can leverage iPad apps to combat kids’ summer reading sl...
06/04/2026

For today’s , we’re sharing a 2018 blog post about how parents can leverage iPad apps to combat kids’ summer reading slide.

Written by Hoot Reading CEO and Cooney Center alumna Carly Shuler, the tips are still super relevant for parents today. They include:
📚 #1: Be intentional in your app choices
📚 #2: Download some reading-heavy games
📚 #3: Be a role model
📚 #4: Make screen time reading time

Read more on the blog: https://bit.ly/4dIybZl

06/03/2026

Our new Co-Design with Kids Toolkit (codesignwithkids.org) is a website full of resources to help you make technology with kids, for kids.

Dive into the toolkit to find:
🐙 Co-Design 101: information about the philosophy of co-design and tips on how to run co-design sessions with kids
🐠 Techniques: a repository of techniques to use when co-designing with kids
🐳 Case Studies: examples of real products made by co-designing with kids
🐡 Expert advice: learn from practitioners with years of experience co-designing with kids

Swim on over to codesignwithkids.org to begin exploring the Co-Design with Kids Toolkit today!

And join us at our June 10th webinar to learn more: https://bit.ly/sli-look-inside

Cooney Center Fellow for Co-Design of Technology with Children Liza Gak recently brought co-design to Puerto Rico’s Arec...
06/02/2026

Cooney Center Fellow for Co-Design of Technology with Children Liza Gak recently brought co-design to Puerto Rico’s Arecibo C3 STEM Center (aka AC3).

Liza taught undergraduate students how to facilitate co-design, and they put that training into action by leading co-design workshops with kids. The co-designers explored what they wanted in a makerspace and interactive museum exhibits in preparation for AC3’s upcoming grand opening.

Read more (via El Nuevo Día, in Spanish): https://bit.ly/4afXob5

Want to learn more about co-designing with kids? Check out the new Cooney Center resource codesignwithkids.org!

We’re so excited to announce a brand-new Joan Ganz Cooney Center resource: The Co-Design with Kids Toolkit!codesignwithk...
06/01/2026

We’re so excited to announce a brand-new Joan Ganz Cooney Center resource: The Co-Design with Kids Toolkit!

codesignwithkids.org is a practical, interactive resource designed to help organizations meaningfully partner with children throughout the design and development process. The toolkit was created to support developers, designers, educators, researchers, and youth-serving organizations interested in bringing participatory design practices into their work. Whether you’re entirely new to co-design or looking to deepen an existing practice, the toolkit provides concrete strategies, facilitation tips, ethical considerations, and adaptable activities that can be put into practice right away.

Swim on over to codesignwithkids.org today!

🐙🐠🐳🐡
Thanks to the Walton Family Foundation for their generous support of this project.

We’re so grateful to the many contributors who made the Co-Design with Kids Toolkit possible. Thanks for lending us your expertise!

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