The Joan Ganz Cooney Center is an independent research and innovation lab that focuses on the challenges of educating children in a rapidly changing media landscape. We conduct original research on emerging education technologies and collaborate with educators and media producers to put this research into action.
In 1969, Joan Ganz Cooney and her colleagues launched Sesame Street, harnessing the power of television to educate underserved preschoolers. Forty years later, the Joan Ganz Cooney Center at Sesame Workshop was established in the same spirit of courageous experimentation to advance learning on multiple fronts—from supporting research into emerging education technology to collaborating with tech companies and media producers to put this research into action.
Our work hinges on a central question: How can digital media help children learn? To find answers, the Center is focused on improving foundational skills such as reading and writing, while investigating “new literacies” for a new century—areas like intercultural understanding, digital literacy, and science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) learning. By finding ways to foster these skills using the latest technology, the Cooney Center is preparing children to compete and cooperate in a hyper-connected world.