November 10, 1969

This was the first day upon which someone could tune their TV into a National Education Television station and here the now culturally pervasive jingle, “Sunny days keeping the clouds away….”

Yes, forty years ago today Sesame Street was born on the ailing network soon to be replaced by the federally funded Public Broadcasting System.

From the beginning, Sesame Street was developed with a curriculum in mind, and a philosophy that education and entertainment should be integrated - and an understanding that it was okay to pursue broad educational goals because a breadth of topics would be more likely to produce a persistence of interest.

Moreover, those goals and curriculum were allowed to change. Educators have always been part of the Sesame Street staff, and as national educational objectives changed, so too did Sesame Street.

Even though the internet is now replacing television as America’s primary vehicle of communication, these lessons are still valuable when designing an e-learning program.

Like it or not, the internet is a playground, and you are more likely to capture even a professional audience’s interest if you can create lessons that are entertaining as well as informative.

At the same time it is important to remember that not everyone learns in the same way. A well developed e-learning suite can not only provide the same information in several forms, but it can track and tailor itself to deliver content in the formats which best teach the target.

By tracking who or how many users download technical documentation against how many employ online games tailored to match your educational goals, you can let the students themselves provide you with information which resources are worth developing as your e-learning solution grows.

Of course, a curriculum developed purely by the numbers runs the risk of becoming sterile and inhuman. And while I’d like to take this moment to tout my own innovative curriculum design (which I may yet do in a future post), I’d have to say that it’s Scott Stiefvater’s presence on the MB/I staff that ensures an e-learning project coming through us is in no danger of losing its soul. Not only can he find the fun in any idea, but he has internalized the tools necessary to continually fine tune any lesson.