Digital Learning: Prepping for the School Year Ahead

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 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 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 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.

Dr. Yalda T. Uhls is an internationally recognized research scientist, educator, author, and expert on the science of media and adolescent development, the importance of Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and the evolving nature of parenting. Dr. Uhls’ career bridges the worlds of entertainment and psychological research. She was a movie executive at MGM and Sony who earned an MBA and Ph.D. from UCLA. She now serves as an assistant adjunct professor at UCLA and is the author of Media Moms and Digital Dads: A Fact Not Fear Approach to Parenting in the Digital Age. She is also the proud daughter of Persian immigrants.

Dr. Uhls’s expertise on how media content is created, along with the science of how media affects children, informs her unique perspective and is her inspiration for creating CSS. She is a highly-sought guest speaker on a multitude of topics and frequently speaks about the importance of Authentically Inclusive Representation (AIR) and Gen Z’s relationship with mental health and media at events hosted by prominent organizations and companies. Research conducted by Dr. Uhls has been featured in The New York Times, Time Magazine, Good Morning America, USA Today, NPR and many others. In 2022, she was asked to join the NAACP Entertainment Advisory Council and she has been a member of YouTube’s kids and family council since its inception.

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