Digital Learning: Prepping for the School Year Ahead
Overview
Getting kids back in the classroom this Fall means tackling tech use from many different angles. In the coming months, parents will be contending with how to balance the extra screen time needed for homework, helping kids navigate complex social dynamics online, and striving to teach them what good behavior looks like by example. Additionally, both parents and kids are learning about generative AI in real time, and how these brand new technologies will impact academics and learning as well as everyday life.
On September 8th, we hosted a discussion with a diverse group of experts about how parents and kids can set themselves up for success this school year in the midst of a quickly evolving digital environment at home and at school.
Speakers
Amanda LaTasha Armstrong, PhD
Amanda LaTasha Armstrong, PhD earned her doctoral degree in curriculum and instruction with focuses on learning design and technology and early childhood education from the College of Health, Education, and Social Transformation at New Mexico State University (NMSU). Her research and practice interests include the intersection of early childhood and informal education, learning design and technology, and critical pedagogies. Currently, she is a postdoctoral scholar with Digital Promise, a global non-profit organization that generates solutions from research, practice, and technology to advance equitable education systems. Prior to this position, she was NMSU's Games Lab coordinator, where she led user-testing of products, taught sessions on game review and design with children and youth, and used her research to inform product development. She has been a Community for Advancing Discovery Research in Education (CADRE) Fellow, research fellow with New America's Education Policy program, and a Start with Equity Fellow with Arizona State University's Children's Equity Project. Amanda earned her MS in child development with an administration specialization from Erikson Institute. After completing her master's degree, she worked with Chip Donohue to establish Erikson's Technology in Early Childhood (TEC) Center, where she supported informal and formal educators, families, and administrators in selecting, using, integrating, and evaluating digital media and technology in their environments.
Janell Burley Hofmann
Janell Burley Hofmann is the author of iRules: What Every Tech Healthy Family Needs to Know, International Speaker, Facilitator and Consultant. Founder of iRules Academy & The Slow Tech Movement. Mother of Five.
Judy French
Judy French staffs the Los Angeles office of the National Bullying Prevention Center, where she coordinates outreach and gives presentations, webinars, and workshops to schools, health organizations, and other community groups. Her speaking engagements have reached approximately 30,000 students, parents, educators, & community leaders throughout Ventura, Los Angeles, Orange counties, and beyond. She has facilitated and presented workshops for many years throughout the country on communications skills, conflict resolution, relationship building, leadership, and self-advocacy.
Michael D. Preston, PhD
Michael Preston is the Executive Director of the Joan Ganz Cooney Center, an independent research and innovation lab within Sesame Workshop that advances positive futures for kids in the digital world. The Center conducts research on emerging technologies and collaborates with technologists, digital media producers, and educators to support young people's learning and well-being. Michael has 25 years of experience leading educational innovation and technology programs in K-12, university, and informal learning contexts. His work focuses on child-centered approaches to design, new models for teaching and learning, and systemic change at local and national levels. He co-founded CSforALL, the hub for the national Computer Science for All movement, and led digital learning initiatives at the NYC Department of Education, Columbia University, and New Visions for Public Schools. He earned a PhD in Cognitive Science in Education from Teachers College, Columbia University and a BA from Harvard College.