Sandra L. Calvert
Professor, Georgetown University
Young Children's Toy Play: Linking Entertainment Media to Early Development

Sandra L. Calvert, the Director of the Children's Digital Media Center, is a Professor of Psychology at Georgetown University. Her recently published book, Children's Journeys Through the Information Age (McGraw Hill, 1999), provides a critical synthesis of the research about children's social and cognitive development in relation to information technologies. She and co-editors Amy B. Jordan and Rodney R. Cocking have recently completed Children in the Digital Age, a book that examines how the changing media landscape impacts children's development (Praeger, 2002). Her current research involves the role that interactivity and identity play in children's learning from entertainment media through a collaborative research center funded by the National Science Foundation.

Professor Calvert consults for organizations such as Nickelodeon online, the Children's Television Workshop, Blue's Clues, and Sega, to influence the development of children's television programs, computer and Internet software, and video games.