It’s clear from SLJ’s 2013 Tech Survey that school library media specialists have taken a leadership role in providing students and teachers with access to online resources. Despite dismally small budgets, time constraints, site-specific limitations, and the demands of the Common Core State Standards (CCSS), many consider the support of digital learning a priority. PBS LearningMedia, a content-rich, free resource offered to educators working with preschool through grade 12, makes the challenge easier to meet. With additional video and audio clips, interactive material, images, documents, and lesson plans, PBS LearningMedia is the stylish new face of Teachers’ Domain, also supported by and developed in partnership with WGBH of Boston. Following a quick and simple registration, users are redirected to their local site; for example, New Yorkers move onto Vital New York, a partnership of several PBS stations, while registrants in North Carolina are directed to UNC-TV LearningMedia. The site’s free “Basic” service includes access to “more than 30,000 digital resources” with content gleaned from well-known public television series, including Frontline, Nova, American Experience, Constitution USA, The Electric Company, Between the Lions, and Sid the Science Kid, along with contributions from the National Archives and the Library of Congress. Clips from these programs and other sources are carefully selected and often as brief as 3-5 minutes, making them easy to insert in lesson planning. Searchable by keyword, results can be further refined by grade, subject, media type (e.g., video, interactive, document), and resource type (e.g., lesson plan, self-paced lesson, media gallery). Teachers can also browse by grade level, from PreK to 13+; subject area (science, mathematics, ELA, the arts, health and physical education, social studies, world languages, preschool, and professional development); state, national, and Common Core standards; and collections which include Public Media Series, State and Local Collections, and Curriculum Topics and Themes. Middle grade teachers will want to check out the “Inspiring Middle School Literacy” collection, an initiative funded by the Walmart Foundation “to enhance the literacy skills of struggling readers in grades 5–8” with self-paced lessons that incorporate “videos, interactive activities, note taking, reading, and writing to present students with an engaging science, social studies, mathematics, or English language arts topic.” Students must have their own accounts to complete the lessons, either in school or at home, and their progress can be tracked online. Creating student accounts also allows teachers to assign varying content to groups or individuals. Self-paced professional development lessons for educators interested in utilizing the middle school initiative are included. Across the grades and across the curriculum, from migrating monarchs to camouflaged crabs, Appalachian clogging to the Dance Theater of Harlem, an interactive periodic table to the science of taste, the inventing of the computer to creative coding, math games to note-taking tools, and more, PBS offers a cornucopia of standards-aligned digital media to enhance student learning. We are currently offering this content for free. Sign up now to activate your personal profile, where you can save articles for future viewing
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