Digital Kids Research

Digital Kids is an educational media research company led by Dr. Cynthia Chiong and a team of contract researchers. We aim to use good research designs and practices to help our clients develop effective educational tools and teaching methods that best help young children learn.

Digital Kids specializes in the following:

Children’s Technology and Learning

One fundamental way to improve how we educate children is by improving the materials we use to teach them. With not only televisions and computers, but also smartphones, videogames, iPads and more, there are now an abundance of platforms to connect with children. However, designing an application that is fun and also an effective teaching tool can be tricky. Digital Kids can help clients develop, design, and evaluate digital media products for teaching young children.

In the Classroom and At Home

Having an effective educational game or interactive e-book may not be the finish line. Teachers are often left with the problem of how to incorporate a new tool into their everyday classroom. Should they have their students use it in small groups or individually? As an afterschool activity, or as part of the main lesson? The same goes for parents. How should they be involved when their child uses this new tool? Digital Kids can help clients to evaluate what type of environment and instruction is needed for their product.

Grants

Great ideas take money. Digital Kids can help seek funding opportunities through private and government grants. Dr. Chiong was the Principal Investigator on a Small Business Innovation Research grant (SBIR) which can award up to $1,150,000 and has been involved in successfully applying for and conducting other multi-million dollar grants from the National Institute of Health (NIH) and the Institute of Education Sciences (IES).