Pete the Panstick (Pete) interactive educational software was launched at the Digicel IMAX Cinema, Woodbrook Place, last Tuesday morning. The event was supported by Republic Bank, and attended by a wide cross section of the population, inclusive of educators, students, steelband enthusiasts and business representatives. Pete is the brainchild of Simeon Sandiford of Sanch Electronix Limited and Camille Selvon Abrahams, the country's foremost animation artist. They met while attending a Ministry of Education re-training programme focused on Pan in Education over five years ago. Sandiford gave the large audience an insight into the innovative approach to teaching pan through a demonstration of the software on the big screen.
"The DVD had to have an interface children can relate to, so I just put myself back in the shoes of a child," he said. "When you think about children, they have the summer holidays, sitting around all day, doing nothing or getting into trouble. The one thing they love is to play video and computer games, so I thought why not make learning the pan a computer game? Pete is animated. He talks, claps his hands, and can speak in Spanish too. There is a section where users get quizzed and unscramble notes in the form of a jigsaw puzzle to make a song. They can play the simulated pan on the computer or they can even play along on their own steel pan. Fostering an appreciation of our own musical history is another goal of Pete The Pan Stick and Sandiford said the DVD was designed with an interactive history of the instrument, arrangers and winning Panorama selections. "By navigating six fulfilling chapters with Pete, you will discover intricacies about the steelpan's fascinating history through three short movies and twelve illustrated posters. He introduces ten steelpan virtuosos who arrange many genres including Panorama, and facilitates a two-tiered, multiple-choice Steelpan Quiz. For recess, Pete allows you to audition an array of seven selected genres of steelpan recordings before returning to his intriguing world of animation."
The Spanish adaptation of Pete already exists and will be launched as soon as sufficient field experience has been gained with the English version. Pete's expanding portfolio will soon encompass the Quantitative Sciences. He is already strategically poised to assist users in overcoming myriad perennial challenges traditionally associated with Mathematics and Physics. Technical support from CDE (a joint European Union-African, Caribbean, and Pacific countries initiative) was acknowledged. Corporate customers such as schools, academic institutions and libraries will be afforded the opportunity of hosting the innovative, self-instructional product on their servers for internal distribution through Local Area Networks (LAN). Pete is compatible with Windows and Macintosh operating systems.
Radio personality Sharon Pitt performed duties of Master of Ceremonies.