JAPAN PRIZE International Contest For Educational Media

JAPAN PRIZE 2005 : Website Details





	http://www.aplaceofourown.org/

This website is devoted to the unique needs of parents, preschool teachers and day-care providers caring for children ages 0-5. It is designed to teach caregivers how to help children acquire cognitive, social, emotional and physical skills, nurture language and literacy development, and develop healthy eating habits. It is categorized into eight major topics and currently contains 370 episodes in both English and Spanish, and over 350 videos. For example, the episode "bullying behavior" is introduced by a viewer's question followed by expert advice and comments from child-care providers and parents. It is also supported by videos. The video shows actual bullying in a kindergarten and offers care providers ways to solve the problem. It also includes experts' advice.

Over 300 useful and interesting activities are also listed. These activities are categorized by type, for example, games or craft, and each includes a set of desired skills, for example, math & numbers, or social & emotional skills. There are workshops too, each presented by a video, and a message board through which you can join discussions. All these learning tools are practical and user friendly.

A Place of Our Own / Los Ninos en Su Casa closely reflects the TV series with more than a hundred videos. This website is totally adapted to the target audience composed of parents and people who are in charge of children, whether as professionals or not. This is especially the case with this bilingual website, as the program is broadcast in California.

Navigation is easy, even if the number of pages offered to users is really large. The website design also reflects the TV show's format. It is interesting to compare the number of messages in the message boards between the English version and the Hispanic version. Indeed users can share knowledge and experience with a large audience from numerous Latin America countries.

Our overall impression was very good regarding the quality of the educational content, videos, featured activities, workshops, and additional resources. And as it is important that children be educated by educated parents, members of the jury unanimously decided that A Place of Our Own should be designated as the Japan Prize 2006 best website.

Juan Davis
Web Producer

All of us at KCET and all the team of A PLACE OF OUR OWN are honored to have received the 2006 NHK Japan Prize for best Web Site.

We appreciate NHK's efforts in recognizing the importance of New Media in the future of broadcasting and education.

A PLACE OF OUR OWN (and LOS NINOS EN SU CASA) grew out of the immediate needs surrounding early childhood education in California .

For this reason, the producers of A PLACE OF OUR OWN assembled a team to develop and produce a bilingual web site -- devoted to the unique needs of people who care for children - to help increase parent and childcare provider effectiveness as their child's first teachers.

We are very pleased that our efforts have been recognized, both by NHK's Japan Prize and by PBS in the United States, where A PLACE OF OUR OWN will begin to air nationally in 2007, critically expanding the reach of the series and the website.