The Cooney Center

I have been in contact with the awesome people that work for Sesame Workshop.  If you have little one's, or even if you don't, you'll know what an influence Sesame Street has had on our American culture for over 40 years.  They are still on the brink of innovation and one of the latest endeavors is the Joan Ganz Cooney Center.

Forty years after Joan Ganz Cooney's landmark study stimulated the creation of Sesame Street, a new center devoted to accelerating children's learning in a rapidly changing world was established.

The Joan Ganz Cooney Center at Sesame Workshop focuses on the new challenges children face today, asking the 21st century equivalent of her original question, "How can emerging media help children learn?"

The Cooney Center is an independent research and innovation lab that catalyzes and supports research, development, and investment in digital media technologies to advance children's learning. The focus of The Cooney Center is on literacy development for diverse learners. Programs address vital foundational capabilities, such as reading and writing, with a special emphasis on struggling readers who risk educational failure if they do not master basic competencies by grade 4. The Cooney Center is also focusing national attention on evolving "new literacies" that children need to compete and cooperate in the 21st century. Major initiatives focus on inter-cultural understanding, media literacy, and advancing Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) learning -- all of which have become critical in an interconnected world. 

(http://www.joanganzcooneycenter.org/About-the-Center.html)

There is a great video found HERE that explains the center.  I really love the old footage.  I recognize some of those fashion styles!

The center promotes research and does workshops like the one titled, Can Video Games Promote Intergenerational Play; Literacy Learning? and also supports innovation by getting sponsors and awarding those who submit innovation in digital learning.  Check out the Center's site for this years recipients.  

Who has watched Sesame Street lately on PBS?  Who has gone online to have their kids play on the sesame workshop website?  We've been playing the Peek A Boo Elmo game for years with our babies to help them get used to a keyboard.  The thing I really like about this center is that it is focusing on making the newest technologies relevant to young children in a play and learning setting.  

Check it out and let me know what you think!