Learning from the Best

 

With roots in the Peabody Award winning smart / fun PBS project, "Where in the World Is Carmen Sandiego?", our development process began in response to criticism of New Jersey Network News and the need for abundant, meaningful context in journalism. Beginning with a rough web concept along the lines of “Sesame Street for Grown-Ups,” we began to research the possibilities. Mostly, we focused, and continue to focus, on the ways in which facts, beliefs, knowledge and opinions are used by adults to forge understanding.

 

Law Professors Peter Shane and Oliver Goodenough and attorney (now, Independence Media Board member) Christopher Dunne helped shape an initial concept at the intersection of knowledge and public good. Peter led us to deliberative democracy, the U.S. constitution, and different ways to think about citizenship. Oliver led a deep exploration of public good, shared resources and taxation that resulted in our first full creative workup (story, characters, puppet concepts). Oliver’s enthusiastic support led to brainstorms at Harvard’s Berkman Center for Internet & Society, and a workshop about attention, new media, and meta-thinking we co-produced with Ethan Zuckerberg at MIT Media Lab’s Center for Civic Media. Another Berkman alumnus, PRX’s Jake Shapiro, was among two dozen participants; previous conversations with Jake concentrated on shared interests in participatory media. Long-time MiND advisor Annenberg School for Communications Dean Michael X. Delli Carpini consistently provides useful feedback and connections (including, during this phase, a relationship with his public policy counterpart at the Annenberg Public Policy Center, Kathleen Hall Jamieson). Former WGBH head of research (and Carmen alum), now Johns Hopkins Global Health Professor Dina L.G. Borzekowski helped with the transformation from beliefs into behaviors. Carnegie Mellon Professor of Social and Decision Sciences Baruch Fischoff worked with us on perception, evaluation, communication and action related to risk. Carnegie Mellon E.T.C.’s game design expert Jesse Schell encouraged the use of games for motivated learning. As an extension of creative advisor Dorothy Curley Tecklenburg’s  adventures at Burning Man, we began to think more seriously about human potential with Dr. Paul Scheele. Religious thinkers Rabbi Anna Boswell-Levy, Reverend Blake Blakeslee and Koshin Paley Ellison encouraged our journey.

 

During much of this 2011-2012 period, we worked through project purpose and organization with former NJN Foundation Board Chair, attorney Douglas Eakely, public media consultant and former BBC executive Richard Somerset-Ward, and Chris Dunne. Will Richardson, a “leading thinker and writer about the intersection of social online learning networks and education, Chris Lehmann, Principal of Philadelphia’s Science Leadership Academy, and Rob Paterson, who studies social theory in internet space, have challenged, supported and expanded our vision of the project’s potential in 21st century learning. Visual storytelling expert Scott McCloud helped us with clear presentation of information and characters, and the vitality of story as a means to communicate important ideas. Deep internet thinkers NYU Professor Clay Shirky and U.C. Berkeley’s Howard Rheingold focused on the value that the “people formerly known as the audience” now provide, and encouraged a participatory, extremely  visual experience while confirming our sense that our children’s media expertise was, indeed, valuable. We were reminded of smart uses for games by the University of Arizona’s James Paul Gee, Serious Games Association’s Sue Bohle and Philadelphia Game Lab’s Nathan Solomon; this led to our first public presentation of the concept at the USC Serious Play Conference. Information architect Andrew Hejnas encouraged a big data approach based upon knowledge acquisition and contextually connected learning, and the use of this data to help individuals comprehend their own patterns of learning. The ACLU’s Reggie Shuford taught us to think about very big issues (his powerful example: The New Jim Crow) through the twin lenses of knowledge and beliefs. UPenn law professor Kermit Roosevelt patiently reviewed our prototype script about the Second Amendment, and confirmed that we had done the job with reasonable and appropriate care and gusto.

 

With extensive experience in creative projects, new media, television, internet, games, education, children’s media, international projects and game shows, our creative advisors include: writer-producer (and Carmen co-creator) Dorothy Curley Tecklenburg; writer and former Nickelodeon VP McPaul Smith; former Sundance Channel and Global Education Network VP Jeff Kunken; former MTV, History Channel, and Comcast digital executive Greg Weinstein (now with Univision); children’s media expert and writer (author of the authorized Sesame Street biography) Louise Gikow; former WNET chief engineer Andrea Cummis; professor and Africa non-profit media entrepreneur Paul Falzone; and MiND staff. Former Discovery Channel President Greg Moyer critiqued and helped with strategy. We have added Carmen alumni: art director Laura Brock, cable programmer Charles Nordlander (Food Network’s prime time hits; History’s transformation into a top 5 network), and Ariel Schwartz (Getty Museum, Holocaust Museum, extensive historical storytelling, now with the Philadelphia Museum of Art). Laura added puppeteer Pam Arciero. The creative team at dunnamic, along with composer and researcher Steve Blumenthal, explored visualization of conceptual space, use of animated animals to express global concerns, and interactive story forms. Professor Jeff Benton helped with concept and adult learning needs. Michael Blumenthal provided on-demand art direction, story and casting ideas, scripts, and more.

 

Throughout the process, we’ve been grateful for the participation and many hours of work by the MiND / Independence Media staff, including Jessica Kegelman Silver, Nancy Webb, Katie Kindle, Matthew Christy, Kristy Graybill, and Rebecca Abboud. Landscape architect Michael Coyle helped us to envision a walk-through interface based upon parks and gardens. The next generation of production staff provided extensive research—we learned how much and how little was available via the web—through the efforts of Danielle Burrows, Jeffry Soriano, Justin Pospieck, Raquel Silano, David Lowe-Bianco, Bridg’ette Banger, Jacob Greenawalt, Patrick Viesti, and many volunteers. Beyond research, members of this group developed this website, and researched/wrote/produced the first batch of demo videos.

 

Thanks, too, to Independence Media’s Board of Directors for their ongoing pursuit of innovation and their belief in our community of learners. We are grateful to The Wyncote Foundation for their support as well.

 

To all who are listed, and the many others who have listened, offered advice, suggested books and experts to consult, confirmed or challenged our thinking, a sincere “thank you.”