Curriculum
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High-level curriculum focus areas:
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​Personal & Social Wellness
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Responsibility to Others
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How the World Works
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Progress & the Future
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Build 5-year plan for each focus area:
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For each, sixteen topics
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For each, sixteen lessons
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​Build professional and volunteer curriculum team
Technology
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Rapid prototyping, testing, and results
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Serve multiple learning styles
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Work across many types of media
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Efficient transmedia production workflows
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Linear and interactive distribution to an authentic global learning community
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Wide and deep use of social media
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Shared access to big data so the community can observe and analyze learning in progress.
Cognitive Science & Adult Learning
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Collect and evaluate current theories
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Build advisory board consisting of cognitive and social scientists, philosophers, educators, next-level thinkers.
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Engage community members in meta-thinking about what "everyone" should know.
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Devise research models and measurement tools to evaluate and improve outcomes.
Creative & Editorial Production
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Create imaginative environment to tell stories
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Extend environment in physical digital space
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Develop cast of regular & continuing characters
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Develop sensibility for music, comedy, celebrities, sketches, non-video
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Develop research and editorial processes to assure balanced, reliable, context
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Goals: clear thinking and understanding
Formal and informal, serious and funny, clear and incisive, illogical and based in beliefs, biased storytelling and historical interpretation, what is and is not known, simplicity and complexity, incompleteness, context and the lack of it… all of these define contemporary learning and understanding. The evolution of our thinking about learning is the result of our own deep exploration of ideas and practices in media, education and public policy communications. Some representative influences are described below. (All logos are clickable.)
Lessons learned from...
Participation leads to learning.
The audience is easily distracted (throughout Sesame Street’s development, the level of distraction was routinely measured). Passive viewing is far less engaging than active participation
Learning is fun. (not quite a lesson, but a helpful reminder)
Although pre-schoolers are presented with many choices, they choose Sesame Street because they like to watch it. (Sometimes, life is as simple as that.)
Characters and stories ease understanding.
When a character contends with a challenge, learning takes on a life of its own. Abstraction and suspension of disbelief encourage free thinking, and association with real world situations.
Hire very smart, very talented professionals.
Unbelievably important, rarely mentioned as a critical element--quality of the presentation is everything.
Psychology, curriculum and creativity must be fully integrated.
Successful in 140 "Sesame Street" countries, this not-so-secret formula is rarely used by other producers. We include "technology" (social, interactive, data analysis, and distribution) as our fourth essential
People respond to a safe place to learn.
The Sesame Street neighborhood provides a warm sense of acceptance and shared learning.
Music, comedy and games ease the path to understanding.
They provide multiple points of entry for diverse learning styles, and feed the appetite for fun.
Surround smart and talented people with terrific advisors.
Learning is always a deeply collaborative enterprise. Constructing a successful learning enterprise, moreso.
Everyone learns, and everyone teaches.
No distinction between those who learn and those who teach. Everybody learns from everybody else.
"We think (a multiple platform strategy) adds to and increases relevance.
We try to program the same curriculum that we have on our broadcast show globally across all of the platforms so that children get multiple exposures to the same curriculum, whether they're watching TV,
or on an iPad, or on a mobile phone.. (this approach) really increases and deepens the impact."
-- Terry Fitzpatrick, Chief Content and Distribution Officer
Always find the humor.
Even the most serious issues can be made funny.
Comedians and journalists serve similar purposes.
They tell stories and attract a crowd. Then, they ask the crowd to think.
Always raise the issue.
No matter how difficult, raise the issue, ask the questions.
Take on big ideas and big issues.
A comedy series can address dietary supplements, incarceration, abusive advertising, immigration reform, police militarization, payday loans, nuclear weapons, income inequality, much more— so long as it is in depth, carefully researched, and executed with a passion.
Open your eyes to the world.
Americans don’t know much about most nations in the world. Comedy opens the door to democratic elections in India, debt in Argentina, LGBT rights in Uganda, the behavior of the Australian prime minister — stories mostly ignored by mainstream U.S. media.
Social learning attracts an audience.
Adults enjoy learning together in a social setting.
Learning-on-demand makes sense.
For all of the same reasons as video-on-demand makes sense for busy adults, learning-on-demand is a better practical solution than scheduled learning.
Learn from experts, listen to their stories. Every TED speaker is an expert who presents knowledge in a story format. TED experts share deeply personal knowledge and experience.
Lessons learned from...
In 1968, Sesame Street’s development team did more than develop curriculum. They reinvented the whole idea of learning through television. In essence, CTW (Children’s Television Workshop, now Sesame Workshop) integrated the work of three teams: Child Psychology, Curriculum Development, and Creative Production. This breakthrough approach--based upon a high level of collaboration from concept through production--has allowed Sesame Workshop to build successful educational programming for children in 140 counties.
Our update adds Technology (long part of the "Sesame Street" story) to complete the updated model.
Updating the CTW Model
Learning From Others
Will adults respond to serious issues if they are presented with music, comedy, and puppets? In a word, "yes."
"Radiolab is a radio show about curiosity. Where sound illuminates ideas, and the boundaries blur between science, philosophy, and human experience."
A global collaboration based upon sharing accurate information, and constantly updating our vast knowledge base. A stunning achievement.
A pop-up elemental learning adventure, boundless in its curiosity and sharing philosophy. Extreme creativity meets extreme learning-- Burning Man provides a spectacular model.
Easily one of the coolest places on earth--where learning and thinking about the future has been common practice for decades.
A BBC, then NBC, series about hot social issues, presented with singing, dancing and comedy. Our starting place--where you'll also find the roots of The Daily Show.
Puppets on a space adventure, old movies with silly commentary, and a comic book vibe. Big influence on a geeky comedy generation.
PBS's premiere documentary series, a terrific example of solid journalism now available on every transmedia platform. We're interested in many of the same topics with a wider gamut of perspectives.
Will adults watch an animated series? 26 seasons into the run, the answer seems to be "yes." Will adults watch a web series with puppets? (Naysayers?)
How to teach geography and global awareness: combine a flimsy detective story, original characters, celebrities, music, comedy, and a game show.
Brilliant Harvard Law professor does the impossible: he captivates students with his questions and stories about justice, ethics and fair play by simply standing on a stage talking. It's called teaching, and we should probably remember how effective it can be.
Pee-wee Herman's world is complete imagination--an innocent love of learning that comes alive with live, animated and puppet characters that push the boundaries (an armchair with a personality, etc.) Why can't learning be this much fun?
The annual digital media exhibition has always been cutting-edge, a stunning revelation of just how close we come to alternative realities.
Despite the recent movie, Mr. Peabody and his boy Sherman survive as the smart part of the old Rocky & Bullwinkle cartoon series. Smart can be cool.
Pure imagination and discovery: learn as you go, repeat the lessons learned, continue to explore. These lessons are demonstrated in this striking game--which is fun to play, and challenging. A smart way to think about learning.
RSAnimate popularized the white board animation, stunning in its effectiveness as a tool to visualize complicated ideas. Apparently, the appearance of the drawing hand activates the brain for specific types of learning.
We've looked at hundreds of puppets, and we keep coming back to these rascals, called Mongrels, the stars of their own BBC series (now cancelled). We like the life in the eyes, and the way the series is written and directed to take no prisoners--it's fast, smart and funny.