NEWS: TFO Digital Content, TV Shows Nominated at Youth Media Alliance 2014

Groupe Média TFO and its production partners have received 12 Prix d'excellence of the Youth Media Alliance (YMA) nominations for digital content and shows.

Winners will be announced at a gala to be held on May 27, at Maison de Radio-Canada in Montréal.

"Over the last years, TFO has seized every opportunity to offer rich and unique programming for children and youths, making it accessible to consumers wherever and whenever they want. I must give special congratulations to the producers, whose creativity and expertise enrich our programming, a veritable well of high quality educational content for parents and children," said Laurent Guérin, Executive Director of Web and Television Content at Groupe Média TFO.

For more info and a list of the nominated productions, please click here

AWARDS / OPPORTUNITIES: Entry door open for Canadian Youth Media Alliance Awards

Canada’s Youth Media Alliance (YMA) has officially launched its English-language Awards of Excellence, which honor achievement in TV programming and digital content for young viewers over the past two years.

The competition is open to all Canadian-made youth productions originally broadcast in English within Canada between January 1, 2011, and December 31, 2012. Nominations must be submitted by Friday, February 15, 2013.

A total of 14 awards will be handed out, including a grand prize for the most outstanding production to hit the small screen (all platforms) in the past two years, along with awards for emerging talent and lifetime achievement.

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IT / LEARNING: Opinion: Technology can empower learning

Children and adolescents are growing, learning, playing and working in a rapidly changing world with an evolving variety of digital devices all around them. Technologies and interactive media are pervasive in young people’s everyday lives. In the last five years, computers, tablets, multi-touch screens, interactive whiteboards, mobile devices, cameras, music players, audio recorders, electronic toys, games, and ebooks have become increasingly popular, prevalent and less expensive.

In many countries around the world, educational technology standards are guiding the integration of information and communication technology (ICT) skills within national and local curricula. At present, the B.C. Ministry of Education has no articulated educational technologies set of guidelines for education.

In today’s schools, a parent or administrator might walk into a classroom and see all the students using digital tablets. But how can they tell if this technology is being used appropriately? What are some of the positive and negative issues of using educational technologies with children? Can technologies be used to empower learning?

Read more: http://www.vancouversun.com/technology/Opinion+Technology+empower+learning/7170264/story.html#ixzz257FdKmTE

NEWS / CYBER BULLYING: Senate looks to youth for insights into cyberbullying (CANADA)

OTTAWA — The Senate human rights committee is set Monday to launch a study on cyberbullying in Canada, and is looking to hear from the experts on the subject: students.

The quick turnaround time for the study — it is scheduled to be completed by June, the end of the school year — is a secondary concern for senators who are reaching out to young people online for the first time.

The committee is turning to social media to get in touch with students nationwide and have them deliver the ideas and suggestions the committee needs to craft recommendations to the government on how to crack down and help those affected by cyberbullying.

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EVENTS: Youth Media Alliance Announces Children, Youth and Media Conference

Youth Media Alliance is pleased to announced that Hedda Sharapan, Director of Early Childhood Initiatives at The Fred Rogers Company, and Angela Santomero, Executive Producer of the new preschool animated series inspired by Mister Rogers' Neighborhood: Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood, will be opening the 2011 Children, Youth & Media conference.

It was natural for Youth Media Alliance to invite the company whose founder, Fred Rogers, dedicated his life to serving children, especially since his first appearance in front of the camera as "Mister Rogers" was for CBC in Toronto in the 1960s. Hedda Sharapan will be presenting the past, present and future of The Fred Rogers Company. She will provide an overview of the original Neighborhood series that revolutionized children's media - how it was designed, what it was proven to do, and how it evolved over time. Angela Santomero, a leading producer of US children's television and creator of Blue's Clues & Super Why!, will talk about the pressure of re-imagining this beloved series for today's audiences. She will demonstrate how the principles have endured but the aesthetic has changed. The presentation will include previously unseen clips of the new four-year-old Daniel Tiger, son of the original Daniel Tiger, and his preschool friends. The series will be launched in fall 2012 on PBS KIDS, together with a content-rich website, including interactive games for kids, online resources for parents and teachers, and other cross-platform content. Animation for the series is being done in Toronto by the Canadian partner for the series, 9 Story Entertainment.

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NEWS: Young People speak out on education for human rights

A new 12-minute film, “Education for Human Rights… Young People talking”, aims to raise awareness of key human rights issues in schools around the world.

Produced by UNESCO and realized by pupils of UNESCO Associated Schools in 10 countries, it shows adolescents of secondary-school age freely expressing their opinions about gender, diversity, violence, exclusion and other questions.

Viewers are invited to appreciate how young people understand and experience concepts and ideals of human rights in countries as different as Albania, Azerbaijan, Brazil, Burkina Faso, Canada, Dominican Republic, France, Indonesia, Lebanon and Uganda.

The film can be used as a teaching tool for secondary schools to introduce core topics of human rights education and initiate classroom discussions.

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ARTICLES: Internet's effect on youth positive, researchers say

Despite alarmist reports on cyberbullying, sexual misdeeds and real-life social isolation, the Internet is really an important training ground for adolescents to build their identities and learn crucial social skills that can strengthen their real-life relationships, according to a new review of the research to date.

After several years of intensive academic research on adolescents and electronic media, it's now possible to get a "metaview" of how the Internet shapes the self-identity, relationships and sexuality of young people, says Patti Valkenburg, a professor at the University of Amsterdam's Center for Research on Children, Adolescents and the Media.

The results are largely encouraging -- with a few caveats.

"With every new media, there's always panic," she said. "For most adolescents, it's still positive, but not when it's used too much. They can get easy access to everything, but there are dangers on the Internet, just like in our daily lives."

Read more: http://www.canada.com/health/Internet+effect+youth+positive+researchers/4265143/story.html#ixzz1EalFE4ZO

NEWS / WEBSITES: Website backs children's rights

An online initiative launched yesterday is hoping its use of social media will raise awareness among children and youths of their human rights.

Wendy Craig, a psychology professor at Queen's University and the co-director of Promoting Relationships and Eliminating Violence (PREVNet), is one of the co-directors of the collaboration between PREVNet, UNICEF Canada, the Public Health Agenc y of Canada and MyHealth Magazine.

The project has created a website, www.childandyouthrights. net, that interested youths can visit.

"It's really a way of helping kids understand what their rights are and then providing them with resources about where they can go to ensure those rights and needs are met," Craig said.

It also contains articles about children's rights written from a different perspective.

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FUNDING: Call for proposals: $50K grants available for next-generation children's media projects in Canada

TORONTO, Feb. 15 /CNW/ - The Centre for Creative Communications, Centennial College, is seeking innovative and forward-thinking proposals from Canadian media, interactive, creative, technology, business and social entrepreneurs for the next wave of children's media and multi-platform projects to qualify for $50,000 federal development grants.

The new kidsmediacentre, an industry and creative content think-tank at Centennial College, will hold an information session to interested developers, on Thursday, Feb. 24 at 5:30 pm at The Centre for Creative Communications, located at 951 Carlaw Avenue, Toronto.

Centennial College's Applied Research and Innovation Centre (ARIC) has received ten $50,000 Federal Development grants, some of which are available to help small and medium enterprises in the kids' technology industry launch the next big idea in children's media. The grants are part of a coordinated strategy between the federal government and colleges to accelerate innovation and productivity in southern Ontario by asking business partners to collaborate on projects and work "hands-on" with college faculty and students in developing new and innovative technologies and services. Businesses are asked to contribute at least $25,000 towards a project in cash and/or in-kind.

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NEWS: Youth Media Alliance Intros Special Award for Interactive Web Content (CANADA)

A new award for interactive Web or mobile projects has been announced by the Youth Media Alliance, as part of its 2011 English-Language Awards of Excellence competition.

YMA will be handing out the first-ever Special Jury Award to an original or convergent digital media project this year, one that stands out for the positive values it presents to young Canadians.

YMA says the new award was instituted both to provide an added boost to the Canadian mobile/Web content production industry, and to help the organization achieve its goals of encouraging and promoting screen-based productions of the highest quality.

The award winner will have provided young users with content that promoted healthy living; informed them of the importance of education, tolerance, physical fitness, and solidarity; or conveyed Canadian values.

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NEWS / EVENTS: Media Conference Looks at Screen-based Youth Productions

Youth Media Alliance (formerly the Alliance for Children and Television) welcomed nearly 200 youth production professionals to Média-Jeunes, a conference held on November 18 and 19 in Montreal. Thanks to the involvement of 28 speakers and panellists, including about 10 professionals from English Canada, France and the United States, conference participants were able to explore a whole range of experiences.

The event focused on different facets of screen-based youth productions: the future of youth animation in Quebec; conveying positive messages to young people; the much-heralded death of television; a portrait of youth production through the Canadian Media Fund; audience migration to new platforms; and building communities around a television brand.

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NEWS: The Alliance for Children and Television adopts a new name: Youth Media Alliance

MONTREAL, Nov. 18 /CNW Telbec/ - The Alliance for Children and Television is expanding its base and changing its name to Youth Media Alliance (YMA). The association's chair Peter Moss made the announcement today in conjunction with the Média-Jeunes conference being held in Montreal until tomorrow. "This new name more clearly defines our current mission, at a time when we're working in various ways to improve the quality of screen-based content for Canadian children and teens. In a world where more and more content is being delivered on new platforms, especially for young people, Youth Media Alliance intends to continue focusing its efforts on all screen-based media," said Moss. Read more: http://www.digitaljournal.com/pr/166654#ixzz15kSdqHUK

STUDIES / RESEARCH: Excess TV, computer video gaming linked to poor attention in kids: study

TORONTO - Children who spend many hours a day glued to the TV or playing computer video games may be harming their ability to concentrate and focus on tasks in school, researchers suggest.

A study by psychologists at Iowa State University found that kids who exceeded the recommended two hours per day of screen time were 1 1/2 to two times more likely to have attention problems in the classroom.

Both the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) and the Canadian Paediatric Society recommend that parents limit a child's screen time to one or two hours daily.

"There isn't an exact number of hours when screen time contributes to attention problems, but the AAP recommendation of no more than two hours a day provides a good reference point," said lead author Edward Swing, a psychology doctoral candidate.

"Most children are way above that. In our sample, children's total average time with television and video games is 4.26 hours per day, which is actually low compared to the national average."

Co-author Douglas Gentile, an associate professor of psychology at Iowa State, said research has suggested that the average child in the U.S., and likely in Canada as well, spends many more hours per day with screen-based technology.

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EVENTS: Plans Set for 2009 Children, Youth & Media Conference

By Kristin Brzoznowski - Published: September 11, 2009

MONTREAL: The Alliance for Children and Television (ACT) is to host the 2009 Children, Youth & Media Conference, which brings together Canadian creators, producers and broadcasters, on November 19.

The event will feature a lunch with Canadian broadcasters and funding representatives, who will present a small group with information about their mandate, specifics and objects, their broadcast schedules and target audiences, the kind of projects they're looking for and the most effective way to pitch them. There's also a session highlighting gender representation and its impact on kids. Another session, supported by CTVglobemedia, will present a national study on Canadian television programming for children that was conducted by ACT.

The 2009 Children, Youth & Media Conference is being produced with financial assistance from its partners: the Independent Production Fund, HIT Entertainment, Apartment 11 Productions, Family Channel and Shaftesbury Kids.

Source - More info

PHOTOGRAPHY / WORKSHOPS: Focusing on Fort Liard

Focusing on Fort Liard

Daron Letts - Northern News Services
Published Saturday, Aug. 29, 2009

Michael Needlay flashes the peace sign in this image shot by Blair Kotchea during the Frozen Eyes Photographic Society's youth digital camera workshop in Fort Liard. - photo courtesy of Blair Kotchea

The young artists participated in a Frozen Eyes Photographic Society workshop series from Aug. 3 to Aug, 9.

"It was probably the most successful program that I had run in terms of engaging the older kids because they're a difficult group to interest in much," said recreation co-ordinator, Roslyn Firth. "But, they participated in numbers greater than I'd ever imagined and produced some really beautiful photographs."

Society members David Pritchard and George Lessard of Yellowknife led the workshops. The pair brought 12 cameras and other specialized equipment to share with the youth. Pritchard opened the workshop with an instructional introduction to the cameras and the art of photography.

After learning the camera basics, the youth fanned out around the community, shooting almost everything in sight, including shots of family, friends, trees, animals, architecture, vehicles and even each other.

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ARTICLES / WORKSHOPS: Marginalized youth learn about digital media in five-day summer camp

Marginalized youth learn about digital media in five-day summer camp

By Amy Fuller, THE CANADIAN PRESS

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TORONTO - Clad in a leather jacket and yellow heels, her black and pink hair pulled back in a high ponytail, Lilian Yange leans into the microphone to introduce a multimedia story she's spent five days preparing.

Yange and her peers from high-risk neighbourhoods in suburban Scarborough stayed at Ryerson University's Pitman Hall dormitories while learning about the craft of journalism and creating their own reports in audio, film and written form.

The first-ever five-day summer camp was part of the Verse City journalism training project for youth, founded by director Vinita Srivastava in Toronto in 2004 with support from Young People's Press. It aims to keep marginalized youth out of gangs and help them care about their communities.