CPB to Hold Briefing on American History and Civics Initiative in San Francisco

CPB to Hold Briefing on American History and Civics Initiative in San Francisco

Innovative Grant Program Seeks to Explore New and Effective Ways to Teach Students Using Interactive Technologies

WASHINGTON, May 2 /PRNewswire/ -- The Corporation for Public Broadcasting is offering Bay Area public television producers, technology experts, educators and others the opportunity for a first-hand briefing on CPB's $20 million American History and Civics Initiative. The San Francisco session is the second in a nationwide series of pre-proposal conferences on this program, which will fund groundbreaking media projects that demonstrably improve the learning of American history and civics by middle and high school students.

"We are holding these meetings nationwide because we want to cast the widest possible net for potential applicants," said Ken Ferree, CPB's Executive Vice President and COO. "We want to involve people who haven't been involved before in public television -- because we are trying to reach an audience that public television hasn't reached before."

Last year, CPB conducted a similar effort to attract new talent and voices to its America at a Crossroads Initiative. It received more than 400 proposals for funding, the majority of which were from people who had not worked in public television before.

"We also expect the History and Civics Initiative to attract new partners into the public television arena -- educators, high tech entrepreneurs and specialists, all joined by their common motivation to improve education in America," said Michael Pack, senior vice president for television programming. "Especially given this project's focus on new and innovative technology, we're very excited about the possibilities of fusing content, broadcast and interactive technologies for the purpose of providing our youth with a better education."

The briefing, which will be conducted by Pack and other CPB staff, will be held on Tuesday, May 3, from 3-5 p.m. in the Barcelona Room, Renaissance Parc 55 Hotel, 55 Cyril Magnin Street, San Francisco (415/392-8000).

The conferences are open to the public, but CPB asks attendees to make reservations to ensure adequate space is available. More information on the initiative and the conferences, including dates and locations for additional meetings as they are scheduled, is available at http://www.cpb.org/grants/historyandcivics.

CPB, a private, nonprofit corporation created by Congress in 1967, oversees the development of educational public television, radio and online services for the American people.

Source: Corporation for Public Broadcasting

CONTACT: Brooke Logan of Corporation for Public Broadcasting, +1-202-879-9839

Web site: http://www.cpb.org/

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