In Tandem is excited to announce our new partnership with the Joan Ganz Cooney Center, a nonprofit research and innovation lab within Sesame Workshop that advances positive futures for kids in the digital age.
Together, we are deepening the role of youth in shaping the digital landscape—ensuring that young people’s perspectives are not only heard but actively integrated into research, media, and policy. By combining In Tandem’s expertise in elevating youth voices with the Cooney Center’s leadership in digital learning research, we are creating new opportunities for young people to co-design solutions that impact their lives.
Organization Spotlight
The Joan Ganz Cooney Center conducts pioneering research on emerging technologies and collaborates with technologists, digital media producers, and educators to turn research into action. Their work helps shape policies and investments that create a more supportive digital environment for children.
As an independent innovation lab within Sesame Workshop, the Cooney Center fosters an international network of researchers and youth partners. By bringing young people into the research and design process, they ensure that digital experiences reflect the needs and aspirations of the next generation.
Project Overview
The Joan Ganz Cooney Center and In Tandem are working together to elevate youth as active contributors to digital research and media design. The Cooney Center is in the second year of its Well-being by Design Fellowship, a free professional development program for designers and producers of interactive kids’ technology and media, sponsored by Pinterest, foundry10, and Google.org. The goal of the fellowship is to “develop a supportive ecosystem that encourages tech and media creators to design with children’s best interests in mind, ultimately fostering a safer, more engaging, and more enriching digital environment for kids”. This collaboration will:
- Engage youth in co-designing interactive digital experiences, ensuring their voices shape the future of educational and engaging technology.
- Develop research-backed insights to help technologists, media producers, and educators create digital tools that truly support youth well-being.
- Foster collaboration among youth, researchers, and industry leaders to drive lasting change in the digital space.
By embedding youth perspectives into digital innovation, this collaboration ensures that young people are not just subjects of research, but co-creators of their digital future.
Why In Tandem?
Ensuring that kids' perspectives are incorporated into the design of digital products meant for them is a core part of the Joan Ganz Cooney Center's mission. The Cooney Center is committed to ensuring that these perspectives are representative of children from a wide variety of backgrounds, including geographic, cultural, socioeconomic, and neurodiversity. In Tandem has been an excellent partner in bringing youth voices directly to our Well-Being by Design Fellows, as they seek to make digital experiences that are good for kids.
Additional Learning
🎧 LISTEN to Into the Digital Future podcast featuring hosts Jordan Shapiro (Cooney Center Senior Fellow) and Laura Higgins (Director of Community Safety & Digital Civility at Roblox).
📄 READ Gen Z in the Room: Making Public Media By and With Youth for the Future, a report from the Cooney Center and the Center for Public Broadcasting.
📄 READ Case studies from 2024 fellows: Celebrating Our Inaugural Well-Being by Design Fellows.
▶️ WATCH this insightful session from SXSW 2024 on creating a more inclusive edtech ecosystem that inspires real learning.