Misstropolis

Monday, July 23, 2007

DVDs with a Difference

It’s summer. School’s out. And your teen is floating through the sunlit days of summer jobs, summer parties, and long, languid afternoons.

If you’re looking to introduce a little education into this picture, there is now a surprisingly enjoyable way to do so. Scope Seven, a California-based digital design and production company, has created a whole new genre: the educationally enhanced® DVD.

Mark Mallardi, who heads Scope Seven’s Education Group, explains that the company takes popular films that have inherent educational value and, with their partner McREL, developer of the Compendium of Standards for K-12 Education, adds content that amplifies the educational value of a scene. On-screen Flash Facts provide background information in real time. Remember pop up videos on VH1? This is better. Interactive quizzes, discussion topics, lesson plans and activity sheets - all printable from the ROM side of the DVD - give parents an immediate, easy way to discuss age-appropriate issues with their kids.

And the really good news: the first two ee DVDs produced by Scope Seven cover topics parents find notoriously difficult to discuss with their children: 1) drugs and 2) diet.

1) TV JUNKIE: FACES OF ADDICTION ee DVD. Scope Seven recommends watching this with your teens (some scenes aren’t appropriate for kids under 14). The documentary chronicles the demise of former Inside Edition correspondent Rick Kirkham, via a video diary he kept throughout his career. He initially appears as a handsome, immensely likeable journalist with a bit of a drug habit. As time passes, his video diary chronicles his slow, painful descent into full addiction - losing his job, his family and multiple second chances at winning back both. The first person record of his physical deterioration is a more powerful teaching tool than any “facts” you could tell your kids about drugs at the kitchen table.

Pop-up windows help explain some of the physiology behind Rick’s condition. Interactive quizzes test how much you have learned about addiction, and discussion topics help initiate a conversation about drugs. Brilliantly, this approach to drug education takes the focus off of you and your kid, making it easier to sustain more than a millisecond. Its compassionate view of the complexities of drug addiction fosters understanding, and discourages blanket assumptions and judgments.

2) SUPER SIZE ME ee DVD. Scope Seven’s other ee DVD will be just as welcome for parents with kids as young as 11: the educationally enhanced version of the blockbuster film SUPER SIZE ME. Since summer months (and attending road trips) tend to make fast food trips more frequent, the timing’s great. Your kids will love the interactive quizzes and games that can be played at the end of the video or at any point during the film. Often, these are presented as excerpted scenes from the movie, followed by comprehension questions. This is excellent not only for your children’s growing knowledge of healthy eating, but also for their general literacy and test-taking skills.

All of the educational materials on both ee DVDs are standards-based, which means that the quizzes and on-screen Flash Facts will contribute to your kids’ mastery of skills and content areas upon which they are assessed at public schools. But the real educational value of these ee DVDs is in their focus on parental engagement and assistance on hot-button issues like diet and drugs. Scope Seven knows that allowing the videos to present facts and advice de-personalizes normally stressful, uncomfortable or virtually impossible conversations. So the next time you find your family together on a rainy summer afternoon, pop in one of these ee DVDs and get the conversation rolling.

You can order the TV JUNKIE: FACES OF ADDICTION ee DVD from Deep Ellum Pictures and the SUPER SIZE ME ee DVD from Hart SharpVideo. ee DVDs are produced for both classroom and family use. (We don’t want to think about it yet either, but they might be a nice back to school gift for teachers.)

DVDs with a Difference

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