I, like many parents and pop vocalists, believe that the children are our future. And looking toward the future, the Joan Ganz Cooney Center at Sesame Workshop has released a conversation-starting report on the potential of digital media to revolutionize education.

The report cites three main challenges facing parents, educators, kids, and digital designers when it comes to realizing the educational power of New Media for the next generation:

1. Build a coherent R&D effort
2. Rethink literacy and learning for the digital age
3. Advance digital equity, reaching all children with today’s most powerful learning tools

A few random items in the report that I found interesting include:

• What are the effects of our cut-and-paste “remix world” on kids’ ability to judge authenticity and to have coherent learning experiences?
• Research indicates that kids think they have more technical ability than they really do… and parents reinforce this belief.
• There are great benefits to digital gameplay. In terms of reading and math, pop culture often demands more of kids than schools do.
• Visual appeal motivates reading; kids are often reading on the Web before they are cracking open books.
• Digital media empowers kids to create, innovate and invent, which is often not encouraged in classrooms.

Most of all, there are tremendous opportunities for educators, policy makers, as well as digital artists, designers and writers to do some truly important and revolutionary work. So, for this weekend’s homework, check out this report. Now, now… it’s not summer yet.

Article Tags: Digital Media | Education | Tom Mitchell

Filed under: Education, Interactive, Interactive design, Uncategorized