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A Ready to Learn Partnership with the U.S. Department of Education  

Hispanic Information and Telecommunications Network (HITN), the first Latino public service television network (www.hitn.org), in partnership with Callaway Digital Arts (CDA), a leading cross-platform media firm that specializes in the creation of unique, compelling content in books, animation, and family lifestyle products (www.callaway.com), and the Michael Cohen Group LLC (MCG), the leading independent evaluator of children’s educational media (www.mcgrc.com) were awarded a $30 million Ready to Learn grant for Project LAMP (Learning Apps Media Partnership).

Project LAMP will create highly engaging, digital learning applications to build reading and math skills for children ages two through eight. The focus of the student-centered learning applications will have broad market appeal and educational impact, and will specifically target low-income children, English Language Learners (ELL), and their families.

The transmedia content will include pre-K and early elementary curricu­lum in the areas of literacy and numeracy. Project LAMP will leverage the existing characters of Callaway’s Miss Spider’s Sunny Patch Friends (ages 2-5) and Nova the Robot (ages 5-8) created by author-illustrator David Kirk. It will also create a third new ELL property produced by HITN. Content in all three properties will align to the 2010 Common Core State Standards in Math and Reading and promote the essential skills defined by the National Early Literacy Panel and the National Mathematics Advisory Panel. 

The content will be largely available as an open educational resource and use a transmedia storytelling approach through books, iPAD/Touch Screen applications, mobile device and phone applications, console and hand held gaming applications, sing along DVDs and CDs, an interactive Website, and television. The U.S. Department of Education, in 2010, expanded the Ready to Learn grant program to include transmedia storytelling.

An essential component of project LAMP is the development of rigorous, scientifically based research and evaluation strategies to increase the body of knowledge on the impact of educational technology on improving school readiness and success for low-income children.

Finally, the 2010 Ready to Learn grant includes outreach monies in addition to program funding. Project LAMP outreach activities will leverage wireless network technology, social media, and community-based organizations to engage children, parents, caregivers, and teachers in New York, Connecticut, and Texas the first year alone. Over the life of the grant, Project LAMP will partner for exchange of ideas, opinions, and results with:  1) persistently low achieving schools, 2) a media production program at an accredited postsecondary institution, and 3) a teacher preparation program at an accredited postsecondary institution focused on early childhood education.