Buddhism for kids – interactively

What would the Buddha have said if he’d known schools would be studying his life 2,500 years later – using online interactive media?

The “Life of the Buddha Interactive” is a new interactive learning resource for 8-12 year-olds in Religious Education, or RE.

Clear Vision, the Triratna Buddhist Community‘s educational charity based in Manchester UK, has a reputation for lively, informative, video-based materials for Buddhism in RE, which is a compulsory part of the curriculum in British schools. With their first interactive resource, they’ve become possibly the UK’s first faith group to embrace the new opportunities offered by online learning in RE.

The Life of the Buddha Interactive features 7 video clips with questions, activities, extra information, teacher’s notes and a friendly help-lion called Bodhi. In this publicly-available demo you can hear Bodhi, who has a delightful UK-midlands accent, introduce the early life of the Buddha. Later in the year a home-use version will be available.

Munisha, education officer at Clear Vision, said, “It’s very exciting finding new ways of stimulating young people to examine their experience in the light of the Buddha’s teaching. These new materials are really distinctive: we believe that new kinds of activities, involving carefully guided use of the internet, can offer schools unprecedented access to the contemporary Buddhist world.”

The move from DVD to interactive online materials has been made possible through the generosity of a Manchester Buddhist who specializes in Flash software.

All product details may be found at Clear Vision’s site. Clear Vision can also be contacted by mail at: Clear Vision Trust, 16-20 Turner Street, Manchester M4 1DZ, UK, or by telephone at +44 161 839 9579.