Can comics and Shakespeare co-exist in the classroom? One innovative program in Texas is now a model for how kids can get creative with Shakespeare by making and sharing digital comics using Pixton, the groundbreaking online comic-builder. The Miller Junior High School teaching team won the Time Warner Cable's Spotlight on Education Award for their project “Pixton with Shakespeare.” Miller's eighth grade Language Arts Department was studying “The Tempest”, and the teachers wanted to enrich the learning experience through the use of technology. One of the ideas that evolved was developing a scene from "The Tempest” using Pixton.com, ...

Entertainment’s stock, like lipstick sales and hemlines, tends to go up in troubled times. With its immersive vibe and interactive allure, new media entertainment offers new forms of escapism. And after the dotcom market meltdown, which in retrospect almost seems quaint, it’s nice to be on the outside looking in rather than the eye of the economic maelstrom. Even better, digital media fundamentals appear stronger than ever. A recent study reports that people would rather keep Internet, video and voice services in their budgets than any other type of expense, including personal care products, gym memberships and apparel. ...

Bell Fund launches today’s definitive resource Novel format to ensure relevance for years to come June 1, 2009 (Vancouver, Toronto) The Bell Broadcast and New Media Fund has created an online source of information about the many aspects of revenue generating potential for multi-platform projects. This original resource, www.bellfundbliki.ca, is designed for both the Canadian and international digital media and broadcast communities and provides a comprehensive overview with strategies for success. The Bell Fund’s “bliki,” ...

In 2008, the Bell Broadcast and New Media Fund invested nearly $12M in over a hundred projects including 62 new media and related television productions, and the development of 24 new media projects. You can view the full Bell Fund 2008 annual report, including the funded new media productions, online.

Finalists at the Content 360 Interactive Educational Formats for Cross-Media - held at MIPTV in Cannes, France -  battled it out in five-minute pitching sessions to jurors Hye Chung Eun, senior researcher at the Korean Broadcast Institute, and Catherine Warren, FanTrust Entertainment Strategies' founder and president, for the $10,000 development funding prize. Selected from 56 entries covering 23 countries, the presentations were all cross-media format ideas that combined education and entertainment. "One thing that works well with all these ideas is that they connect audiences and consumers together," said Catherine Warren. "They are not directed from high-down to  the student, but rather ...