Pressroom: Pearson Broadband Teams with FableVision

Pearson Broadband Teams with FableVision to Enhance K-12 Learning With Technology-Delivered, Media-Rich Educational Content
Delivers Multi-cultural Animated Children’s Tales for Pearson’s KnowledgeBox™ System
BOSTON, MA
London-based Pearson Broadband recently tapped Boston’s FableVision for a series of animated children’s tales as part of its strategy to stock its KnowledgeBox™ with world-class digital educational content.
As part of Pearson, one of the world’s largest international media and education companies, Pearson Broadband connected with FableVision’s award-winning mission to “spark authentic learning using media, storytelling and technology.” As FableVision’s Founder and CEO Peter Reynolds points out, “KnowledgeBox helps usher in a new era of media-rich, web-delivered educational media – and FableVision’s digital storytelling has found a happy home in this exciting new landscape.” Reynolds adds, “This platform allows the delivery of media-rich content - a key to effective learning for all kinds of learners – and that’s a dream come true for us.”
Pearson’s KnowledgeBox, an advanced digital learning system that educators can use to enhance classroom instruction and student performance, is now available in U.S., Singapore and will be launched in the U.K. in early 2003. Installed directly in schools and connected to local and wide area broadband networks, KnowledgeBox allows for the delivery and tracking of digital content within a school system to provide educators and pupils with fast, on-demand access to curriculum-aligned resources. Featuring hundreds of high-quality digital video segments, interactive software activities and animations, reflecting current research on how rich media works to enhance learning.
The project was directed from London by Pearson Broadband Producer, John Loder and Vice President of Technology and Content, Annie Valva. Valva shares, “Great learning requires great media, so we turned to FableVision because of their reputation for creating content that educators trust and children really love, as well as their natural embrace of new media technologies.”
The ten animated tales produced by FableVision include everything from Robin Hood and Treasure Island to a South African folktale and a fable from Egypt. The colorful, animated stories are designed as part of an innovative literacy program, which is part of the KnowledgeBox curriculum.
Peter Reynolds’ twin brother Paul Reynolds, FableVision Partner and Director of Creative Strategy, remarks, “FableVision specializes in telling stories that matter, stories that move, so these children’s tales resonated with our core mission.” He adds, “We’re also champions of literacy – and these animated stories are ultimately a way to engage children in great ideas – to help them read, think, and rethink concepts in entirely new ways.”
Leading the FableVision team on the creation of the animated folktales, Peter Reynolds served as Executive Creative Director, alongside VP/Creative Technologist Gary Goldberger and Executive Producer Karen Bresnahan. The animation team included Art Director John Lechner and Creative Director Noah Jones, as well as Senior Animators Dave Tilton and Scott Magoon.
FableVision made its mark with Emmy Award-winning broadcast animation for U.S. television as well as film festivals around the world, and has also been a pioneer in digital animation creation and interactive distribution platforms (web, CD, handheld devices.) The firm also publishes its own educational software, including the research-based learning & studying software BrainCogs™ which landed a 2002 Media & Methods Award as well as being named “Top 100 Products of 2002” by District Administration Magazine. FableVision was also recently named as a Finalist in the Heller Report’s EdNet2002 Awards to be announced on September 24th in Los Angeles.
Led by Peter Reynolds, FableVision (http://www.fablevision.com) leverages multiple media platforms including animation, books, CD-ROM, and web to create "stories that matter, stories that move" for children, adults and families, museums, publishers and broadcasters – including Simon & Schuster, PBS, Dutton Books, Noggin, and Candlewick Press/Walker Books. Reynolds began FableVision in 1996 with a focus on using traditional and new media to help ALL children succeed.
For more on Pearson Broadband’s KnowledgeBox, see either http://www.pearsonbroadband.com or http://www.knowledgebox.com

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