Spotlight on Digital Media And Learning

1.12.10 | The Joan Ganz Cooney Center at Sesame Workshop is accepting applications for the inaugural Cooney Center Prizes for Innovation, a national competition intended to identify, inspire, nurture and scale breakthrough ideas in children’s digital media and learning.

The competition, which formally launched last week at the 2010 International Consumer Electronics Show’s Kids at Play Summit, will award annual cash prizes and provide ongoing development and business planning support.

“Billions of dollars are spent every year by parents on the growing plethora of digital games, toys, mobile devices, and online experiences for children,” said Michael H. Levine, executive director of the The Cooney Center. “However, research demonstrates that the vast majority of these products have only tapped a minimal amount of educational value. The new prizes are intended to offer real incentives to digital media entrepreneurs who would like to do well by creating new ways to help children learn.”

The Center is accepting submissions in two categories. The first, Breakthroughs in Mobile Learning, invites applicants to submit mobile learning projects for children between the ages of 3-11 that push the boundaries of learning utilizing handheld technologies.

The second category, Breakthroughs in Literacy Learning: Innovate with the Electric Company, invites concepts that promote literacy skills using Sesame Workshop’s The Electric Company—a multimedia literacy campaign designed to reach 6-to-9 year-olds, not only on television, but wherever kids are: in the community, after-school programs and online.

Prizes include $50,000 towards prototype development in the Mobile Learning category and a $10,000 prize and the opportunity to work with Sesame Workshop to turn a literacy idea into a real product for national dissemination via The Electric Company. 

Submissions are due by midnight EST, April 1, 2010. Finalists in each category will be invited to pitch their ideas to industry and educational leaders at an event held at this year’s E3 Expo in June. One winner will be selected in each category. More information, including jury members and rules, can be found here.