As the director of early and family literacy at Thirteen, my team works closely with families, childcare providers and early childhood educators. We spend our time working on the magic that happens when television is really used for learning — and we help families navigate that special journey between discovery and exploration to participation and education. And sometimes, it means bringing what I learn at work directly to a very eager young fan in my own home.

In the Tshiluba language, Panwapa means “here on this earth.” In my work it means “wonderful new way to get global with young children.” Imagine a 6-year-old designing their avatar, a Panwapa Kid, to look like a blue superhero with green hair and yellow star shaped glasses. This particular Panwapa Kid lives in a camper on the beach and carries a flag with watermelon, an electric guitar and a basketball. And then, in a protected community, they begin to tour the world –the entire globe — at their own pace and following their own interests, to see what other kids think and to try out new languages.

Sesame Workshop, the group that’s made Elmo and Big Bird household names, has created a created a new island — one that floats around the world, introducing children from all over the world to new languages, customs, and most importantly, to each other. Using one of five world languages, kids can enter Panwapa online, explore cultures and even play hide-n-seek in Arabic, English, Japanese, Mandarin or Spanish. It looks like a great way to introduce global awareness to a new crop of kids.

Watching my admittedly small test market of one (a charming six-year old) plow through the content on www.panwapa.com eventually led us to a corner of our local library, where we looked at pictures of children going to school in Japan, and played a recording of a pan flute. In the space of an hour, we traveled around the world and visited other Panwapa kids from other countries. We made it to houses in Japan, the Netherlands, Panama, Norway and Egypt and we left friendly notes (already preprinted) and collected cards from other visitors. The children’s librarian was so captivated she sat down next to us and started exploring the site as well.

The creators of Panwapa understand kids, and that’s important. There are bells and whistles, and things to collect. There are friendly muppets like Azibo and Koko, and a community area that models fun, sharing and exploring. It’s bright, colorful, engaging, and sometimes the tasks are a little challenging. It will be wonderful to learn more at the Teaching & Learning Celebration — the producers will be there bright and early on Friday morning to share what they’ve developed, what they’ve learned, and where they plan to go.

As for my test market of one — he’s planning on seeing who visited him while he was sleeping, and he’s planning on looking for kids who like soccer — or as he told me “futbol.” Oh, and he reminded me that we could-maybe-sorta try a new food called “sushi” because there were lots of kids who put fish on their flags.