Joseph Blatt

director, tech, innovation & ed., HGSE

Joe Blatt is interested in the effects of media content and technology on development, learning, and civic behavior. His courses span both formal and informal settings. Blatt has created television series and Web sites for many kinds of learning environments, and he is now helping to renew the historic relationship between HGSE and Sesame Workshop, as recently documented in *the Harvard Gazette*. Blatt is also co-project director of the Usable Knowledge Web site, which makes HGSE faculty research available and accessible to practitioners. Blatt's production company, RiverRun Media, creates series and specials for national public television. He began in children's programming and created a number of educational series (*For All Practical Purposes*, *Against All Odds*). In recent years, Blatt has concentrated on science television, most visibly as an executive producer of Scientific American Frontiers and as a producer of several episodes of *NOVA*. He created *BreakThrough*, a series about the accomplishments of contemporary African American, Latino, and Native American scientists and engineers. Blatt recently completed *Surprises in Mind*, a primetime documentary about children's capacity for mathematical thinking.