Jim Shelton is not only the Assistant Deputy Secretary of the Department of Education’s Office of Innovation and Improvement. He’s also, as he told a ballroom full of pubcasters at the PBS Showcase, “one of millions and millions of parents” who entrust their children to the network. “There is no place I’d rather send my son than PBS,” he said of his 6-year-old. “PBS has the opportunity to be the most effective, trusted brand in education in the country. To be transformative for our children, young adults, and adults in transition in particular. It’s in your hands, and I trust you with it.”

Joaquin Alvarado, who joins CPB on June 30 as senior v.p. for diversity and innovation, led a wide-ranging, fast-moving discussion on “Public Service Media 2.0” at Wednesday’s PBS Showcase. One issue: Pubcasting, he said, is “woefully absent” from the conversation about the educational possibilities of video games. “We have all these kids at the console spending four, five hours a day playing games. How do we use that as an opportunity to address challenges in education?” Alvarado cited as an example the nonprofit Games for Change, which, according to its website, “seeks to harness the extraordinary power of video games to address the most pressing issues of our day, including poverty, human rights, global conflict and climate change.”

At PBS Showcase yesterday, APTS President Larry Sidman joked that there was scant coverage — OK, none — of his first 100 days in office. But he was busy indeed, and will continue to be during the coming months. Sidman and his legislative team updated pubcasters on the lobbying group’s ongoing efforts on Capitol Hill. “We feel our job is to try to get access to as much federal funding for stations as we possibly can,” Sidman said, because all stations are suffering shortfalls in “almost every nonfederal funding source.” The group also is trying to assist individual stations that aspire to stimulus grants.

Next week Sesame Workshop and partner KOCH Records will re-release on CD “Sesame Street: Silly Songs,” a classic album currently out of print. Remember these? “Monster in the Mirror,” “Captain Vegetable” and “The Honker-Duckie-Dinger Jamboree.” Should be in stores around May 19.

A performance by Mr. Steve, who sang of how sad the world would be without PBS kids’ shows, kicked off a preview of programming for younger viewers today at the PBS Showcase in Baltimore. One project sure to generate news is a two-part episode of Arthur set to air in October that will tackle the subject of cancer. An animated Lance Armstrong appears to talk about his battle with the disease and the program was developed in partnership with his foundation. Then there’s The Cat in the Hat Knows All About That, voiced by actor Martin Short, the first time the classic story will appear as an animated series.

NPR is being accused of hypocrisy in its coverage of Outrage, a documentary about closeted politicians who support anti-gay legislation. Film critic Nathan Lee, who reviewed the film on Friday, objected when NPR scrubbed his references to two Republican pols profiled in the movie. Lee asked that his name be taken off of the review, IndieWire reported yesterday. NPR’s Dick Meyer explained the decision by citing a “long-held policy” of respecting the privacy of public figures and “not airing or publishing rumors, allegations and reports about their private lives unless there is a compelling reason to do so.” But bloggers at Movieline took some delight in pointing to recent NPR stories as evidence that the rule only applies to politicians.

PBS has received a $1 million Ford Foundation grant to support the development of EDCAR, public TV’s planned online repository of short instructional videos and other “learning objects” for classroom use, net execs said in the kickoff of its Showcase conference in Baltimore today. In an EDCAR pilot, stations have begun loading instructional resources into the online system, which shares a back-end infrastructure with the PBS Video Portal launched in April. More on this in this week’s Current and in coming days on this blog. Earlier EDCAR story.

Time Warner cable customers in York, Maine, are peeved that two Boston television stations, including WGBH, have been dropped from their familiar spots on the cable channel lineup. Town Manager Rob Yandow said he’s been receiving calls and emails from upset residents, and has been given a petition with 15 names asking that the lineup be restored. Yandow said he contacted Time Warner to no avail. “I’ve had a number of conversations with Time Warner, it’s a business decision,” he said. “It’s somewhat firm, it’s a business decision they made.” The other station is CBS affiliate WBZ. Maine is one of a growing number of states affected by a 2005 agreement between APTS and the cable industry that allows such changes.

NPR hopes to boost participation in its annual Members Meeting by providing a forum for online participation via WebEx, the Web conferencing provider. The June 9 meeting, which convenes at 1 pm in the board room at NPR headquarters, will accommodate up to 300 registered participants. The conferencing system provides telephone connectivity, video streaming of presentations, document sharing, determination of a quorum, and interactivity such as real-time voting and comment-sharing. NPR added the option for electronic participation because so many stations and public radio organizations have had to cut their travel budgets, according to Joyce Macdonald, v.p. of member and program services.

Here’s a transcript of NewsHour e.p. Linda Winslow’s remarks at PBS Showcase detailing the many changes coming to the show in the fall. One nugget: “Today we are announcing that we are creating a new correspondent position, which we are calling our ‘Face of the Internet.’ We’re looking for an experienced journalist with solid broadcast credentials who is comfortable with both new media and the more traditional kind. The assignment will be to link our nightly broadcast with our online news operation.”

PBS chief Paula Kerger, in her State of the System address to pubcasters at the PBS Showcase yesterday, touched on the ongoing controversy surrounding changes in critieria for PBS membership. “The Station Services Committee is still reviewing criteria for PBS membership and will issue its recommendations in this area soon,” she told the crowd in Baltimore. “As I stated during our GM Planning Meeting earlier today, I recognize that some of these changes will be painful for some of your stations. But I believe they will help our system to achieve greater equity and ensure our membership policies better reflect the realities of the digital era in which we live.”

WGBH’s digital mural is back. “We are just very, very happy,” said WGBH spokeswoman Lucy Sholley. This is a tale of a 30-by-45 foot LED display, a technical glitch, lawsuits, “insufficient ventilation,” and, finally, a happy ending starring Curious George, all told by The Boston Globe.

Big changes at NewsHour. No, the rumors aren’t true: Jim Lehrer isn’t stepping down. Not exactly. What will happen is he’ll have a co-anchor. That spot will rotate among Gwen Ifill, Judy Woodruff and Jeffrey Brown, all currently with the show. But, e.p. Linda Winslow told The New York Times, “This is not a succession plan in disguise.” It’s part of a major overhaul of the show, including the new name PBS NewsHour, that will be unveiled at PBS Showcase tomorrow.

Ever pondered the possibilities of news shows on PBS such NewsHour, Nightly Business Report and Frontline co-mingling resources and cooperating to produce content? That was a “what if” question posed to PBS’s John Wilson at today’s PTPA meeting in Baltimore. Wilson, the network’s senior veep and chief TV programming executive, hinted that the concept is being eyed. Wilson said that through a Pew grant, the network has hired Tom Bettag, a former producer for ABC’s Nightline and the innovative pubTV series Life 360. Bettag “has been meeting with news and public affairs producers and trying to get at how to integrate, cross-promote and cross-pollinate among the series in a way that will make more sense to the consumer.”

Baltimore Sun TV critic David Zurawik predicts a strong fall pubTV lineup, despite ongoing funding problems. ” … Even in this time of downsizing in media from newspapers to network TV, the people who run the nation’s only free TV service can celebrate a fall lineup as promising as any the commercial networks will show at their previews next week in New York, he writes in today’s paper. PBS Showcase runs today through Thursday in Baltimore, with the Public Television Programmers’ Association also meeting there today.