Sesame Workshop and IBM Watson Team Up to Advance Early Childhood Education - Seite 2

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   
[e-mail]  
[phone]

Kaveri Camire 
IBM Communications
[e-mail]  
[phone]

Hanna Smigala
IBM Media Relations
[e-mail] 
[phone]

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