Jamie Krenn

Students will delve into the fundamentals of social media from both creator and user perspectives. This course offers an interdisciplinary approach, examining the history and evolution of social media platforms and their impact on cognition, mental health, and knowledge acquisition. Through a combination of psychological journal articles and mass communication resources, students will gain a comprehensive understanding of how social media influences and shapes contemporary life, making them feel knowledgeable and informed. Topics covered will include influencer culture, the 2024 election, and the effects of social media on children and adolescents, among other topics. In group projects, students will design influencer pages from conception to execution, incorporating lessons on strategic content creation, audience engagement, and ethical considerations. By integrating theory with practical application, this course offers a nuanced view of social media’s role in modern society and will equip students with the skills to effectively navigate and contribute to this dynamic digital landscape and study its effects on its use and digital safety.

This course analyzes children’s media, specifically preschool media through middle school, using cognitive and developmental psychology theory and methods. We will examine specific educational television programs with regard to cognitive and social developmental issues related to family life, peer relationships, and education issues. Because media has an enormous impact on children’s behavior, this has increasingly become a subject of interest among researchers and the public. This course addresses that interest by applying cognitive and developmental psychological research and theories for the development and production of educational media. In addition, the course helps identify essential elements that determine the positive and negative qualities of media for children. Finally, the course examines and evaluates how psychological theories and frameworks can guide the successful production of children’s media (e.g., social cognitive theory). Projects and assignments will include weekly class discussions on peer-reviewed journal articles, watching television programs, group preschool television pitchbook preparation, child observations interacting with screens, and media artifact critiques as assigned.

All of us today live in a technology-rich environment, which is not only different from the one in which we grew up but also is still changing and evolving rapidly. The course examines the use and design of an array of educational technologies (computer programs, multimedia software, television, video games, websites, and so on) from the perspective of basic research and theory in the human cognitive system, development psychology, and social development areas. The course aims to provide a framework for reasoning about the most developmentally appropriate uses of technologies for children and young adults at different ages. Some of the significant questions that we will focus on include: How are their developmental experiences affected by these technologies? What are the advantages and disadvantages for children using technology, especially for learning? In this class, we will try to touch upon these issues by reading classic literature, researching articles, playing games, watching programs, using apps, and discussing our experiences. Projects and assignments will include weekly class discussions on peer-reviewed journal articles and media artifact critiques written by individual students and through group project work.

This course analyzes children’s media, specifically preschool media through middle school, using cognitive and developmental psychology theory and methods. We will examine specific educational television programs with regard to cognitive and social developmental issues related to family life, peer relationships, and education issues. Because media has an enormous impact on children’s behavior, this has increasingly become a subject of interest among researchers and the public. This course addresses that interest by applying cognitive and developmental psychological research and theories for the development and production of educational media. In addition, the course helps identify essential elements that determine the positive and negative qualities of media for children. Finally, the course examines and evaluates how psychological theories and frameworks can guide the successful production of children’s media (e.g., social cognitive theory). Projects and assignments will include weekly class discussions on peer-reviewed journal articles, watching television programs, group preschool television pitchbook preparation, child observations interacting with screens, and media artifact critiques as assigned.

The three critical divisions in product development—research, production, and content—are to assess impact, understanding, and appeal and to understand how to position the market and measure their performance in a competitive environment. With that, taking a child-first approach to product development is often challenging, especially applying it to culinary education with young children through a cognitive science and developmental psychology lens. Qualitatively studying culinary skills in children through various media aims to bring positive social experiences into any classroom or home in order to create confident, capable eaters, problem solvers, and informed decision-makers. This course will provide tangible skills to assist with final product outcomes, as gathering data from children proves challenging in the field due to developing minds and language skills. The goal is to understand how cooking is a lifelong skill for young children. This course is for students interested in cognitive and developmental psychology research and theories on developing and producing educational culinary media for children. Educational media is examined as wide-ranging: print, television, and mobile devices, including web-based applications. Students will have an opportunity to focus on qualitative data collection from existing children’s media and culinary practices in a qualitative format digestible to development teams or production companies. Through conference work, students will learn how to record qualitative (i.e., observational) data from children, format lessons related to culinary skills and recipe development, and design ideas supported by class readings to be tested in the field and potentially presented to developers. Students will be expected to attend and actively participate in weekly seminars and facilitate group discussions of relevant contemporary research articles; work at least two hours throughout the course within a lab and/or community setting appropriate for their projects or otherwise engage in active research; and lead the class in a lesson related to culinary skills and/or media-focused applications for young children.

All of us today grow up in a technology-rich environment, which is not only different from the one we grew up in but also is still changing and evolving rapidly. The course examines the use and design of an array of educational technologies (computer programs, multimedia software, television, video games, websites, and so on) from the perspective of basic research and theory in the human cognitive system, development psychology, and social development areas. The course aims to provide a framework for reasoning about the most developmentally appropriate uses of technologies for children and young adults at different ages. Some of the significant questions we would focus on include: How are their developmental experiences affected by these technologies? What are the advantages and disadvantages of using technology as a child, especially for learning? In this class, we will try to touch upon these issues by reading classic literature, research articles, playing games, watching programs, using apps, and discussing our experiences. Projects and assignments will include weekly class discussions on peer-reviewed journal articles and media artifact critiques written by individual students and through group project work.