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6/26/2012
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Panasonic Announces Six Grand Prix Finalists
for Kid Witness News Global Contest 2012
Osaka, Japan – Panasonic Corporation today announced the six finalist schools representing six countries for Panasonic Kid Witness News (KWN) 2012 Global Contest.
KWN is a hands-on video education program Panasonic operates as part of its efforts to support education of future generations. The company provides video cameras and other equipment for video productions to elementary and middle schools participating in the program. Currently, some 10,000 children and teachers around the world are taking part in the program. Since the program began in 1989, more than 160,000 children have participated to date.
The KWN program is also a competition that honors the video works created by the children every year. To produce videos, students choose a theme on their own and handle everything from planning and scripting to filming and editing. This year's KWN Global Contest saw 718 schools from 31 countries and regions taking part by submitting five-minute videos on the theme of either ecology or communication.
The KWN Global Awards Ceremony this year will be held on August 10 at the Grand Connaught Rooms in London. As an Official Worldwide Olympic Partner of the London 2012 Olympic Games, Panasonic supports the sports festival that promotes world peace and friendship. The company intends to provide young children the chance to learn about these Olympic values by holding the KWN Global Awards events during the Games.
This year’s six finalist videos can be viewed on the KWN global website (http://panasonic.net/kwn/contest2012/).
An awards ceremony will take place in London in August to recognize the best films produced for the KWN program, a hands-on video education program Panasonic operates as part of its efforts to support education of future generations.
About Kid Witness News
KWN got its start in 1989 in the U.S. as a hands-on video education program supported by Panasonic North America, which supplied video cameras and editing equipment to public elementary and middle schools to make news programs from the perspective of children and young adults. The program was subsequently expanded to encompass all 50 U.S. states, and then in recent years grew on a global scale, encompassing Europe, Southeast Asia and Japan. At present, 718 schools from 31 countries and regions are participants in the program.
KWN is designed to foster creativity and presentation skills among young students. Supervising teachers cite further merits of the program such as a heightened awareness of the environment and the community as well as development of team skills among participants through the process of creating videos and covering the news. Further, the expanding network of KWN schools provides a platform for international exchange among the KWN students. For example, a networking event was held this year, with KWN schools in different countries participating to exchange their views and opinions using Skype video calls on smart TVs.
31 countries and regions participating in KWN
North America: Canada, United States
Central and South America: Brazil, Chile, Mexico, Panama, Peru
Europe: Austria, Czech Republic, Germany, Italy, Poland, Russia, Slovakia, Switzerland, United Kingdom
Middle and Near East: Kuwait, Lebanon, Oman, United Arab Emirates (U.A.E.)
Asia: China, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam
Oceania: Australia, New Zealand
For further details of KWN, please refer to the following websites.
General information on KWN global program:
http://panasonic.net/kwn/
General information on Panasonic's corporate citizenship activities:
http://panasonic.net/citizenship/
In addition to KWN, Panasonic also conducts a variety of educational programs including the Eco Picture Diary Contest, the Jump Rope Competition and the Global Eco Learning Program under the umbrella scheme of “Panasonic Kids School,” in which over 460,000 children currently take part worldwide. In the hopes of promoting the sound development of children and mutual understanding among people around the world, Panasonic will continue in its work to promote and expand these activities in the future. |
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