The Pearson Foundation and Nokia Announce the Mobile Learning Institute Earth Day Challenge

The Pearson Foundation and Nokia Announce the Mobile Learning Institute Earth Day Challenge

New Digital Arts Initiative Includes First-Ever Global, Environmental Filmmaking Competition for Youth

ORLANDO, Fla., April 22 /PRNewswire/ -- The Pearson Foundation and Nokia today announced a global, environmental filmmaking competition that gives young people the chance to share their views on the earth's future and the importance of combating climate change. The Mobile Learning Institute Earth Day Challenge was announced at the opening of Jane Goodall's Global Youth Summit on Earth Day 2008 in Orlando, Florida.

During the Global Youth Summit, taking place April 19-25, Pearson and Nokia will provide the tools and empower young people to create and promote environmental videos as a kickoff to the filmmaking competition which begins on June 1, 2008 and ends on Earth Day 2009. The Mobile Learning Institute will host a series of workshops demonstrating the place of digital media in advocacy and public awareness. Working with Mobile Learning Institute staff and professional filmmakers, youth from around the world brainstorm, storyboard, film and edit environmental video pieces within teams. Young people will broadcast personal public service messages that share their concerns and ideas about the environment at http://share.ovi.com/mli, a new social media Web site hosted by Nokia's Share service, and at www.earthdaychallenge.org.

Beyond the Global Youth Summit, the Pearson Foundation and Nokia will extend their Mobile Learning Institute partnership to encourage youth to compete in the environmental filmmaking competition. This summer, the two organizations will host more than 20 local Mobile Learning Institute digital arts workshops in communities across the United States. In each community, young people nominated by their teachers will have the chance to create brief personal films that share their ideas while exploring firsthand the ways in which laptop computers, video production equipment, and mobile technologies are changing the ways we communicate. Their finished films will be entered automatically in the competition and will also serve as the cornerstone for a new environmental digital arts curriculum being developed by the Pearson Foundation for use by teachers this fall. For more information, visit www.earthdaychallenge.org.

"The young leaders attending the Jane Goodall Institute's Global Youth Summit today share a passion for preserving the environment and developing a plan of action," said Mark Nieker, president of the Pearson Foundation. "The Mobile Learning Institute's contribution to the Summit allows these young people to express their enthusiasm and advocacy through digital arts and communicate globally. We expect the videos created at the Summit will inspire participants in the Earth Day Challenge over the next year."

"Since launching the Mobile Learning Institute in 2005, we have served more than 20,000 students and teachers inside and outside of the classroom, connecting efforts through a commitment to the environment," said Vannessa Nickson, senior manager for community involvement at Nokia. "Through technology and social media, the Earth Day Challenge will pull together advocates and leaders from across the globe."

Nokia and The Jane Goodall Institute are members of The Digital Arts Alliance, the consortium founded by the Pearson Foundation that promotes digital arts in K-12 education through fully funded and staffed programs delivered directly to schools and community centers nationwide.

About the Mobile Learning Institute

The Mobile Learning Institute delivers engaging, personalized, project-based learning right to the classroom, giving students and teachers the opportunity to create digital presentations that share their perspectives and their understanding of classroom objectives. Working together, they design, develop, and complete the collaborative digital-arts projects they can share with each other, with their families, and with their community. In the process, students develop core subject knowledge together with essential learning, information, life and career skills. Teachers become equipped to engage their students' in a way that promotes classroom objectives and important 21st century skills. www.mobilelearninginstitute.org

About the Pearson Foundation

The Pearson Foundation extends Pearson's commitment to education by partnering with leading nonprofit, civic, and business organizations to provide financial, organizational, and publishing assistance across the globe. We aim to make a difference by sponsoring innovative educational programs and extending our educational expertise to help in classrooms and in local communities. More information on the Pearson Foundation can be found at www.pearsonfoundation.org.

About Nokia

Nokia is the world leader in mobility, driving the transformation and growth of the converging Internet and communications industries. Nokia makes a wide range of mobile devices and provides people with experiences in music, navigation, video, television, imaging, games and business mobility through these devices. Nokia also provides equipment, solutions and services for communications networks. More information about Nokia is available at www.nokia.com

Nokia is committed to having a positive impact on society that extends beyond the advanced technology, products and services it creates. It has invested in community projects supporting young people and education in 30 countries, benefiting more than 1 million young people. The company has an active employee volunteering program which last year saw its employees give more than 32,100 hours to local community projects. Nokia is also supporting innovative technology projects designed to bridge the digital divide and bring the benefits of mobile technology to communities around the world. For more information please visit www.nokia.com/communityinvolvement .

Source: The Pearson Foundation

CONTACT: Katie Reardon, +1-202-667-0901, katie.reardon@widmeyer.com, for
The Pearson Foundation

Web site:

http://www.pearsoned.com/
http://www.nokia.com/communityinvolvement
http://www.earthdaychallenge.org/
http://share.ovi.com/mli

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