892 Actas del Primer Congreso Internacional de Buenas Prácticasen Patrimonio Mundial:Arqueología 892-908

ISBN: 978-84-695-6782-1

The “Hikayat Simsim” Multimedia Edutainment Project in Jordan and its Role in Early Childhood

Cultural Heritage Knowledge

El proyecto educativo multimedia “Hikayat Simsim” en Jordania. Su papel en la educación sobre Patrimonio Cultural en la infancia

Naif A. HADDAD (1), Khaled A. HADDAD (2), Phoebe SLOANE (2)(1) Department of Conservation Science, Queen Rania Institute of Tourism and Heritage,

the Hashemite University, Zarqa , Jordan, E-mail: (2) Jordan pioneers multimedia and TV production, Amman ,Jordan,

AbstractIn Jordan, it a is fact that cultural heritage resources are suffering. Many young children in Jordan and othercountries of the Arab world are not taught about archaeology or other means of respecting and preserving thepast. In order to reach children, we must utilize tools already popular with them, such as television and games,to teach lessons about Cultural Heritage. However, in order to interest children in these issues, it is essential touse modern multimedia tools. Hikayat Simsim is a national Jordanian Educational Multimedia project co-pro-duced by Jordan Pioneers for Multimedia in Jordan and Sesame Workshop in New York. One of the main aimsof the project is to create a new generation of Jordanian children proud of themselves and their country, theirown culture, respectful of other cultures, and empowered to embark on both formal and informal educationalendeavours, using its entertaining Muppet characters.This paper attempts to discuss how the cultural heritage concept and material appear in the particular case ofthe Hikayat Simsim project with respect to two unique and complementary aspects: (1) The television show se-ries; (2) The educational outreach initiative. The paper will also address how Hikayat Simsim, can develop me-thods to promote appreciation, awareness of cultural heritage issues among children. This will be achieved bythe support of presentation of ideas, based on the educational goals of Hikayat Simsim curriculum.

Key words: Entertaining Muppet Characters, Early Childhood Education, Awareness, Multimedia, CulturalHeritage, Hikayat Simsim, Outreach material.

Resumen:Durante los primeros años, y desde la perspectiva de los propios niños, el juego y el aprendizaje están unidos.Cuando alcanzan los cinco años, la gran mayoría ha aprendido mucho. Sin embargo, todavía están lejos de com-prender los elementos del Patrimonio Cultural de su entorno local como parte de sus vidas, eso es algo ajeno ala vida escolar. Así, a la mayoría de la infancia en Jordania y en otros países del mundo árabe no se les enseñanada de Arqueología o de respeto hacia los restos del pasado.Está claro que con el fin de llegar a la infancia, hay que utilizar las herramientas que les son más conocidas,como la televisión y los juegos, así como los recursos multimedia. Esto es lo que pretende Hikayat Simsim, unproyecto educativo multimedia producido por “Pioneros de Jordania para la multimedia”, en Jordania, y “SesameWorkshop” en Nueva York.Uno de sus objetivos principales es crear una nueva generación de niños y niñas jordanos orgullosos de sí mis-mos, de su país y de su propia cultura, además de respetuosos con las otras culturas. Para ello se utilizan lospersonajes Muppet de entretenimiento. Este trabajo analiza cómo el concepto de Patrimonio Cultural se intro-duce, en el proyecto Hikayat Sims im mediante dos aspectos complementarios:

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1. IntroductionOver the past half-century, child develop-ment research has provided an increasinglycomprehensive knowledge base to explainhow young children acquire skills and kno-wledge and define the environmental sup-ports needed to stimulate and sustaindevelopment [1]. Early childhood educa-tion, however, is a critical means to addressmany of children’s developmental needs;the environment in which young childrengrow plays a major role in children’s deve-lopment. During early years, from chil-dren’s own perspective, playing andlearning are not always separate in practices[2]. By the time children are five years old,the vast majority have learned a great deal.They have reached “developmental compe-tence” and “maturity,” meaning that theyhave achieved the normative learningbenchmarks of their community [3]. Never-theless, the notion of young children step-ping out of the classroom to experiencehistory, art and culture heritage as a livingand breathing phenomena in their local en-vironment has become alien to school life.

It has long been recognized that teachingchildren about cultural heritage and ar-chaeology is essential to preserving history[4, 5]. Teaching young children to care forhistorically important sites and traditions isessential to preserving any society’s culturalheritage [6]. Children, however, like seeingother children engaging in activities to learnfrom. By promoting enjoyment and interestin participating in cultural heritage practi-ces, children Cultural Heritage appreciationcan be build up. This is basic issue to creategeneration of good Citizens to respect andto be responsible for preserving their Cul-

tural Heritage. However, to discuss culturalheritage topics and activities that childrenenjoy, any treatment should include topicsthat interest both young and older targetedchildren, parents and teachers. It is fact that2D &3D animation, games web site games,outreach material and Muppet held chil-dren’s attention. Therefore, a well designed,age –appropriate, and culturally sensitiveeducational and social activities during theearly childhood years must be provided tofacilitate interaction with the greater envi-ronment, and foster learning of an array ofsocial, emotional and basic cognitive skills.

In Jordan, it is fact that cultural heritageresources is suffering. Many young childrenin Jordan and other countries of the Arabworld are not taught about archaeology orother means of respecting, preserving evendocumenting the past. In order to reach chil-dren, we must utilize tools already popularwith them, such as television and games, toteach lessons about cultural heritage. Howe-ver, in order to interest children in these is-sues, it is essential to use modernmultimedia tools [7].

For the purposes of this paper, culturalheritage is defined as manmade evidence ofany aspect of culture, past or present. Cul-ture includes all aspects of human society.According to the United Nations Economicand Social Council (UNESCO), cultural he-ritage used to refer mostly to physical ruinsfrom ancient civilizations. The definition ofcultural heritage has grown to include anyaspect of culture from past or present tradi-tions [8], which is what this paper focuseson. The UNESCO separates man made cul-tural heritage into tangible cultural heritage,such as ruins or artwork, and intangible cul-

Proceedings of the First International Conference on Best Practices in World Heritage: Archaeology 892-908

ISBN: 978-84-695-6782-1

N. A. Haddad et al The “Hikayat Simsim” Multimedia Edutainment...

(1) La serie de televisión,(2) La iniciativa de extensión educativa. También se ocupará de cómo el proyecto Hikayat SimSim consiguepromover el aprecio y el conocimiento del Patrimonio Cultural entre la infancia.

Palabras clave: Muppets, Patrimonio, Educación Infantil, Conciencia, multimedia, material de divulgación

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tural heritage, such as theatre, dance, litera-ture, and telling of oral histories [9].

2. The role of multimedia edutainment inchildren cultural heritage enhancement Science and technology can be used notonly to document, restore, conserve andpreserve archaeological sites, historical mo-numents and artifacts themselves but also topromote awareness and appreciation. Therapid development in multi-media tools , es-pecially in TV , filming, animation, websitegames, outreach material for children’s shalltake place in supporting the efforts in chil-dren awareness and appreciation about theircultural heritage issues. This can foster thechildren appreciation of the people involvedin cultural heritage and the work they do,seeing them at work and their creative pro-cesses.

The glory of cultural heritage, actually,is captured best through the pictures andsound provided by television, computers,and other multimedia modern technologies.However, instructional television receivedextensive comparative research attention inthe 1960s when it began. Studies comparedin-person learning to televised instruction,routinely finding no significant differencesin learner performance between TV instruc-ted and in-person students. Sesame Streethas proven around the world that childrencan learn various academic and social les-sons from television shows [10]. ResearchTV Consortium is looking for new meansof distribution and interaction, including theVideo. While the validity of classroom tea-ching is rarely questioned, teaching withtechnology invariably attracts the cautiousquestion. Major institutions with an educa-tion outreach mission start to implementlive curators to help teachers and studentsuse their site. They should co-develop, ac-cumulate, and disseminate curriculum ideasand lesson plans and they could provide re-ferrals to other resources when others better

answer constituent questions [11]. Therewould also appear to be a trend for morecross-curricular work, involving arts andother (non-arts) subject areas working toge-ther on creative and/or cultural themes.

Recently, Virtual heritage and archaeo-logy start to play significant role in explo-ring issues involved in creating immersivecultural heritage projects enhancing ourperspective and understanding of the envi-ronments in which our ancestors lived andworked. However, in spite of various con-cerns and objections regarding the appro-priateness and educational efficacy ofvirtual reality, there remain compelling reasons for believing that virtual heritageprojects warrant serious investigation andcan provide strong tools for learning [12].Virtual archaeology refers to the use of 3Dcomputer models of ancient buildings andartifacts visualized through immersive tech-nologies. VR hardware and software are re-flected in the creation of a number ofeducational and cultural heritage programstargeted at the widest possible audience onmany levels [13]. Institutions of informaleducation, such as museums, research, andcultural centres are now in a better positionto make use of such advanced systems andinvestigate their educational potential whileeffectively shaping how they deliver publicentertainment and education.

On the other hand, taking a more directapproach to these issues, many museumsand media organizations have designedmultimedia curriculums for children dealingwith cultural heritage. Many of these sitesand curriculums do not directly discuss theissue of preservation of culture, but indi-rectly promote an interest in and respect forheritage and history among students. Forinstance, the British Museum offers a web-site for kids about the ancient Greek Olym-pic Games [14]. The Metropolitan Museumin New York holds lectures and storytellingsessions for kids about medieval history

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Actas del Primer Congreso Internacional de Buenas Prácticasen Patrimonio Mundial:Arqueología 892-908

ISBN: 978-84-695-6782-1

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[15]. The Public Broadcasting Service(PBS), a non-profit television and media or-ganization in the US, has also used the me-dium of television to teach children aboutheritage and supplement elementary schoolhistory curriculums. For American teachersthey have created “The Greeks,” a multime-dia site with videos, activities, and other in-formation about all aspects of ancient Greekculture and history [16]. The site offers stu-dents interactive tours of ruins, such as theParthenon, as they are now and images ofhow they might have looked when ancientGreeks were using them [17].

3. Sesame workshop/ street as earlychildhood multimedia edutainment andthe Arab regionSesame Workshop is a non-profit organiza-tion based in New York, established over 40years ago, and has been dedicated to addres-sing children’s critical development needsin more than 150 countries, loved by chil-dren, respected by educators and trusted byparents [18]. Sesame workshop’s four deca-des of experience have proven that with theright combination of humour, art and sensi-tivity, television can address those “hard toteach” topics and provide new images andmessages that can help meet many of thecurrent challenges. Sesame Street has pro-ven around the world that children can learnvarious academic and social lessons fromtelevision shows [10]. Sesame workshop’sas international productions help to improveearly childhood education quality and ac-cess and to expand the use of informationand communication technologies for educa-tional purposes.

Sesame Workshop, which first made Se-same Street and partners with local produc-tion companies in each country to makeinternational Sesame productions [18]. Assuch, these projects contribute to the millen-nium development goal of achieving univer-sal primary education for all initiative to

expand and improve early childhood careand education especially for the most vulne-rable and disadvantaged children. In the areaof cognitive development, countless studiesconducted in the United States and interna-tionally have repeatedly evidenced the powerof Sesame Street to introduce skills that havesignificant impact on children’s academicachievement and lives. The international ver-sions of Sesame Street shows are producedin each country based on careful researchabout the local context children grow up in,so that lessons are related to children’s every-day lives and they can see how to applythem. A general diagram of Sesame Streetmethodology model and the Muppet charac-ters are shown in Figure 1.

While the international adaptation of Se-same Street began in the early 1970s, thefirst sesame street co – production in Arabicbegan in Kuwait in 1979 with Iftah ya Sim-sim. Iftah ya Simsim have since aired viasatellite throughout Arabic speaking coun-tries and helped raise past generations ofpreschoolers with a wide range of educatio-nal and social skills. Since Iftah ya Simsim,sesame workshops had co – produced otherseries in Arabic to help address the educa-tional needs of specific cultures and coun-tries [19, 20]. These are:

Al Manahel; Co- produced in Jordan in1988. It aired in more than 15 Arab coun-tries and presented classical Arabic readingand writing skills.

Share’ Simsim; Co- produced in Pales-tine in 1998, was the first educational chil-dren’s program specifically developed forPalestinian children and addressed selfpride, respect and understanding along withbasic education.

Alam Simsim; Co- produced In Egyptbeginning in 1999. The program is extendedits broadcast to 22 Arab countries in 2003on MBC and highlights girl’s education andhealth and nutrition, and offers a broad pre– school curriculum [19, 20].

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Proceedings of the First International Conference on Best Practices in World Heritage: Archaeology 892-908

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Hikayat Simsim; Co- produced in Jor-dan since 2002, designed to support theeducational sector to educate and entertainJordanian children in primary schools; agesfrom 4 to 7 years old, through multimedia,including television, outreach distributionand training workshops.

4. The significance of Hikayat Simsim inJordan educational objectives and model There are currently a very limited numberof television programs created for youngJordanian children that target specific deve-lopmental and educational needs in a qua-lity manner [19]. Hikayat Simsim is anational Jordanian Educational Multimediaproject co-produced by Jordan Pioneers forMultimedia in Jordan and Sesame Works-hop in New York. The project aims to createa new generation of Jordanian childrenproud of themselves and their country, theirown culture, respectful of other cultures,and empowered to embark on both formaland informal educational endeavours. Hika-yat Simsim exposes children to the valuesand problems of their environment andusing its entertaining Muppet characters, Fi-gure1, 4 helps children gain positive socialrelation skills. In addition, to the professio-nal cross- fertilization inherent in the se-

same workshop model, the Hikayat Simsimproject goes one step further toward enga-ging local stakeholders to work together to-ward the development and sustainability ofhigh quality children’s media that contribu-tes to Jordanian early childhood education.Hikayat Simsim following Sesame Works-hop methodology has two unique and com-plementary aspects [19, 20]:- • The television series. • The educational outreach initiative and

training. The statement of the educational objec-

tives is divided into five sections. These are:(1) Cognitive Skills, Language Arts, Mathe-matics, Science and Environment, (2) He-alth, Hygiene, Nutrition and Safety, (3)Child, Family, Community, and Group Re-lations, (4) Respect, Understanding, Tole-rance and Diversity, (5) Culture, heritage,and Art. This document forms an articula-tion of skills that Hikayat Simsim televisionand outreach initiative encourage childrento gain. It serves as the Educational Frame-work for the Hikayat Simsim project. Ac-cording to Hikayat Simsim/ Sesame Streetmethodology Model, Figure2, many ofthese topics and areas are directly to goalsset by Jordan’s education reform and knowledge economy project (ERFKE).

N. A. Haddad et al The “Hikayat Simsim” Multimedia Edutainment...

Actas del Primer Congreso Internacional de Buenas Prácticasen Patrimonio Mundial:Arqueología 892-908

ISBN: 978-84-695-6782-1

Figure 1. General diagram of Sesame Street methodology model and the Muppet characters.

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In the section about Culture, heritage, andArt the statement emphasizes how to instill inchildren a pride in their country, heritage andtraditions. The statement encourages childrento be proud citizens, and to participate in thecommon culture that is shared by all Jorda-nian people irrespective of religion and class.The statement also introduces:-• Archaeological sites and monuments of

historical significance in Jordan (such asthe Citadel and Roman Theatre inAmman, The Hadrian’s Arch and colum-ned street in Jerash, The Siq and the An-cient city of Petra, Ajlun Castel in Ajlun,Shawbak Castle in Shawbak, The mosaicat the Greek Orthodox Church of St. Ge-

orge in Madaba. • Information about Jordan to encourage

children to appreciate and enjoy the for-mal and informal arts of Jordan includingmusic, dance, folk dance, folk songs, andtheatre.

• Appreciating of Jordanian Art: Encouragechildren to appreciate and enjoy the for-mal and informal arts of Jordan (e.g.,songs, music, dance, play, theatre, classi-cal and modern music, musical instru-ments, visual arts, etc.)

• Children to local arts and crafts that havealways existed in Jordan (e.g. rug-ma-king, sand-bottles, glass-work, embroi-dery, pottery, mosaic, etc.).

N. A. Haddad et al The “Hikayat Simsim” Multimedia Edutainment...

Proceedings of the First International Conference on Best Practices in World Heritage: Archaeology 892-908

ISBN: 978-84-695-6782-1

Figure2. Hikayat Simsim/ Sesame Street methodology Model.

• Appreciating Art from Different Cultures:Encourage children to enjoy art from allover the world.

4.1. Hikayat Simsim Community ImpactHikayat Simsim has produced four seasonsuntil now. However, the main communityimpact is obvious and can be summarizedas follows:-

1. Television: distributed educational enter-tainment content through televisiondaily on air to all Jordanian children, pa-rents & families.

2. Public Survives Announcements (PSAs):Each of the PSAs targets a particularmessage linked to the series but relevantto issues of parent – child interaction.JTV has aired the PSAs during adult vie-

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wing times in order to reach the largestpossible audience.

3. Educational Children’s Kits: HikayatSimsim has extended its influence tomore than 80,000 children throughoutJordan in the distribution of the children’s kits.

4. Full size Live Muppet shows (Walkaround): More than 200 Muppet educa-tional shows were conducted throughoutJordan reaching children, with a mini-mum of 300 children, and their parents,Figure 3.

5. Educating 1200 Teachers: Teachershave been educated in the proper use ofthe educational material covering key to-pics.

6. Training 2100 Parents: Hikayat Simsimhas impacted the development of com-munities through the Parent TrainingWorkshops conducted throughout Jor-dan.

7. Capacity Building: Training workshopsfor script writers, puppeteers, directors,children‘s program directors, live actiondirectors. Regionally, there is a gap inthe field of early childhood educationscriptwriters Hikayat Simsim has dedi-cated resources to creating a new gene-ration of specialist writers in the field,through continuous capacity buildingwriting workshops.

8. Formative and Summative Research:Several critical topics have been resear-ched according to the needs of the Jor-

danian children resulting with educatio-nal framework serving Ministry of Edu-cation curriculum and other partners.

5. Hikayat simsim cultural heritage ma-terial: analysis and assessment

5.1. TV Episodes AssessmentChildren in Jordan spend a considerableportion of their time watching television. Itis one of the major forms of recreation be-cause it is easity available, low cost, and canbe done within the home environs. There iscurrently a very limited number of televi-sion programs created for young Jordanianchildren that target specific developmentaland educational needs in a quality manner[19].

This part of the paper is based on ananalysis of Seasons One to four of HikayatSimsim, which together includes 104 episo-des. Each 25-minute episode contains ave-rage 8-10 segments of two to three minuteseach. Each segment and show has a specificeducational goal, which relates back to thestatement of the educational objectives /cu-rriculum of the show that is based on needsdefined by Jordanian educators, parents, go-vernment officials, and even children them-selves [21].

More than half of these segments usuallyshow the main Muppet characters, Tontonand Juljul playing together in a way thatpromotes one of the lessons of the show. Forexample, Juljul frequently plays on his

N. A. Haddad et al The “Hikayat Simsim” Multimedia Edutainment...

Actas del Primer Congreso Internacional de Buenas Prácticasen Patrimonio Mundial:Arqueología 892-908

ISBN: 978-84-695-6782-1

Figure 3. Hikayat Simsim reaching the Jordanian children through the live show Muppet “the Walkaround”

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computer, whereas Tonton plays outside orasks questions of Juljul and along with theirhuman friends show children how to eat he-althily, to exercise, be kind to each other, tobe involved cultural events, heritage, art,and take care of the environment Figure 4.

The rest of the segments do not featureTonton or Juljul or other regular charac-ters. Some are cartoon stories of objects,Figure 5, animals or people from Jordanand other parts of the world. Others are“live action” sequences of children and fa-milies from various areas of Jordan Figure5, explaining parts of their daily lives, theirculture and their favourite places, howtheir families celebrate holidays such asRamadan and Christmas, or giving a tourof their hometown.

We counted the number of episodes thatcontain any segment related to cultural he-ritage, and then analyzed and categorizedeach cultural heritage segment. Each seg-ment was first categorized as Jordanian orInternational, and then broken down intotypes of cultural heritage, including Ar-chaeology, General, Celebrations, Music,Food, and Arts. It is of importance to brieflydefine the categories of Jordanian and Inter-national cultural heritage segments on Hi-kayat Simsim before going on to analyzeresults. Among the Jordanian segments,these categorized as:-• “Archaeology” segments take place at

historical sites in Jordan, such as Petra,Jerash, or Salt showing Jordanian childrenwho live near these sites Figure 5, andwhose families work in the tourism in-dustry or enjoy spending time at these ar-chaeological sites and monuments. Forexample, the Live action segments“Sounds in Petra”; “Adnan in Petra”;“Colored Sand in Jerash.” These seg-ments come closest to directly promotingarchaeology and culturally important ar-chaeological sites. However, they do notdirectly talk about conservation and pre-

servation issues, but rather show peopleusing archaeological sites in respectfulways.

• Musical segments deal with traditionalJordanian music, dance, and instruments.For example, the “Traditional Dress,”“Bani Hamida,” “Banana Leaves” seg-ments. Arts-focused segments show ar-tists and craftspeople in modern Jordandoing activities such as basket weaving,embroidery, or painting.

• Food segments show the process of ma-king traditional Jordanian foods, such asolive oil or tabouleh, and “Homos,” “Sim-sim Song,” “Mankoosheh” segments.

• Celebration segments deal with importantholidays, such as Ramadan, or other cele-brations, including birthdays and wed-dings, For example, “Ramadan” segment.

• General heritage episodes clearly takeplace in Jordan and show scenes of dailylife in various Jordanian towns and cities,but do not fit into any specific category.For example, “Rawditi Song” and “Me-mory Trunk 1” segments.

All of these episodes make reference tohow cultural heritage manifests itself in cu-rrent everyday life in Jordan, but do not di-rectly discuss history or conservation ofthese traditions. International heritage seg-ments is non-Jordanian cultural themes ofany type, as Hikayat Simsim features somesegments from China, Russia, Kenya, andother countries as for example, the “AztecGeometric Forms,” “The Emperor and theKite,” “Taiko Drums, Mom and Kid,” and“Wooden Cradle” segments. These seg-ments are often not produced in Jordan.They are taken from the Sesame Street glo-bal library that allows all Sesame produc-tions to share and borrow segments fromeach other to present different cultures andthemes.

However, there is overlap between cate-gories in some segments. For instance, foodis featured in Ramadan segments, so these

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segments could be placed in either the“Food” category or the “Celebrations” ca-tegory. In view of that:-• We chose to put each segment in only one

category, to which it was deemed most re-levant. “Jordanian” specifically, also inthis case is a loose term, as some foodsand arts are regional and not only presentin Jordan.

• We chose to categorize anything thattakes place in Jordan as “Jordanian,” re-gardless of whether or not it is only in Jor-dan or in other places as well. We did notinclude more general regional or religiouscategories in our analysis, as this paper isfocused more on Jordanian cultural heri-tage.

5.2. Outreach Material AssessmentHikayat Simsim outreach initiative, produ-ced by Jordan pioneers and in conjunctionwith sesame workshop and the Jordanianministry of education, includes the creationof materials for distribution throughout Jor-dan. These materials were distributed topreschoolers and community centres andfocus on the characters and educationalgoals of the series. Hikayat Simsim also fa-cilitated teachers training workshop to pro-mote the usage of the outreach materialsamong children’s, educators and parents.

Among these materials are educationalposters; featuring the series slogan (togetherliving, playing, and sharing our stories, ourclean city) with a series of questions for te-

achers to use for discussion in classroomsappears as well, storybooks; to promote theseries goals and to foster an appreciation forstorytelling to help stimulate younger rea-ders’ interest.

The Teacher’s guide books are resourcesfor educators to elaborate on the series byleading children in a range of activities thatpromote respect and understanding of othercultures. Meanwhile stickers featuring theJordanian Muppet characters and Videotape(DVD) were distributed to schools and day-care centres equipped with television andVCRS.

In addition there is production of Publicservice announcement (PSAs); decades ofPSAs extend the series messages directly toparents and other adults have been aired du-ring adult viewing times in order to reachthe largest possible audience. Lastly, the outreach initiative extends its activities toreach children through the Full size LiveMuppet shows (Walk around) Figure 3.

Accordingly, many educational mate-rials concerning cultural heritage take placein the outreach material at historical sites inJordan, such as Petra or Jerash Figure 5,showing Jordanian children who visit andlive near these sites, enjoy spending time atthese archaeological sites.

These segments come closest to directlypromoting historical and cultural heritagetraditions and important sites. However,they do not directly talk about conservationand preservation issues, but rather show

N. A. Haddad et al The “Hikayat Simsim” Multimedia Edutainment...

Actas del Primer Congreso Internacional de Buenas Prácticasen Patrimonio Mundial:Arqueología 892-908

ISBN: 978-84-695-6782-1

Figure 4. Examples of the TV program, Jordanian studio Muppet cultural heritage segment.

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people using archaeological sites in respect-ful ways.

5.3. Discussion and Results By mobilizing media as a tool to exposechildren to the values and achievements oftheir own culture, Hikayat Simsim, buildspride in Jordanian culture and helps chil-dren gain positive social relation skills re-quisite to appreciating the diverse world inwhich they live. Meanwhile Hikayat Sim-sim currently has dealt with many issues inJordanian cultural heritage as it exists today,but it does not directly discuss history orhow to promote awareness in order to pre-serve and conserve heritage.

Based on an analysis of first two seasons(52 episodes) of Hikayat Simsim, therewere 53 segments dealing with some typeof Jordanian heritage and 7 dealing with In-ternational heritage. 65% of episodes in Se-ason One and 73% of episodes in SeasonTwo contain at least one segment dealingwith heritage or culture. However, in onlyone episode did all of the segments deal

with a cultural heritage theme? This wasEpisode 26 of Season 1, called “HappyEid,” which covered various aspects of thecelebration of the end of Ramadan, calledEid al-Fitr.

Over the first two seasons of the show,the number dealing with Jordanian culturalheritage increased from 24 to 36 segments.The highest number of segments dealt withFood and Arts, showing how Jordanian cul-tural traditions manifest themselves in con-temporary everyday life. For instance in theFood category, one segment shows varioususes of chickpeas and how they are madeinto hummus, falafel in animation style, andother traditional foods. In the Arts category,one episode showed a grandmother in ruralJordan teaching her granddaughter how toweave baskets out of dried banana leaves inLive action segment style.

In Archaeology, only 8 segments in allof the first two seasons, was the least com-mon among cultural heritage themes. Mostof these segments did not talk about thesites themselves, but used them as settings

N. A. Haddad et al The “Hikayat Simsim” Multimedia Edutainment...

Proceedings of the First International Conference on Best Practices in World Heritage: Archaeology 892-908

ISBN: 978-84-695-6782-1

Figure 5. Examples of the TV program, animation and Jordanian live action cultural heritage seg-ments.

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to show everyday life in Jordan. For exam-ple, one Live action segment “Adnan inPetra”, shows a boy riding with his father,who drives a tourist carriage in the Siq/ can-yon of the world heritage site of Petra for aliving, Figure 6.

Another shows in animation cartoon“Sounds in Petra” A bat living in a cave inPetra. Neither discusses Petra’s ancient Na-bataean origins, nor shows how the site wasdiscovered and excavated. Though, whilethese episodes teach children to understandand appreciate some aspects of cultural he-ritage, they do not directly address the issueas a critical one in Jordan. The highest num-ber of segments dealt with cultural heritage,showing how a Jordanian child’s themsel-ves in contemporary everyday life.

On the other hand, based on an analysis

of the other two seasons 3and 4 (52 episo-des) of Hikayat Simsim, there were only 14segments dealing with some type of Jorda-nian heritage.

Analytically, in Season 3 only two Stu-dio segments; Folklore bands celebration,showing the Muppets and the human cha-racters with children’s learning all togetherthe traditional Jordanian Dabbke dance Fi-gure 7, and Fayrouz (Awad) covering heri-tage and culture/ dance and music, inaddition to three live action segments (Eas-ter, Country life, and Mosaic showing thechildren’s experience in Madaba MosaicSchool in Jordan , Figure 8, covering cul-tural heritage and art -cultural practices, inaddition to one animation segment ,TalkingVase, covering cultural heritage practicesFigure 4.

N. A. Haddad et al The “Hikayat Simsim” Multimedia Edutainment...

Actas del Primer Congreso Internacional de Buenas Prácticasen Patrimonio Mundial:Arqueología 892-908

ISBN: 978-84-695-6782-1

Figure 5. Examples of the Jordanian Hikayat Simsim reaching children through the distribution ofeducational materials related cultural heritage in their class rooms and home across Jordan.

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N. A. Haddad et al The “Hikayat Simsim” Multimedia Edutainment...

Proceedings of the First International Conference on Best Practices in World Heritage: Archaeology 892-908

ISBN: 978-84-695-6782-1

Figure 6. Live action segment “Adnan in Petra”, showing the children’s the significance of the worldheritage site of Petra.

Figure 7. Live action segment “Mosaic”, showing the children’s experience in Madaba Mosaic Schoolin Jordan.

In Season 4 only five Studio segments(The Poet Juljul, The Broken string, TheMusician, Art is a great talent, Good citizen)covering culture and musical instruments,meanwhile three live action segments only;Taboun, showing the children experiencewith their grandmother in making the tra-ditional bread “Taboun” in the villages inJordan, Figure 8, the Fisher man and SoapHouse, covering cultural and art -culturalpractices and Appreciating Artists.

In comparison with the original Ameri-can Sesame Street, which has aired for over40 years, there are some cases precedent forarchaeology and cultural heritage on theshow. One episode explains the professionof archaeology and several feature IndianaJones parodies. For example “The Golden

Cabbage of Snuffertiti” and “Ernie and Bertexplore and Egyptian Pyramid”. Similar toHikayat Simsim, there are episodes featu-ring holidays and visits to American and in-ternational cultural sites. In one episode,Big Bird, a large yellow bird Muppet, sings“Feliz Navidad,” or “Merry Christmas” inSpanish, highlighting aspects of HispanicAmerican culture such as “Christmas Eveon Sesame Street”. In one TV special, BigBird visits China, “Big Bird in China,” in-troducing children to archaeological sitessuch as the Great Wall. In another episode,“Big Bird in Japan”, he visits Japan, sho-wing children the famous temples of Kyotoand the skyscrapers of Tokyo.

Although these episodes teach childrento understand and appreciate various as-

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Figure 7 Studio segment “Folklore bands celebration”, showing the Muppets and the human charac-ters with children’s learning all together the traditional Jordanian Dabbke dance.

Figure 8 Live action segment “Taboun”, showing the children experience with their grandmother inmaking the traditional bread “Taboun” in the village in Jordan.

pects of cultural heritage and historicalsites, they do not directly address the issuesof awareness for preservation and conser-vation. Similar to Hikayat Simsim, Ameri-can Sesame Street mostly usesarchaeological sites for settings to teach les-sons or tell stories, but does not discuss thehistory or the importance role of the ar-chaeologist in the excavation of the ar-chaeological sites themselves.

6. RecommendationsAfter assessing cultural heritage themes onHikayat Simsim we decided to look for newways to address heritage, archaeology, andpreservation. To figure out how to better pro-mote awareness and preservation of culturalheritage among Jordanian youth using mul-timedia tools, we have compiled a literature

review of heritage curricula, televisionshows, and games internationally. These ma-terials exist mostly in schools and museums.

In addition to these sites about apprecia-tion of history, there are more multimediatools more directly encouraging students tobecome archaeologists and learn about pre-serving cultural heritage, especially ruins.For instance, the US National Parks Service(NPS) has a website for children about ar-chaeology, how to become an archaeologist,and even how to start your own dig [22].The Archaeological Institute of America pu-blishes a magazine for kids, called Dig, topromote youth interest in the field [23].There are many interactive archaeologygames online for kids, such as the BritishBroadcasting Corporation’s (BBC) “DigDeeper,” which asks about ancient cultural

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heritage history [24]. PBS also has a gamecalled, “Be an Archaeologist,” where chil-dren have to fit together the pieces of a potfrom a dig site [25].

Using characters that children alreadyknow and learn from, Hikayat Simsim, ac-cording to Jordanian particularity, can fo-llow the examples of the PublicBroadcasting Service and the ArchaeologyInstitute of America’s curricula for teachers.Sesame Street in the US has also includedbrief discussions of archaeology, and manyepisodes incorporating holidays from va-rious cultures present in the US. HikayatSimsim, however, can offer infinite possi-bilities as a platform for young children inJordan to explore heritage and archaeologi-cal themes with the Muppet characters thatalready entertain and educate them. Basedon what Hikayat Simsim has already doneto teach children about heritage and onother international models of cultural heri-tage education, there is a need:-• To continue addressing new and critical

topics of cultural heritage resources. • To suggest new ways to promote cultural

heritage appreciation among Jordanianyoung children in the future using HikayatSimsim and other multimedia resources.As an example, Hikayat Simsim outreachmaterial could be the basis for manygames to allow children to experience, forexample, the Nabataean and Umayyadcultures.

• To seek in upcoming season new contentto teach children more about cultural he-ritage, archaeology and conservation is-sues in Jordan.

• To include more studio segments with theMuppets concerning archaeology andcultural heritage conservation.

• To include more visits in the studio andlive action segments by Jordanian chil-dren to these archaeological sites and mo-numents.

• To feature segments showing children in

Jordan or with the Muppets learningabout the profession of archaeology andwhy it is important.

7. Summary and concluding remarksIt is essential for Jordan to encourage its futuregenerations to improve awareness in order topreserve its cultural heritage resources. By in-troducing young children to a variety of sour-ces and resources, including activities andmaking learning about cultural heritage sitesand artifacts enjoyable, by using reconstruc-tion images and conduct events on historicsites, we can help them to develop their res-ponsibility to this critical matter in Jordan.Children’s edutainment in Jordan can betterutilize the powerful multimedia of television,outreach initiative, and a computer game toinspire young children’s to learn more aboutantiquities and cultural heritage.

Hikayat Simsim, however, is a perfectmultimedia tool to introduce young childrento different aspects and themes of culturalheritage and archaeology. Hikayat Simsimhas a proven track record of using its enter-taining Muppet characters to teach childrena variety of lessons, and it is a valuable toolfor teaching children about archaeology andcultural heritage as well. However, now thetypical approach and treatment to introducefor children to local arts, traditional craftsthat have always existed in their environ-ment (e.g., sand-bottles, glass-work, pot-tery, mosaic etc.), is not sufficient tounderstand and share with them the dangersfacing our Cultural Heritage. There aremany international examples of using tech-nology and television to promote childreninterest in archaeology and cultural heritagethat could be applied in Jordan and the Ara-bic region.

Based on an analysis of 104 episodes ofHikayat Simsim season 1-4, the HikayatSimsim project represents a high-qualitymodel of children’s educational/entertain-ment multi-media and serves as the pilot for

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additional series that can help to foster un-derstanding and mutual and Cultural Heri-tage respect. Addressing a wide range ofeducational objectives, the Hikayat Simsimproject is a dynamic tool to present criticallearning opportunities for young childrenand can serve as a case study of how multi-media can be used to foster educational cul-tural heritage and archaeology aims.

For that, Hikayat Simsim sustainabilityis necessary to continue serving the educa-tional needs of primary Jordanian children,parents and teachers. With its multiplemedia approach and educational objectivesexploring a comprehensive approach tochild development, the project can helpeducate a new generation of Jordanian chil-dren to be proud of themselves and theirown culture, to be empowered to embark onboth formal and informal educational ende-avors.

Currently Hikayat Simsim has dealt withmany cultural heritage issues in Jordan, butit does not actually teache lessons about ar-chaeology and conservation directly; It hasincluded some studio segments, cartoons orlive action segments at historical sites, suchas Petra and Jerash and also shown childrenlearning about traditional cooking, dancing,arts, or farming in Jordan. Following prece-dents set by museums and television showswith more developed curriculums dealingwith heritage and preservation, HikayatSimsim should seek in upcoming seasons toteach children more about cultural heritage,archaeology and conservation issues in Jor-dan. However, good citizenship conceptsshould be more emphasized in HikayatSimsim to teach principles of social beha-viour on the efficient use and managementof cultural heritage.

The TV show already features segmentsexplaining various professions, or showingTonton and Juljul dream about what theywill do when they grow up. Therefore, Hi-kayat Simsim could feature segments sho-

wing children in Jordan or the Muppets le-arning about the profession of archaeologyand why it is important. This would fit wellwith existing segments about a little girlwanting to be a pilot (“I Can Fly,” in Epi-sode 7, Season 2 and Episode 12, Season 2,Hikayat Simsim, DVD, 2003), or the Mup-pet Tonton wanting to be a doctor (“Act I,”in Episode 20, Season 1, “Professions,” inEpisode 7, Season 2, Hikayat Simsim,DVD, 2003). With Jordan’s wealth of ar-chaeological sites, Hikayat Simsim couldalso include more visits by Jordanian chil-dren to these places, in addition to existingsegments featuring Jerash or Petra, like theUmayyad palaces and other world heritagesites. Hikayat Simsim could also design aHikayat Simsim- themed website or com-puter game dealing with Jordanian culturalheritage, similar to many museum websites.

In future season of the project, HikayatSimsim should intend to broaden its reachand national awareness about cultural heri-tage, engage with multiple sectors to helpdeliver educational content, and continue toaddress critical topics in archaeology andconservation, within the trusted and belovedcontext of sesame street that has quicklycaptured Jordanian viewers’ hearts, minds,and imaginations.

The creation of Cultural Heritage appli-cations for outreach material in relation tocultural heritage digital edu-entertainmentgames, even VR systems is a learned pro-cess with its share of challenges. HikayatSimsim could also design a Hikayat Sim-sim- themed website or computer game de-aling with more about efficient use andmanagement of cultural heritage. However,archaeological objects should start to beused in Hikayat Simsim also to teach prin-ciples of other social and physical sciences.

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N. A. Haddad et al The “Hikayat Simsim” Multimedia Edutainment...

Actas del Primer Congreso Internacional de Buenas Prácticasen Patrimonio Mundial:Arqueología 892-908

ISBN: 978-84-695-6782-1