More announcements possible in September for TELUS learning fund

A list of 29 projects that have won $4.4 million in loans from the Canada-TELUS New Media Learning Fund may not be the final word, says the fund’s head. Ray Moschuk tells Canadian NEW MEDIA that several projects have been held in reserve for consideration to win $250,000-$500,000 in further funding when the TELUS Foundation’s board meets this September. The money is currently still in the pot as several projects were dropped from the winners list earlier this year when other sources of funding fell through. Moschuk says the decision to loan companies up to $200,000 for projects is based on attracting matching contributions from third parties - most likely from the Bell Broadcast and New Media Fund, Telefilm Canada’s Canada New Media Fund, tax credits, or from provincial government coffers. "Telefilm has drastically reduced their funding," he says. "Because they have drastically reduced their funding, some of the projects were funded to a lesser amount. Because some of the projects were not endorsed by Telefilm, we decided not to go ahead with them." Moschuk says the potential winners will be evaluated on the basis of how they could fit linguistic, geographic or curriculum gaps in the group of winners announced July 18. He notes that most of those projects are content-based and that the fund will likely be looking to flesh out the portfolio with projects that stress new tools or processes to further educational goals. A renewal of the fund beyond a small second round of winners isn’t in the cards, however. While Moschuk told CNM last winter that the fund was seeking further assistance from Canadian Heritage, he now says it could not reach mutually acceptable terms (CNM, Feb. 7/03). He also notes that the September round will not be opened to new project applications. With the bulk of the winners now announced, Moschuk says the fund will be monitoring their financial performance and hoping to recoup back much of the money through loan repayments. "This was basically an experiment to see whether the private sector could assist the government in terms of bringing investment management discipline to these types of cultural grants." Noting that many projects funded through the Telefilm program don’t result in recoupment, he says: "The federal government was interested in a new business model. So what we’re doing is we’re looking at it from a loan perspective. We’re expecting every one of these projects to pay back. Once we’ve funded fully, we’re in a monitoring phase now to look at performance in terms of recoupment. If the business model is successful over the next year - if we, in fact, see that there is a high recoupment that outperforms the traditional funding models, then they have at least some basis for policy changes." Winners list ALBERTAWildfiles.TV Wildfiles.tv is a tool to help kids get out into the world around them and explore their environment. Wildfiles.tv aims to promote environmental consciousness, while encouraging exploration, problem solving and creativity. Wildfiles.tv can stand alone and is also designed as a companion to the television program, augmenting the content and providing an educational and enjoyable form for all viewers. Heritage Educational Digikits These heritage edukits will be based on the Heritage Community Foundations educational websites dealing with the historical, natural and cultural heritage of Alberta and will support the Alberta curriculum of studies. They will deal with historical events, experiences and realities and will make use of documents, photographs, oral histories, artifacts, etc. as a way of nourishing a sense of connection with history and culture. Global Green Challenge This interactive online project is a cross-jurisdictional web-based resource that takes place over a school term. Designed to reflect real-world global G8-like forum, students will sign up to represent a special interest group (i.e.: governmental, environmental, global). They will research and prepare a positional platform supporting their point of view to be presented to a virtual summit. Lyryx Assessment College Algebra The flagship of the Lyryx line of products is a unique online assessment system that goes far beyond the standard multiple-choice exams most commonly used in current electronic assessment. Aardvark Island This interactive online project focuses on providing elementary students and their teachers (primarily in Canada, secondarily in the United States) with accurate, engaging information on Canadian and global geography, both human and physical. This topic is increasingly important in the context of a nation and world fraught with regional and international conflict, much of it fuelled by a lack of fundamental knowledge of the nature of our country, our planet, and the peoples and cultures who inhabit Canada and the world beyond our borders. Echoes from the Pass This highly interactive online student and teacher resource will be supported by a television documentary of the same name. Echoes will be closely aligned with Alberta Grade 4 Social Studies Topics A (Alberta: Its Geography & People), and B (Alberta: Its People in History). The resource will also be supportive of selected elements of Manitoba Grade 6 Social Studies (Life in Canada’s Past, specifically Units IV and V), and British Columbia Grade 5 Social Studies. Echoes from the Pass is a web-based resource. LinkWorks intends to create an online Frank, Alberta, a booming coal-mining centre located in southwestern Alberta’s Crowsnest Pass area at the start of the 20th Century. BRITISH COLUMBIACanada in Space This product, the second of the five products in the "Canada in Space" series, provides advanced training in rocketry, satellite and propulsion systems and the orbital maneuvering and de-orbit of the space shuttle through 3-D stimulations. First Contact This project is a highly interactive, bilingual educational and CD Rom that engages the general public and intermediate and secondary students in understanding and commemorating a key moment in Canadian history. Encyclopedia B.C. (lite) "The Encyclopedia of British Columbia" is the first-ever comprehensive reference in B.C. Fueled by over ten years of research and development, the encyclopedia’s 4,000+ articles constitute the most complete and authoritative BC archive on the Internet. It is a powerful Canadian Studies/Social Studies resource that connects broadly to K-12 curricula throughout Canada, and is both accessible and easy to use. ESL.TV Cooking Show This ESL cooking show is a learning module that includes a videotaped cooking show written and designed specifically for blended learning of English as a Second Language (ESL) on the web and in classrooms. Individual learners can also use it solely on the Internet. Grammar and vocabulary used in the video script will form the foundation for the learning material that includes translated instructions (into five languages), web-based interactive exercises, games, teaching guide, lesson plans, classroom activities, tests, audio exercises and reading material. Electric Lawyer Law12.ca is a comprehensive web-based resource of materials primarily targeted to the curriculum for Grade 12 Law courses. The site will provide an extensive selection of primary material and secondary links, all intended for use as supplementary materials in Law 12 and in general Social Studies courses. Educational Learning Objects Designed to create media-rich educational learning objectives for five courses. Five Coolschool courses will be selected that meet common curricular objectives across Canada. Content experts will then identify areas in these courses that could enhance student learning through the use of animation, video, interaction, graphics, sound, or a combination of any or all. The objectives created (learning objects) would be catalogued and stored on CDs and a web site, as well as integrated into the five Coolschool courses. The five courses, CD and web site will be marketed across Canada. NEWFOUNDLANDWhale-of-a-Tale-Kindergarten This project entails the development of kindergarten lessons to complement INNOVA’s existing A Whale of a Tale series for Grades 1, 2 and 3. Following suit with existing products, kindergarten lessons will feature curriculum-specific content based on researched standards from school boards across North America. NOVA SCOTIAMedia Spark: Go Ventures Sim The project will focus on the exploitation of simulation technology that was proven with the introduction of our first products, GoVenture-Live the Life of an Entrepreneur and GoVenture Stock Market. This project will focus on two key activities: development of two products, and the marketing of those two products. ONTARIOElectronic Cities This is a lesson plan to guide teachers and students in the development of new media content on the theme of electronic cities. The result of student work will be a web site that includes research results in text, graphic and animated visualizations of ‘the city of the future’. Save-ums online Heroes that come in all shapes and sizes, the "save ums" are little heroes that empower kindergarten children through safe and exciting adventures online. Environmentor This online project focusing on classroom multimedia on the web and over networks is a comprehensive learning resource for learners seeking images, ideas and information for schoolwork, homework and personal discovery. Environmentor is an e.learning resource transforming learning multimedia into learner-controlled objects streamed to the desktop. CREATE Together CREATE Together is a multimedia authoring tool that creates any kind of interactive new media and publishes it to CD or the Internet. Examples of CREATE Together products include matching games, drag-and-drop games, simulations, quizzes, presentation kiosks, multimedia encyclopedias and multimedia presentations. PlanetDFI DFI’s current titles were developed with a thematic, multi-level approach that supports integrated teaching. DFI is intending to prepare small modules that can be ‘mixed and matched’ to meet specific needs. They will be delivered on both CD and DVD and via a subscription-based web site, PlanetDFI. DeafPlanet Deafplanet.com is a cross-platform web, wireless, and television destination to which deaf and hearing alike can journey in an exciting and engaging experience through time and space. Designed for children aged 8 to 12, deafplanet.com is the first convergent property for deaf and hearing audiences created entirely in American Sign Language (ASL). Strong & Free The goal of this production is to engage Canada’s next generation of students in the study of the sacrifices and courage of Canada’s War Veterans, while presenting the subject in a media-rich learning environment. Specifically, this production will focus on the experiences of men and women of the Second World War.Polls strongly suggest a need for productions that both inform and educate the next generation of Canadians about the sacrifices of our veterans and the need to instill a sense of pride in the Canada's military heritage. PRINCE EDWARD ISLANDAdventures of Tilley The Adventures of Tilley ("Tilley") is conceived as an online, multimedia program designed to directly align with and support the Grade 1 English curricula for the provinces of Alberta, British Columbia and Ontario. It will also supplement the Grade 1 English curricula of California and the United Kingdom. Tilley is based on a book series (Tilley T. Mouse Tails) by Baltimore-based Ontarian author/artist Lynda Anne Shreve. QUÉBECSamuel de Champlain An interactive production for immersion, this project aims at Grades 1-12. MuseEdit/www.museopolis.com museopolis.com is one of the first virtual museums in Canada. Its purpose is to share and develop knowledge for all age groups using heritage content of cultural organizations in specific Canadian territories. Online Christmas This project is an online interactive Internet game based on the characters, themes and music from the animation shorts currently in production entitled "L’Histoire du bas de noël", and "la legende du sapin de noël". Chiefs This interactive web platform brings the Great First Nations chiefs to life. Rich in content, it is suited to students as well as a teaching tool. The CD demo is of very high quality. Mathematics 5000 Plus Multichannel project MPM (Mathematic 5000 More) responds to the needs of Cegep and universities that are eager to raise the standards of admission of their candidates in various programs. The establishment of the multichannel MPM has benefits for programs in addition to the certificate in administration and the baccalaureates in social sciences. French America "French America" is a bilingual project that invites the discovery and exploration of North America, like the French and French Canadians did during the 17th and 18th Centuries. This project follows the explorers’ trails from Acadia to Louisiana, from the Great Lakes to Mississippi, and from Manitoba to Pennsylvania - as seen through the Quebec passage route. YUKON TERRITORYPan Northern Climate Project The Yukon Conservation Society (YCS) and its partners in NWT, Nunavut and the Yukon are using a Pan North approach to increase the teaching of climate change in Northern K-12 classrooms. The proposed project includes the review and analysis of existing climate change materials, linking climate change materials to curriculum in each territory.

More announcements possible in September for TELUS learning fund

News | 07/24/2003 4:00 am EDT

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