Teaching through handheld devices, etc.
Makers of history/civics games enter new phase of funding competition
CPB’s $20 million American History & Civics Initiative, slowly progressing toward classrooms, has cleared another hurdle: All seven finalists that were announced in July 2007 have presented prototypes to CPB.
The corporation will announce its choice of “one or more” projects for full production funding sometime in 2009, according to its business plan for the year. CPB chose Boston’s WGBH to oversee the initiative in 2007, assisting with prototyping.
Initiative Director Andy Hoffman says he did a “circuit ride” to check in on each project every 60 days or so, offering support and answering questions.
The projects use video gaming, cell phones, TVs, iPods, computers and other technologies to teach history and civics to middle- and high-school students.
CPB launched the project in March 2005 with a request for proposals and received 88, about half from pubTV stations. Seven received grants of $400,000 to $900,000 for R&D of multiplatform prototypes. Each team has several partners, ranging from hip game designers to academic researchers.
For the latest step, the seven prototype developers gave CPB written proposals and completed oral presentations Dec. 8. A panel of about 20 education experts attended.
The reviewers were “some of the best people in the country to view these projects,” says Chris Bryson of Lion TV in New York, e.p. of the prototype HD: Lab. “They asked sharp and smart questions.”
Formerly The Young History Detectives, HD: Lab is a co-production of Oregon Public Broadcasting, Lion TV, the Gilder Lehrman Institute, Magic Lantern Productions and others. The project takes OPB’s popular History Detectives show into the classroom, providing students “the tools to do primary research and investigations” into historical artifacts, Bryson says. Results will be shared via website.
Some finalists changed plans as they developed their projects. Liberty Under the Law, which teaches the modern relevance of the Constitution and Bill of Rights, was retitled Participation Nation. The plan shifted from a game-based simulated experience into an online “place for ideas to be discussed” among students, says Juan Devis, director of new media production at KCET.
The prototype focused on the battle for integration of Central High School in Little Rock, Ark. Its partners include KCET, The Center for Civic Education, Activision Inc., USC Game Lab and the National Center for Teaching History in Schools.
The other finalists:
Young American Heroes. This multiplatform project aims to teach U.S. history to middle-school students through stories of ordinary kids doing extraordinary things at seminal moments in the past. Connecticut-based Docere Palace Studios partners with Connecticut Public Television, Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History and EDSITEment.
Oceana (formerly Virtual Congress). This web-based game will simulate the creation and passing of a bill. The Center on Congress at Indiana University is partnered with WTIU and the Close Up Foundation.
Flashback. This reality TV-show/online game will have high-school students racing to complete curriculum-based missions. Partnering are San Francisco-based Floating World Media and OPB.
MissionAmerica. This online adventure video game features 10 events (“missions”) in American history. WNET is partnered with Electric Funstuff, American Social History Project at City University of New York, NYC Department of Education and the National Council on Social Studies.
American Dynasties. Students interact with major figures of U.S. history in a multiplayer online role-playing game. The Center for New American Media is partnered with Maryland Public Television and Muzzy Lane Software.
Web page posted Jan. 6, 2009
Copyright 2008 by Current LLC
