New America
In Depth

Early Learning in the Digital Age

Action Toolkit for Community Leaders


Four Steps for Community Leaders

Our report in 2016, entitled How to Bring Early Learning and Family Engagement into the Digital Age, examined the intersection between early learning, family engagement, and digital equity in order to help community leaders create and implement systems, policies, and practices that will support modern families and their young children. The report highlights four steps leaders can take to assess the needs of their community, take action to create a more equitable society, and improve outcomes for children and families.

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Resources for Specific Stakeholders

The following resources are for early childhood educators, media mentors, researchers, and funders to think about how best to support and implement a family engagement program focused on developing early learning skills with technology. (Update 9/24/18: The toolkit now includes a new resource for libraries on how to develop a peer-coaching program for media mentors.)

For Early Childhood Educators
For Media Mentors
For Researchers and Funders

Resources for All Stakeholders

All community members have a stake in supporting early learning in the Digital Age. The following resources will help leaders think about how develop communities that support families with young children, ages 0–8 years old.

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In Depth

Early Learning in the Digital Age

About this Project

New America's Education Policy program and the Joan Ganz Cooney Center at Sesame Workshop have partnered to produce an interactive toolkit for leaders interested in promoting early learning and supporting families in the Digital Age. This work was made possible through generous funding from the Joyce Foundation. Seed funding came from the Alliance for Early Success and the Pritzker Children’s Initiative.

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Authors

Shayna Cook was a policy analyst with the Education Policy program at New America. She was a member of the Learning Technologies project. Cook researched and reported on innovation in family engagement, new technologies, and digital equity issues concerning children from birth through third grade.

Lisa Guernsey is the senior director of Birth to 12th Grade Policy and the co-founder and director of the Learning Sciences Exchange at New America.

Michael H. Levine is an internationally recognized policy, program and research expert who has led early childhood and K-12 educational transformation at public and private companies, foundations, and government agencies. He has deep experiences researching the educational, developmental, and socioeconomic implications of emerging media to inform policy and legislation, fuel innovation, promote educational equity, and influence educational program decisions. He is the author of 40+ publications and policy briefs, co-author of Tap, Click, Read: Growing Readers in a World of Screens, keynote speaker, and board member for non-profit and double bottom-line social venture organizations. He was named one of US’ most influential leaders in family policy by Working Mother magazine.

Laura Zimmermann is the founder and president of Tech Play Collaborative and a research fellow at the Bay Area Discovery Museum.

Sadaf Sajwani is the Director of Partnerships & Planning at the Joan Ganz Cooney Center at Sesame Workshop.

Elisabeth McClure is currently a research specialist at the Lego Foundation Centre for Creativity, Play, and Learning. She is a former fellow at the Joan Ganz Cooney Center at Sesame Workshop.

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