The Joan Ganz Cooney Center is delighted to introduce four new edtech product partners to the Sandbox for Literacy innovations. With support from the Walton Family Foundation, the Sandbox supports edtech design by combining expertise in the science of learning with the creativity of children. The

How edtech partners in the Sandbox keep research at the center of product development On a warm spring afternoon, an elementary school classroom in Manhattan became a laboratory for an emerging variety of edtech—the kind without screens. The flattop desks were pushed together to create worksta

There is a fundamental disconnect in the edtech world: What’s best for profits isn’t always what’s best for learning. It’s not that edtech makers don’t care if their products help students in the real world. The trouble is that efficacy studies require significant funding, research expertise, and ti

In 2015, the book and multimedia project Tap, Click, Read: Growing Readers in a World of Screens offered an optimistic vision for a symbiosis of media, technology, and literacy. Authored by Michael Levine, founding director of the Joan Ganz Cooney Center and Lisa Guernsey, a senior director of educa

On a recent October afternoon, an eight-year-old girl in a pink sweatsuit with matching bows in her hair made her way to the stage—a poster-sized paper taped to the floor of an activity room with the word “stage” scrawled across it. Her audience included half a dozen kids aged 6 to 8 and several adu

One morning last August, about half a dozen 10-year-olds gathered in a New York City studio with the product team from Lirvana Labs, a partner in the Cooney Center Sandbox for Literacy Innovations. This was their third day of co-designing a new AI writing companion in sessions facilitated by The GIA

For nearly two decades, edtech entrepreneur Carly Shuler has focused on how technology can best support and amplify the human connections at the heart of teaching and learning. Carly Shuler with Cooney Center Fellows Glenda Revelle and Gabrielle Cayton-Hodges in 2010 This mission drove her wor

In the Cooney Center’s Sandbox for Literacy Innovations, E-Line Media is creating a reading app that aims to helps kids discover the joy of reading. RiSi (Read It, See It) brings digital storybook illustrations to life as children read aloud—encouraging fluency, engagement, and confidence. But the o

Angelica DaSilva, a Cooney Center fellow for literacy and technology, offers research-backed recommendations for edtech developers. Earlier this year, the edtech startup LitLab began testing a new feature in their classroom product that creates AI-generated storybooks for early readers. The featu

The Joan Ganz Cooney Center has officially welcomed the first six edtech partners into the Cooney Center Sandbox for Literacy Innovations. Supported in part by the Walton Family Foundation, the Sandbox aims to foster edtech design informed by the science of learning and the creative spark of childre

From a Cooney Center Sandbox co-design session for Words of Power with Mrs Wordsmith and The GIANT Room The tables were strewn with multicolored pipe cleaners, clumps of clay, construction paper, markers, feathers, scissors, tape, and other arts and crafts materials. On a Friday afternoon last Ju

The Joan Ganz Cooney Center with support from the Walton Family Foundation, is excited to announce a three-year initiative with a simple, yet profound goal: ensuring that the needs and perspectives of children from diverse backgrounds drive educational technology products development for use at home

When Sesame Street launched in 1969, it was the first show to attempt to teach young children school-readiness skills with catchy songs and playful Muppets. Not only did it revolutionize the children’s media landscape, the program sparked a love of learning among generations of children all over the