MPT Launches Interactive Poe

Back from the dead and digital, Edgar Allan Poe comes to life in this highly interactive educational website from Maryland Public Television.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
January 6, 2003
CONTACT: Colleen Wright
Telephone: (410) 581-4293
E-mail: colleenwright@mpt.org

Poetry, Roses, Graveyards...and a Football Team?
MPT Launches Knowing Poe: The Literature and Life of Edgar Allan Poe

OWINGS MILLS, MD--Travel back to 19th-century Baltimore and meet Edgar Allan Poe in the interactive online
experience Knowing Poe, found on the Web at:
http://knowingpoe.thinkport.org/default_flash.asp.
Maryland Public Television brings one of Baltimore's most famous writers to life (just in time
for Poe's birthday on January 19) with a media-rich electronic field trip designed for Maryland middle and high school
students,teachers, and Poe fans.

Explore Poe the person and Poe the writer with over 10 different interactive activities that examine everything
from Poe's Baltimore and his perfectionist editing to his house and
his fascination with cryptograms. John Astin (best known as Gomez from the Addams Family)appears as Poe throughout the
site, introducing themes
and theories of Poe's work as Poe himself might have.

Fun features, visuals, sounds, video, music, mysteries,and learning exercises abound at this highly entertaining, yet
highly educational, new cyber-destination. Visitors will
be intrigued with the ability to interact with the literature, life and times of one of America's most compelling authors.
There's a lot to do and learn in Knowing Poe - here's a sampling:

Tour Real-Life Places--Take a virtual tour of early 19th century Baltimore sites through annotated "then" and
"now" maps of the city and see Poe's tiny home from 1831-1835.

Experiment with Poe's Writing--Follow one of Poe's short stories from three different points of view and create
your own version of The Bells with voices and sound effects.

Explore the Mystery of Poe's Life and Death --Investigate the real-life mystery of Poe's death, solve
one of Poe's cryptograms and create your own.

Knowing Poe--(http://knowingpoe.thinkport.org/default_flash.asp) developed in collaboration with educators,historians and
Poe experts--features a wealth of tools and
resources for the classroom and beyond. Maryland teachers will appreciate that all the lesson plans,
discussion questions,and activity sheets are linked to Maryland
Learning Outcomes. Poe fans and purists will delight in the authenticity of the
materials-gathered from primary sources held by the Maryland
Historical Society and the Edgar Allan Poe Society of Baltimore. And students and visitors alike will be
entertained while they explore the literature, life and times of one
of Baltimore's most famous writers.

And what about that football team? Just for fun, Baltimore Ravens head coach, Brian Billick, appears in
video clips along with cheerleaders and players quoting lines from
Poe's "The Raven."

Knowing Poe, one of many digital education projects of Maryland Public
Television, joins MPT's other award-winning
online field trips and interactives on the Web designed to inspire and
teach Maryland students, including Pathways to Freedom: Maryland & the Underground Railroad
(http://www.mpt.org/learningworks/pathwaystofreedom/flash_home.cfm),
Bay Trippers: An Online Field Trip to the Chesapeake
Bay, Sense and Dollars
(http://www.mpt.org/learningworks/senseanddollars/home.html),
and Plastic Fork Diaries
(http://www.plasticforkdiaries.org/index_flash.cfm.)
Experience them
all at http://www.mpt.org.

Knowing Poe is funded through a grant from the U.S. Department of Education Star Schools Program.

Maryland Public Television is a not-for-profit, state-licensed public television station which serves the
citizens and communities of Maryland and beyond through a variety of broadcast and nonbroadcast activities. For more
information on MPT and its on- and off-air programming, visit http://www.mpt.org