Plan to develop adaptive learning products and platform for
use at home and in schools
NEW YORK and ARMONK, N.Y., April 27,
2016 /CNW/ -- Sesame Workshop, the nonprofit
educational organization that produces Sesame Street, and
IBM (NYSE: IBM) today announced a collaboration to use IBM Watson's
cognitive computing technology and Sesame's early childhood
expertise to help advance preschool education around the world.
Experience the interactive Multimedia News Release here:
http://www.multivu.com/players/English/7724251-sesame-workshop-ibm-watson-early-childhood-education
As part of a three-year agreement, Sesame Workshop and IBM will
collaborate to develop educational platforms and products that will
be designed to adapt to the learning preferences and aptitude
levels of individual preschoolers. Research shows that a
significant extent of brain development occurs in the first five
years of a child's life1, making this window critical
for learning and development.
The alliance will draw from Sesame Workshop's deep educational
content expertise garnered from over 45 years of research, and more
than 1,000 studies on how young children learn best. This expertise
will combine with Watson's natural
language processing, pattern recognition, and other cognitive
computing technologies to create highly personalized learning
experiences intended to complement the roles that parents and
teachers play in early development. Watson will continuously hone and improve
educational activities by studying and adapting to the aggregate
experiences of anonymized groups of students.
"We believe that bringing education together with technology is
a key to improving early learning in this country and around the
world," said Jeffrey D. Dunn, CEO of
Sesame Workshop. "A generation ago, Sesame Street used the
ubiquitous presence of television to reach vulnerable children who
did not have access to the learning opportunities that affluent and
middle-class kids did. It worked very well. Now, through this
collaboration with IBM and Watson,
we expect to develop the next generation of tailored learning
tools. Ultimately, the goal is to provide children from all
socio-economic backgrounds with the opportunity for meaningful,
personalized education in their most formative years."
Echoing the late 1960s, when Sesame Street's founders
convened diverse experts to help conceive the show, the Sesame-IBM
team will gather leading teachers, academics, researchers,
technologists, gamers, performers, and media executives to
brainstorm ways in which cognitive computing can best help
preschoolers learn.
Sesame Workshop and IBM are currently exploring and iterating on
a wide variety of interactive platforms and interfaces for use in
homes and schools. The two companies plan to test and share
prototypes with leaders in the education and technology community
to allow continued refinement based on feedback and domain
expertise.
"Watson is uniquely suited to
tackling one of society's most pressing and important challenges --
the ways in which our young children learn," said Harriet Green, IBM's General Manager for Watson
IoT, Commerce and Education. "The potential for Watson to absorb, correlate, and learn from
huge amounts of unstructured data and then deliver very
personalized educational experiences is unprecedented. Working
together with Sesame Workshop, we aim to transform the way in which
children learn and teachers teach, and envision having an impact on
the lives and education of millions of children."
"Because the foundation of children's intellect, personality,
and skills are formed in the first few years of their lives, ages
zero to five are the most critical," said Todd Rose, one of the project's independent
advisors and Director of Mind, Brain, and Education at the
Harvard Graduate School of Education.
"There are huge opportunities in early childhood education, but we
need to recognize that preschoolers do not all learn in the same
way. This partnership has the potential to meet the unique
educational needs of every child, whether it's through customized
content or kid-friendly tools that empower each child to find his
or her own path to learning. Simply put, personalized educational
experiences will enhance learning for every child."
Join the conversation on Twitter: #IBMandSesame
Visit the following link for more information, as well as to
download assets, on the Sesame Workshop and IBM collaboration:
http://www.ibm.com/internet-of-things/sesame-street.html
Read a blog post by Sesame Workshop CEO Jeffrey Dunn exploring the importance of early
childhood learning: http://ibm.co/21f1TqP
About Sesame Workshop:
For more information, please visit Sesame Street at
www.sesamestreet.org, Sesame Street on Facebook, Sesame Street on
Twitter, and the Sesame Street YouTube Channel.
About IBM:
For more information, please visit www.ibm.com/watson and follow
@IBMWatson and @IBMEducation on Twitter.
PRESS CONTACTS:
Elizabeth Fishman
Sesame Workshop
elizabeth.fishman@sesame.org
(212) 875-6618
Kaveri Camire
IBM Communications
kcamire@us.ibm.com
(914) 625-6395
Hanna Smigala
IBM Media Relations
Smigala@us.ibm.com
(203) 512-5497
SOURCES:
(1) Shonkoff, J. P., Phillips, D. A., & National Research Council (U.S.). (2000). From
neurons to neighborhoods: The science of early child
development. Washington, D.C:
National Academy Press
To view the original version on PR Newswire,
visit:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/sesame-workshop-and-ibm-watson-team-up-to-advance-early-childhood-education-300258251.html
SOURCE IBM