CDMC | Children's Digital Media Center

Welcome to CDMC

Welcome to The Children's Digital Media Center. We are a consortium of scholars located at Georgetown University, University of Massachussetts- Amherst, University of Texas- Austin, University of Pennsylvania, Northwestern University, and Cornell University, dedicated to understanding how digital media influences children's development.

We are primarily funded by the National Science Foundation. We also disseminate information to policymakers and businesses about our findings in order to create a quality children's media environment. Please join us in making this vision a reality.

Sandra Calvert, Professor of Psychology
Director, Children's Digital Media Center

Toddlers Learn Early Math Skills
From Elmo

Elmo seriating nesting cups on video

Researchers Lauricella, Gola, and Calvert from the Children's Digital Media Center found that toddlers performed a sequencing task better when an Elmo puppet demonstrated it than when an unfamiliar puppet performed the same exact task. The study, funded by the National Science Foundation and a Fred Rogers Memorial Scholarship, demonstrates the importance of meaningful characters for toddlers' early learning.

"Very young children often have difficulty learning from videos," said Calvert. "But when a trusted 'friend' delivers the message, learning is much better. The findings have important implications for young children's mastery of important mathematical skills in a 21st century learning environment."

Read more here.

Recent Presentations

Dr. Sandra Calvert presented an invited talk titled "Digital Media and Children's Creativity" at the Digital Childhoods Programme, Scottish Universities Insight Institute, University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, Scotland in June 2011.

Dr. Sandra Calvert presented a talk titled "Educational Media" to a Macedonian delegation for the U.S. Department of State's International Visitor Leadership Program.

In The News

Rethinking the Children's Television Act

In June 2009, Professor Calvert testified to the Senate Commitee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation regarding recommendations to update the Children's Television Act for the digital media age. Dr. Calvert encouraged the formation of a public-private partnership to bring together broadcasters, policymakers, and academics to improve the educational quality of children's programming. Click here to read Dr. Calvert's full testimony and to watch the webcast.

Contingent Computer Interactions for Young Children's Learning from Media

Eighty-eight percent of 24- 36-month-olds are exposed to screen media, spending an average of 2 hours on a typical day with television programs, DVDs, computer games, and video games. Not all screen media are alike, however. A video presentation cannot respond contingently to a child's actions like an adult or a computer game can. We asked whether playing an interactive computer game improves children's success at transferring information from the screen to a real-life situation.

30- and 36-month-olds either watched a video of characters popping out of their hiding place, played an interactive computer game where the characters popped out of their hiding place after the children pressed a computer key, or watched an adult find the hidden character through a one-way window. Children who watched the adult find the characters or played the interactive computer game found the characters in the real-life room better than the children who watched the video. These findings suggest that children's learning from a screen can be improved by adding an interactive component to the experience.
To read this paper click here.

Welcome to Cornell University, our newest CDMC member!