Getting Ready to Learn Creating Effective, Educational Children’s Media

Foreword by Dr. Alice Wilder and Sir Ken Robinson 1. Ready To Learn and Public Media: Improving Early Learning Outcomes for America’s Children David Lowenstein, Pamela Johnson, and Michael Fragale 2. From Mission to Screens: The PBS KIDS Approach to Content Sara DeWitt and Linda Simensky 3. Using Media to Foster Parent Engagement Megan Silander and Elisa Garcia 4. Building Learning Pathways and Community for Early Childhood Educators Lori Brittain, Jean Crawford, Sara Shapiro, Jeanne R. Paratore, Alejandra Salinas, Lisa O’Brien, and Sarah Blodgett 5. When Creativity + Collaboration = Success: The Making of "Peg + Cat" Kim Berglund 6. Children’s Mathematical Thinking and Learning: The Importance of Study Design and Aligned Assessments in Promoting and Capturing Learning Deborah Rosenfeld and Daisy Rutstein 7. What Early Childhood Educators Need in Order To Use Digital Media Effectively Phil Vahey, Regan Vidiksis, and Jaime Gutierrez 8. Curation and Mediation: Essential Ingredients When Supporting Children’s Learning Savitha Moorthy and Ximena Domiìnguez 9. Preschoolers Learn To Think and Act Like Scientists with "The Cat in the Hat" Sara S. Sweetman, Lawrence S. Mirkin, Anne E. Lund, and Shannon K. Bishop 10. Science Takes Center Stage: Design Principles To Support Young Children’s Science Learning with Media Marion Goldstein, Claire Christensen, Sarah Gerard, and Megan Silander 11. Permission to Speak: How Educational Media Can Start and Extend Dialogue for Kids and Adults Naomi Hupert and Alexandra Adair 12. Informational Text Adventures with "Molly of Denali" Nell K. Duke, Carol Greenwald, and Anne E. Lund 13. Building Community Partnerships to Support Family Learning Aaron Morris, Devon Steven, and Kea Anderson 14. How Ready To Learn Is Bringing Inclusive Design to PBS KIDS Jennifer Rodriguez and Michael Conn-Powers 15. Adaptive and Personalized Educational Games for Young Children: A Case Study Jennifer Rodriguez, Dylan Arena, and Jeremy D. Roberts 16. Innovations in Evidence and Analysis: The PBS KIDS Learning Analytics Platform and the Research It Supports Jeremy D. Roberts, Charles B. Parks, Gregory K. W. K. Chung, Elizabeth J. K. H. Redman, Katerina Schenke, and Cosimo Felline

Biography

Shelley Pasnik is the Director of the Center for Children and Technology and a vice president of the Education Development Center.

Featuring a Foreword by Dr. Alice Wilder and Sir Ken Robinson

"Combining in-depth research analysis and practical case analysis, the collected authors in Shelley Pasnik’s book present a hopeful vision of how technology and media can support children’s learning. It models a kind of intentional, thoughtful, and creative approach that gives positive meaning to media and technology much needed in the often noisy world of mindless consumption."

—Junlei Li, Fred Rogers Center/Zaentz Early Childhood, Harvard University, USA

"At last! A comprehensive and highly readable account of the CPB/PBS Ready to Learn initiative, which has fundamentally transformed children’s television programming. This is the first and only volume that puts all the accumulated research together, and will be a valuable resource for anyone interested in educational media. It will prove once and for all that high quality programming can be a valuable resource for children’s social-emotional learning and cognitive development."

—Susan B. Neuman, Professor of Childhood and Literacy Education, New York University, USA

"In this well-researched collection, Pasnik and her colleagues distinguish what makes the Ready To Learn initiative so unique, how it’s made a positive difference in the lives of many families, and why it is an excellent public investment. Getting Ready to Learn makes an extremely strong case for why and how thoughtful, intentionally produced media can make a big difference in the lives of young children, especially children who are most in need of additional support and resources."

—Michael Robb, Senior Director of Research, Common Sense Media, USA

"This book brings together scholarly articles from a wide range of contributors who each bring their own expertise to bear, bringing us a truly authoritative book. Educational media has a significant and seemingly ever-increasing role to play in meeting the learning needs of children, parents, and teachers. This book draws on years of meaningful data from the CPB-PBS Ready To Learn Initiative, with chapters exploring how to develop engaging, playful, and developmentally appropriate content. From Emmy-Award-winning series to randomised controlled trials, this book covers the media production, scholarly research and technological advances surrounding some of the US's most beloved programming."

— Sarah Brew, Parents in Touch