Microsoft has today announced that registration is now open for its upcoming TV series, My World. The film series is a collaboration between the Redmond giant and BBC, and aims to provide children with polished critical thinking, among other skills.
Particularly focused towards children between the ages of 10 and 16, My World will look to provide educators with the means of teaching young children how to discern between fact and fiction among news in today"s day and age. The series consists of 10 episodes; each week"s episode will feature a different theme that will be incorporated into an online learning module. These modules will require students to participate in various exercises that will enable them to build their media awareness, and hence, develop their critical thinking. Various international issues will take center stage in order to aid the maturing of students" thought process regarding bias and trustworthiness of news sources.
The following core curriculum skills have been identified as part of the learning process:
- Evaluating the argument and specific claims in a text while distinguishing claims that are supported by reasons and evidence from claims that are not.
- Following and evaluating the argument and specific claims in a text, assessing whether the reasoning is sound and the evidence is relevant and sufficient; recognizing when irrelevant evidence is introduced.
- Integrating and evaluating multiple sources of information presented in different media or formats (e.g., visually, quantitatively) as well as in words in order to address a question or solve a problem
The series has been executive-produced by famous actress and humanitarian Angelina Jolie, alongside BBC World Service. You can sign up or learn more about My World here.