by Carly Shuler, Ed.M. (2010) Getting Over the Slump: Innovation Strategies to Promote Children's Learning by James Paul Gee, PhD (2010) Initiatives The Cooney Center focuses on four key strategies: action research, innovation and model development, partnership building and dissemination. These strategies reflect the center's field-building mission, which calls for the creation of new knowledge, the creative application of that knowledge in practice, and the engagement of key decision-makers in making investments to drive innovation and scale up what works. By/With/For Youth: Inspiring Next Gen Public Media Audiences Sponsored by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, By/With/For Youth: Inspiring Next Gen Public Media Audiences is a research and development project that works to support the public media sector as it evolves to engage tween and teen audiences. In an effort to spur innovation among public media stations, the Cooney Center launched the Next Gen Accelerator program, which provides small grants to 12 local television and radio stations to pilot efforts to engage youth audiences. National STEM Video Game Competition The Cooney Center, in collaboration with E-Line Media, hosts the National STEM Video Game Challenge as part of the "Educate to Innovate" campaign, which President Barack Obama launched in November 2009 to "harness the excitement and educational potential of video games to advance STEM learning (science, technology, engineering, and math)." Cooney Center Fellows Program Cooney Center Fellows assist with high priority research, program development and dissemination activities that examine the potential and challenges associated with digital media applications in promoting children's learning and healthy development. In addition, the center has established a research fund to help support priority areas. Digital Age Teacher Preparation Council The Cooney Center, in collaboration with the Stanford Educational Leadership Institute, convened a Digital Age Teacher Preparation Council, co-chaired by Linda Darling-Hammond of Stanford University and Michael Levine. The council's sixteen members from academia, industry, and policy assessed current practices in early education and elementary school teaching and designed a professional development "blueprint" to advance the use of effective digital media in teaching and learning, with a special emphasis on instruction for underserved students. The final report was issued on November 1, 2011. People at the Cooney Center Founders Joan Ganz Cooney, Chairman of the Executive Committee, Sesame Workshop Lloyd N. Morrisett, Chairman Emeritus of the Board, Sesame Workshop Gary E. Knell Former President and CEO, Sesame Workshop, Current CEO, National Geographic Society Michael H. Levine, PhD, Founding