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First Annual Joan Ganz Cooney Center Symposium Unveils New Research, Reports and Anchors Discussions on the Potential of Digital Media's Role in Education
As a launching point for this critical dialogue, the symposium featured panels moderated by journalists and experts in the field and revealed the results of three compelling special reports: The Power of Pow! Wham!: Children, Digital Media and Our Nation's Future focusing on the recommendations of over 60 industry leaders who identified key research and policy to accelerate children's learning; Getting Over the Slump: Innovation Strategies to Promote Children's Learning, a report by
The invitation-only event, sponsored by Electronic Arts (EA) and McGraw-Hill Education (in association with the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) and PBS KIDS Raising Readers), was held at The McGraw-Hill Companies Building in
The event also marked the addition of a new Center sponsor, Mattel, Inc. In a brief presentation,
Gee's report indicates that the so-called fourth-grade slump, the point where students fail to develop reading comprehension, consistently leads to educational failure while the digital gap leads to a failure to develop 21st-century skills, especially the ability to use knowledge to solve problems.
Gee's report finds that: — Digital media has the potential to increase vocabulary and the concepts attached to such words, for children whose families are unable to do so. — Digital media naturally elicits problem-solving behaviors and attitudes in students. — Digital media can also be used to track and individualize how people learn.
Gee's recommendations include: funding digital research and development to invest in what works; establishing a digital teacher corps for the nation's lowest performing schools; designing alternative assessments and new standards; creating community-based literacy tech centers across the country; establishing Governor's digital partnership schools; and finally, modernizing public broadcasting investments in digital platforms for the next generation.
The potential and limitations for digital media's use in education are also explored in The Power of Pow! Wham! report. Featuring 60 of the industry's most respected leaders in child development, literacy, family policy, digital media production and global knowledge and skills, the report provides a blueprint to accelerate and deepen learning for elementary school children who are immersed in new technologies. Furthermore, the paper underscores that no single person, organization, or program can meet these challenges and that it will take coordinated efforts by researchers, educators, parents' groups, designers, business leaders, policy-makers, and child advocates.
The three interrelated challenges highlighted in the report are: — Build a coherent research and development effort. — Use digital tools effectively and safely to help students read well, think critically, broaden geographical and cultural knowledge, and participate in collaborative learning communities. — Advance digital equity to reach all children.
Also presented was a national study, commissioned by Common Sense Media and the Center, available on both www.commonsensemedia.org and www.joanganzcooneycenter.org, which indicated that American parents agree by wide margins that digital media skills are important to kids' success in the 21st century. They also expressed skepticism about whether digital media contribute to the development of informal social skills like communicating and working with others.
"Forty years ago, in a paper about the untapped potential of television that became the foundation for Sesame Street's creation, I noted that children are conditioned to expect a pow! wham! factor ... highly visual, and expensively produced material that inspires them to learn,"
The agenda for the day-long symposium also featured child-led demonstrations of new technologies and a hands-on forum promoting two dozen of the best digital media initiatives in the world. Attendees were shown one of the first demonstrations of BOOM BLOX, a new game for Nintendo Wii developed by EA in association with director
Journalists and experts in the field of digital media for children including Time Magazine's
About McGraw-Hill Education
McGraw-Hill Education, a division of The McGraw-Hill Companies (NYSE: MHP), is a leading global provider of instructional, assessment and reference solutions that empower professionals and students of all ages. McGraw-Hill Education has offices in 33 countries and publishes in more than 40 languages. Additional information is available at http://www.mheducation.com.
About Electronic Arts
Electronic Arts Inc. (Nasdaq: ERTS), headquartered in
About the Joan Ganz Cooney Center
The Joan Ganz Cooney Center at Sesame Workshop (www.joanganzcooneycenter.org) is an independent, not for profit research center that examines the role of new technologies in learning and literacy development both in and out of school. The Center conducts and supports research, creates educational models and interactive media properties, and builds cross-sector partnerships to scale-up best practices. Based at Sesame Workshop, the center is named for Sesame Workshop's visionary founder, who revolutionized television with the creation of Sesame Street. Core funding for the Center is provided by the generous support of
Contacts: Jodi Lefkowitz Sesame Workshop 212-875-6497 jodi.lefkowitz@sesameworkshop.org Stephanie Baumoel FerenComm for Sesame Workshop 212-983-9898 stephanieb@ferencomm.com
SOURCE McGraw-Hill Education; The Joan Ganz Cooney Center
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