May 9, 2008
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Five Prestigious Awards Go to Wisconsin Educational Communications Board for AIT-associated Projects: Parents’ Choice Silver Award, 3 Telly Awards Honor New Literacy and Social Studies Projects
BLOOMINGTON, Ind.—Two new instructional video projects—Into the Book and democracy it is!—from the Wisconsin Educational Communications Board (WECB) and the Agency for Instructional Technology (AIT) have been honored with prestigious Parents’ Choice, Telly, and Aurora Awards.
“This spring has seen an unprecedented outpouring of praise for these two terrific instructional programs,” said Chuck Wilson, AIT’s Executive Director. “These awards are not given out lightly. A strenuous evaluation and voting process takes place, and to be selected by both of these globally recognized organizations means a lot.”
The Parents’ Choice Awards Program honors Into the Book with a highly prized Silver Award. The Silver Awards are given to excellent products designed to entertain and help children develop universally ethical attitudes, rigorous standards, and skills. Silver Award honorees are valued and respected for production and human values.
Into the Book is a multimedia teaching resource designed to enhance reading comprehension for primary-grade students, as well as their ability to think and learn across the curriculum. The nine Into the Book student episodes feature an extraordinary classroom where a group of ordinary students use powerful learning strategies to enter the world of the story. These 15-minute programs show student viewers how to use these strategies when reading fiction, nonfiction, or everyday text. They also model real-life applications of the strategies.
In its review of the multimedia Into the Book, Parents’ Choice states:“In a perfect illustration of the adage, ‘Don’t judge a book by its cover,’ Mrs. Pingel’s youthful appearance belies her teaching ability. With confidence and skill, the 3rd-grade teacher in Wisconsin’s Franklin Elementary School uses innovative techniques to guide her students through practical strategies designed to improve reading comprehension. The story reenactments are well produced and credibly acted. Teachers, parents, and students will benefit from and thoroughly enjoy this first-rate series.”
This year AIT and WECB join other Silver Award winners HBO, Disney, Discovery, and MTV.
“Reading comprehension is a foundation skill that is critical to students' academic success,” notes AIT Executive Director Chuck Wilson. “We’re very pleased to be working with our esteemed partners in Wisconsin on this vital project, and we’re certainly committed to providing AIT’s strengths to deliver materials that ensure students understand and retain what they are reading.”
Two programs, “Evaluating” and “Prior Knowledge,” from Into the Book also received bronze Telly Awards—as did one program, “Choices and Changes,” from democracy it is! The “Evaluating” program also won an Aurora Award.
The Telly Awards honor excellence in local, regional, and cable TV commercials, non-broadcast video, and TV programs. Since 1978, their mission has been to strengthen the visual arts community by inspiring, promoting, and supporting creativity. The 27th Annual Telly Awards received more than 13,000 entries from all 50 United States and five continents. The Aurora Awards is an international competition designed to recognize excellence in the film and video industries.
The “Choices and Changes” program of the democracy it is! video series begins when three young friends—Haley, Trent, and Lily—realize their favorite hideout has been trashed—again! They realize they have a choice: they can let the problem continue and lose their favorite hideout, or they can make a change. Students observe the three friends making a change as they research the problem and prepare a proposal to their city council. Using one scripted piece and three real-life stories about young people, this fourth installment of democracy it is! focuses on making choices to create changes in students’ own school, community, and state.
Both Into the Book and democracy it is! were developed by the Wisconsin Educational Communications Board, with the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction and a team of experienced educators, and produced by Wisconsin Public Television. The Agency for Instructional Technology co-produced Into the Book and provided instructional design consulting for democracy it is! Both series are distributed by AIT.
Mr. Wilson credits his AIT staff for pouring their “blood, sweat, and tears” into these excellent projects—especially Elaine Larson, AIT’s Director of Education, and Dr. David Gudaitis, AIT’s longtime Executive Producer. He further notes the remarkable value in inter-agency collaboration, and the professional work of the WECB and Wisconsin Public Television staff. “I am happy to see that their work is being given its just rewards,” Wilson said. “AIT, as an organization, has always operated under the belief that if you are going to do something, you should do it right. Obviously, by awarding these honors, Parents’ Choice and the Telly Awards agree that we did it right.”
AIT is a not-for-profit organization based in Bloomington, Indiana, with 45 years of experience in the cooperative development, production, and distribution of instructional media for the classroom. AIT maintains extensive warehousing and distribution systems, a complete customer service center, DVD production capacity (including DVD authoring), a bulk mailing facility, as well as instructional designers and producers skilled in creating materials that serve education. For more information about AIT, go to: www.ait.net.
WECB is a state agency committed to ensuring that public radio and television programs and services are made available throughout Wisconsin, and that these programs and services reflect and respond to the educational and cultural needs of the state’s residents. This is accomplished through the activities of the Educational Communications Board and through collaboration with entities involved in educational and cultural initiatives whose purposes can best be served through telecommunication. For more information about this organization, go to: www.ecb.org.
AIT is the exclusive distributor of these series outside of the State of Wisconsin. For more information about all of AIT’s school media, see www.ait.net/catalog or write to info@ait.net.