Dramatic change, persistent challenges: a five-year view of children’s educational media as resources for equity

Abstract

During the 2010–2015 grant cycle for the US Department of Education’s Ready to Learn initiative, media and technology resources designed for young children and their caregivers changed dramatically. From an analysis of existing literature and interviews with 25 US researchers, producers, and thought leaders within the early childhood education and preschool media fields, researchers from the Education Development Center and SRI International identified themes that characterize the last five years’ changing media landscape: (1) the state of educational media, (2) considerations of developmental appropriateness, (3) public media’s support for children with limited financial and social resources, (4) out-of-school learning, and (5) in-school learning. The paper also presents innovations that interviewees believe will shape the media landscape in the next half decade, especially as the public media system continues to serve families living in communities with high concentrations of poverty.