Turning your TV Time into Quality Time
March 6, 2008 Issue #3
Christine L. Pollock, Editor Ranny Levy, Publisher
By subscription only!
Christine L. Pollock, Editor |
Ranny Levy, Publisher Granny Ranny's Addenda |
Plugged In Parents/Educators
"Flight 29 Down: Hotel Tango"
Azure waves wash onto a white, sandy beach where a group of teens gather tropical fruit and set up shelters. Paradise? Not when you survivors of a plane wreck, and this idyllic setting is the background for an arduous attempt at survival. After weeks on the island, the kids in “Flight 29 Down” are starting to wonder if they are marooned there for life. Their supplies are dwindling and tempers are soaring. Will the teens ever be rescued? Find out now “Flight 29 Down: Hotel Tango” hits the shelves.
Starring Corbin Bleu, Hallee Hirsh, Johnny Pacar and Lauren Storm, “Hotel Tango” is full of adventure and ingenuity as the teens learn to work together, even when they don’t like each other, for their own survival. One eleven-year-old KIDS FIRST! child juror sums up the finale: It’s an awesome show! They have some good ideas like the garden they plant and how they work together. The things they are doing to get along are like the things we learn in school -- like how a democracy works. I loved all the episodes, and it was good seeing how it ended.
As a parent and juror, I thoroughly enjoyed watching it with my children. I had no qualms with my eight-year-old watching it because it was clean, and never too scary.
"Flight 29 Down" won the 2007 NAPPA gold award, and the entire series, including the finale is now available on DVD.
Entertainment Insider News
Dr. Michael Levine On Children in the Digital Age
The Joan Ganz Cooney Center takes children’s programming very seriously. Whether it’s going back to its roots where Sesame Street paved the way in children’s programming, or whether it’s in the research showing how to best educate our children, the people at the Joan Ganz Cooney Center show that they not only have smarts, they really care. The Center's Executive Director, Michael Levine, PhD, took a few minutes to share with us the impact of media in this digital age, especially in regards to their research in “D is for Digital.”
CP: In your opinion, and based on your studies, what should producers be focusing on in order to best help our children viewers?
ML: Producers should encourage interactive – and particularly intergenerational – play through their products. The bulk of digital media products currently on the market follow the model of one child per screen, however human relationships and parental involvement are key to a child’s healthy development and success in a global age. The recent success of products such as the Wii indicates that the market is seeking products that they can play together in groups and as a family. Additionally, given that children spend nearly as much time interacting with media as they do in school, producers have not only an opportunity but a responsibility to produce digital media that furthers children’s learning. In the production of media with specific learning objectives, producers should base their products on pedagogy and research, and capitalize on the wealth of knowledge in the academic community, analogous to the model used in developing Sesame Street.
CP: If you were not limited by funds or politics, what is one of the biggest changes you would like to see incorporated in upcoming media?
ML: Although digital media is ubiquitous in the world children are growing up in today, finding the positive potential of new media to accelerate children's learning is not yet part of our national conversation. As Joan Ganz Cooney - creator of Sesame Street and namesake of our center - says: “If we can harness media as a powerful teaching tool, we can help children grow-up as literate, responsible global citizens. Now is the time to turn the new media that children have a natural attraction to into learning tools that will build their knowledge and broaden their perspectives."
Read Levine’s complete interview on the KIDS FIRST! News Blog.
Blogs: Up-to-Date News from our President and VP
Granny
Ranny's Addenda
KIDS FIRST! Endorsed Nim's Island In Theaters April 4
Abigail Breslin (Little Miss Sunshine)and her adventures in the tropics as a precocious yet self-sufficient 11-year-old, will ...Read It!
Ann's Marketing Memes
"You're never too old, too wacky, too wild, to pick up a book and read to a child."
Read Across America March 3rd Horton Hears A Who! (read-along book) Free to Your Classroom. For the first time ever...
- Read
It!
ABOUT CQCM AND KIDS FIRST!
The Coalition for Quality Children's Media is a national, nonprofit organization founded in 1991 whose mission is to teach children critical viewing skills and to increase the visibility and availability of quality children's media. More.
