Panwapa: Sesame Workshop takes on the WORLD

Sesame Street’s parent company Sesame Workshop has launched its newest initiative for 4- to 7-year olds: Panwapa. The project aims to foster the foundation of global citizenship and community participation, and consists of a DVD, print materials, and an incredibly complex interactive website akin to social networking in a completely safe and anonymous environment for young users.All materials are available in five languages (English, Spanish, Arabic, Mandarin, and Japanese) and feature an entirely new crop of Muppets, including Azibo the Monster (you know, like Elmo, but green), KoKo, a cute penguin, and Athina the smart and culturally savvy Owl.

Although the filmed aspects of Panwapa — which means “here on this earth” in Tshiluba, a Bantu language spoken in the Democratic Republic of Congo — are colorful, funny, and superbly produced, the really exciting and most central aspect of this project is the website’s social networking and community interactivity.

How does it work?

(….Click the link below to continue reading this great review…)

» Blog Archive » Get Out Your Passports, It’s Time to Sail to Panwapa Island Get Out Your Passports, It’s Time to Sail to Panwapa Island

Thanks, Ashley from Children’s Media Consultant for a rockin’ review. I played with the site about two weeks ago and thought it was a great initiative– safe, challenging, cute. It had some bugs, as most beta sites do, but over all it should be an interesting adventure. Totally reminded me of “Its a Small World” ride at Disney World. Seriously.

But I dig that you can make your home be a tree house or an apartment, and that you can choose traditional clothing or a lizard suit (I love the lizard suit). They’ll have a LOT of room to do some interesting educational support with that site (of anyone to work with the MacArthur Foundation, I certainly hope it’s Panwapa & Sesame).

Here’s my avatars (if you hadn’t already spotted them in my avatar page):

technorati tags:Henson, Sesame, Street, Panwapa, Safety, Nations, Education, Avatars

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