Kids and Educational Media: Desire to Learn vs. Design to Teach

[Commentary] As children enter the primary years, their increasing independence and broadening interests result in their pursuit of learning from media in the interest of a passion or curiosity -- resources like YouTube or Google are among kids' favorites -- supplanting consumption of packaged media designed to teach something. One major purpose for the Children's Television Act was to ensure educational content on free media; however, it's condescending and wasteful to give mediocre content to those with the fewest resources. Perhaps it's time to revisit the option of commercial broadcasters supporting public service media instead of airing unwatched programs. For years, my mantra has been that the educational value of media has as much to do with the child's needs, interests and abilities as with the attributes of the program, game, app or website. Maybe what we currently offer isn't relevant or real for older kids, and before we pursue a goal to foster more content creation in curriculum areas parents rate as weak (e.g., science), we need to study why current offerings don't work for kids.

[David Kleeman is President of the American Center for Children and Media, an industry-led creative professional development and resource center.]