This is a Really Big Deal: Joan Ganz Cooney Center at Sesame Workshop is launching a new initiative around gaming; Dr. Michael Levine presented the new project.

Target audience: elementary kids, not as young as Sesame audience. How to blend affordances of digital media.

Signature programs: Research Innovation Fund (how new media applications can accelerate children’s learning), Cooney Prizes for Excellence in Digital Media (recognizing “half baked” ideas), Cooney Fellows Program, Advocacy & Dissemination Program.

Two new projects: Intergenerational Video Game Project (new model for literacy, with Tracy Fullerton); ComicSpace literacy-buildng website (with E-Line Ventures / Alan Gershenfeld)

See D is for Digital: market scan of media for 3-11, concern for intentional educational design

See The Power of Pow! Wham! by Dr. Rima Shore — harnessing the new “wasteland” for learning

See Getting Over the Slump: Innovation Strategies to Promote Children’s Learning by Jim Gee and especially 6 recommendations.

Forthcoming: Games for the Future: The Potential of Video Games… findings: Video games can boost American competitiveness through participatory culture, mobilize + change; new R&D mechanism to PROVE the efficacy of game-based learning tools for specific sectors. Recommendations: new teaching/learning style, alternate assessments. Industry: new incentives to invest in R&D of game-based learning, CSR investments, double/triple-bottom-line-investments. Policy: National Center for Research in Information and Digital Technologies; public-private venture funds; CPB funding for R&D on video games.