It’s been almost 40 years since the world first learned how to get to Sesame Street, and now the non-profit organization behind the classic preschool series has created the non-partisan, non-profit research and production institute, The Joan Ganz Cooney Center.

Named for the founder of the series, the center has been established to explore the ways that emerging media can help children learn. Focusing on elementary-school children, the Center will conduct and support research, create new media properties, and attempt to stimulate a national dialogue on how interactive tech can be utilized to help accelerate kids’ learning.

The inaugural report The Enduring Power of Pow! Wham!: Children, Digital Media, and Our Nation’s Future, includes key action recommendations to advance children’s literacy skills, and to address learning gaps that are growing with the new digital age.

More info on the study and the organization can be found at www.joanganzcooneycenter.org.