Sesame Workshop Unveils The Joan Ganz Cooney Center

NEW YORK, December 6: Sesame Workshop has launched The Joan
Ganz Cooney Center, named after Sesame Street’s founder, which will
explore the educational potential of digital media in kids’ literacy
development.

Based at Sesame Workshop, The Joan Ganz Cooney Center is an
independent, nonprofit research and production institute that will conduct and
support research, create new media properties, and aim to stimulate a national
dialogue on the use of interactive technologies in helping to accelerate
children’s learning. With a focus on the needs of elementary-age children, the
center will examine new media platforms such as the web, cell phones and video
games to better understand their role in children’s literacy development, both
in school and out. The center will also champion best practices and develop policy
agendas to stimulate investment in promising and proven new media technologies
for children.

Michael H. Levine, an early childhood education research and
policy expert, has been named the executive director of the center. Prior to
joining the center, Levine served as the VP of new media and as the executive
director of education for Asia Society, a nonprofit organization. Two Cooney
Fellows have been appointed, who will assist with carrying out the Center’s
objectives.

The Center has released an inaugural report, The Enduring
Power of Pow! Wham!: Children, Digital Media, and Our Nation’s Future, which documents the potential of digital media to
encourage learning among children, but concludes that funding for research
applications is not yet a national priority. According to the study,
entertainment media, including the Internet, games and software, are major
influences in children’s lives and too often provide little or no intentional
educational value. Future research will also examine key policy issues such as
how to address the nation’s 4th grade reading slump, how media can be better
deployed to prepare second language learners, and how to overcome market
barriers in developing educational games.

The Center has also launched an interactive website,
www.joanganzcooneycenter.org, featuring applications that support the Center’s
goals. The site will expand in the spring to include podcasts, blogs and other
new media features and an online community for policy and industry leaders,
researchers and practitioners.

“When Sesame Street
was created, we brought national attention to the sorry state of children’s
television and challenged the industry to raise the bar,” said Cooney. “Today,
history is repeating itself as the new media environment resembles the old,
vast wasteland. The Center will lead a much needed conversation on how young
children can learn from new media innovations, and be a major force in getting
industry to act on their behalf.”

The Joan Ganz Cooney Center was established with the support
of Peter G. Peterson, the chairman and co-founder of The Blackstone Group.
Additional support was provided by Harvey Weinstein, Genius Products and Sesame
Workshop.

—By Irene Lew