KIDS FIRST! News

On May 9, 2008, the Joan Ganz Cooney Center held its first annual Symposium called “Logging Into The Playground: How Digital Media Are Shaping Children’s Learning.” Leaders from across research, communications, education and policy convened to set a new benchmark for the way in which digital media is used to improve children’s literacy, learning and development.

Michael Levine, Executive Director for The Joan Ganz Cooney Center, said: “Digital media is driving what is now a multi-billion-dollar business that shapes the learning and entertainment experiences of most school-age children.” He added: “It is our mission to counsel the industry’s movers, shakers and policymakers and provide a needed bridge to what has become traditional education’s fourth and fifth “Rs”, reform and research. Wise and informed investments will harness the growing power and full potential of digital media’s use in educating young children.”

Gee’s recommendations include: funding digital research and development to invest in what works; establishing a digital teacher corps for the nation’s lowest performing schools; designing alternative assessments and new standards; creating community-based literacy tech centers across the country; establishing Governor’s digital partnership schools; and finally, modernizing public broadcasting investments in digital platforms for the next generation.
The agenda for the day-long symposium also featured child-led demonstrations of new technologies and a hands-on forum promoting two dozen of the best digital media initiatives in the world. Attendees were shown one of the first demonstrations of BOOM BLOX, a new game for Nintendo Wii developed by EA in association with director Steven Spielberg along with promising emerging technologies from exhibitors including: Community Building with Google Earth by Google Earth creator and Google Chief Technology Advocate, Michael T. Jones; Web-based books in English and Spanish by the Center for Applied Special Technology, to help individuals, especially those most at risk, to gain knowledge, skills, and enthusiasm for reading; IBM’s Traducelo AHORA! (”Translate Now!”) that uses IBM WebSphere software to translate web sites from English to Spanish for schools, community organizations, as well as parents so they can correspond directly with teachers no matter what language is spoken at home; and an Apple in the Classroom demo by Kathy Shirley, an Apple Distinguished Educator, on using iPods to strengthen reading fluency and comprehension.

More details on the reports and Symposium are found on the Joan Ganz Cooney website.

qubo®, the TV and online entertainment service for children, announced that it has created nutritional guidelines that will dictate advertising decisions on the qubo Channel, as well as on the qubo broadcast programming blocks that air on NBC, ION Television and Telemundo. The effort highlights qubo’s mission of promoting pro-social values including literacy and healthy living. The announcement was made by Kerry Hughes, senior vice president, advertising sales and partnerships for qubo.

qubo’s effort marks the latest step in ION Media Networks’ innovative advertising and media initiative to combat childhood obesity announced last summer. Both qubo and ION Life networks are undertaking a series of programs aimed at improving children’s health and reducing the rates of childhood obesity in the U.S. qubo is a member of the Ad Council’s Coalition on Healthy Children while Brandon Burgess, Chairman and CEO of ION Media Networks, which is qubo’s majority shareholder, is actively involved in the FCC’s Task Force on Media & Childhood Obesity.

To create these nutritional guidelines, qubo enlisted the help of nationally renowned author and expert on childhood obesity, Goutham Rao, MD, clinical director of the Weight Management and Wellness Center at Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh of UPMC ( see bio on Dr. Rao below). The guidelines list acceptable nutritional intake limits for meals and snacks broken down by calories, grams of fat, as well as saturated and trans fat, sugar, protein, fiber and sodium.

Concerned with the growing trend towards childhood obesity, qubo called for these guidelines to guide on-air and online advertising decisions and to ensure parents that qubo provides a safe environment for children with positive messages about healthy living.

“By only accepting advertising from companies that meet this nutritional criteria, we believe that we have set the gold standard for the kids entertainment industry and are helping kids make healthy decisions about what they eat,” said Hughes.

“We are committed to combating childhood obesity through all of our networks-analog, digital, on-line and soon, mobile,” said John Lawson, ION Media Networks executive vice president for policy and strategic initiatives. “We hope that qubo’s nutritional guidelines send a strong message to parents, policymakers and our business partners about our dedication to the wellness of America’s kids.”

“Reversing the epidemic of childhood obesity will require a major, long-term commitment by parents, teachers, physicians and other health care professionals, political leaders and public policy experts,” said Dr. Rao. “qubo’s guidelines are a great first step in the right direction. Children are bombarded with ads for unhealthy foods. One of the easiest ways to reach the largest number of children and families is to make sure the foods and beverages advertised to children meet basic requirements for good nutrition. It was a privilege to work with qubo in creating these guidelines.”

In addition to announcing its new nutritional guidelines, qubo also unveiled this month a series of Public Service Announcements (PSA’s) created in conjunction with the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services (HHS), the Ad Council and the U.S. Olympic Committee designed to promote exercise and healthy eating to children. Featuring several U.S. Olympic hopefuls, as well as qubo’s popular animated characters from VeggieTales, Jane and the Dragon and 3-2-1 Penguins!, the TV spots began airing this month through donated time on the qubo Channel, ION Television and NBC and will be distributed to television stations nationwide by the Ad Council.

About qubo:
qubo® is a bilingual, multi-platform entertainment destination for children that focuses on literacy, values and healthy lifestyles while celebrating the unlimited possibilities of a child’s imagination. Formed in 2006 by an unprecedented alliance of leading distribution partners and content players in children’s television, including Scholastic, ION Media Networks, NBC Universal, Corus Entertainment and Classic Media, qubo offers dynamic content in multiple environments. Currently broadcast on NBC Saturday mornings, ION TV network Fridays afternoons and Telemundo weekend mornings (check local listings) qubo also includes a 24/7 qubo Channel and website, www.qubo.com.

CANVAS, the narrative psa directed by Arlene Bogna, will be screening at two upcoming indie film festivals which celebrate independent films and women filmmakers.
Indie Spirit Film Festival

The Indie Spirit Film Festival is an annual event for filmmakers
and film lovers alike, with a superb program of feature films, shorts, docs, animation and many other films from around the world.

SCREENING : Saturday, April 26, 2008
The Independent Film Society of Colorado, Colorado Springs, CO

Show Me Something Real

A film festival honoring single mothers and women filmmakers,
the Show Me Something Real Film Festival is designed to inspire
and empower other women to be creative and expressive in their
lives and for everyone to recognize the voices of women filmmakers.
Proceeds from the screening will benefit the National Partnership
for Women and Families.

SCREENING : Monday, March 24, 2008 - 7:00 PM
Regal Arbor Cinema @ 9828 Great Hills Trail, Austin, TX 78759

The KIDS FIRST! Award winner for screenplays is hitting the Beverly Hills Film Festival on Sunday April 13 then run in the finals in his old stomping ground the Deep South in the Charleston International Film Festival the first weekend in May. Screenplay writer Christopher Canole tells more about his film here.

King Jimmy was picked up by a minor league baseball team to play at the beginning of their game. They play the happy monkey dancing when they score a home run. It’s wild. King Jimmy truly has gone round the world.  Learn about “The Ballad of King Jimmy here.”

When you submit a title to KIDS FIRST!, who knows where it can take you? The award-winning producers of “The Tillamook Treasure” can tell you since their film was picked up for distribution through their KIDS FIRST! connections.

Independent title, “The Tillamook Treasure” won the Moving Pictures Magazine award at the KIDS FIRST! Best Award ceremony in October of 2007. Equally impressive, the film was created mostly by a single family. Mom, Jane Beaumont Hall is the Director, Dad, Richard Doyon is the Executive Producer and their daughters, Suzanne Marie and Janine Doyon, played major roles in the movie. Jane Hall took a few moments to share with us what KIDS FIRST! has done for them and their film:

We saw that KIDS FIRST! was making quality children’s programming available to many children by traveling around the country. Our film is about a young girl whose family is breaking up, and she discovers what really matters as she hunts for a buried treasure. Our movie was right in line with the good values that KIDS FIRST! promotes – wholesome and fun.

KIDS FIRST! sent our film out to many festivals which increased the awareness of the movie. Then, as a surprise, they asked if they could rep the movie for distribution purposes. We said “yes” and they arranged with Maitland Primrose for North American distribution. Since distribution is the name of the game in filmmaking, they were tremendously helpful on the business end of our movie as well as the festival promotion. Maitland Primrose also cares about social values, but it is unlikely we would have connected to them without KIDS FIRST!’s assistance.

I think the biggest piece of advice I could offer new independent producers is in the writing. Get the best script you can before starting pre-production because time becomes a factor after you start. Also, our casting director, Dino Ladki, was of immeasurable help in finding quality actors to star in our production. The bigger the stars, the easier distribution is to secure. We had an amazing cohesive team that got stronger as time went on. Obviously, the Director of Photography is a huge factor and Rene Jung of Jurifilm, is a saint to work with. He made the pictures sing even with the budgetary factors we were constrained by. But bottom line it is the writing.

We are so pleased to have won the Best Independent Film Award from KIDS FIRST! Having this kind of endorsement from as well respected an organization as KIDS FIRST! means a lot in letting the viewing public know that the movie is family material and well worth seeing. Not only that, but the Awards Ceremony was great fun!

**Remember, the deadline for festival submissions for the Second Quarter 2008 is January 15! Details and applications can be found on the KIDS FIRST! web site.

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