KQED’s QUEST
KQED’s QUEST
QUEST is a multimedia science, nature, and environment series produced by San Francisco’s Northern California Public Broadcasting (KQED) in partnership with 16 Bay Area science, environment, and nature organizations. It includes a weekly half-hour television program, weekly five-minute radio reports, an interactive Web site, and educational materials, all centered on Bay Area science research, events, issues, and people. QUEST Education Network (EdNet) provides free instructional resources and services to facilitate learning with public media, including a standards-based Educator Guides for television, radio, and Web content, as well as professional development resources for teachers and informal educators, including workshops at conferences, local training sessions, and the yearlong QUEST Science Education Institute.
WGBH’s Teachers Domain
Teachers Domain is a multimedia library for K-12 science educators developed by WGBH/Boston through funding from the National Science Foundation as part of its National Science Digital Library initiative. The site offers classroom-ready instructional resources, professional development materials, and a set of tools that allow teachers to manage, annotate, and share materials. Through the Teachers Domain initiative, WGBH was able to reformat and deliver content from its science library, including Nova, A Science Odyssey, Evolution, and other programs. WGBH staff added background articles, new lesson plans, interactive applications, images, and other types of resources to round out the multimedia library. Each classroom resource is correlated to state and national science education standards. The professional development content includes video of teachers modeling best practices in their classroom instruction, interviews with educators reflecting on effective classroom strategies, and online courses in development for elementary science educators. The “My Resources” feature on the site allows users to save, annotate, and share particular pieces of multimedia content they’ve found in their site searches.
Utah Education Network
A consortium of public education partners, Utah Education Network’s high-speed computer network (UEN) serves Utah communities by creating educational opportunities, connecting citizens, and collaborating with its partners, including Utah colleges and universities, as well as the state’s school districts and libraries. UEN operates KUEN Public Televison on behalf of the Utah State Board of Regents. UEN services benefit more than 750,000 students and educators throughout the state. UEN’s TeacherLine, created in partnership with KUED and funded by the U.S. Department of Education, is pioneering an innovative model for on-demand, high-quality, and standards-based teacher professional development with online courses facilitated by trained educators.
Hampton Roads Educational Telecommunications Association
WHRO-TV, owned by Virginia’s Hampton Roads Educational Telecommunications Association, a consortium of 18 Hampton Roads and Eastern Shore school systems, distributes instructional programming to other PBS stations as well as to consortium members and other school and health systems through a private educational broadcast network. WHRO operates six 24/7 video services, including 15.1 WHRO-HD, 15.2 WHROWorld, 15.3 WHROKids, and cable/FiOS-only WHROCreate, the VTC Channel (Virginia-Tidewater Consortium for Higher Education), and the Norfolk Neighborhood Channel. WHRO also sponsors the Consortium for Interactive Instruction, a partnership among Hampton Roads–area public and private schools, for the advancement of technology in the school curriculum. The consortium sponsors the Great Computer Challenge, a competition in many areas of computer technology for students at all levels of K-12 education.
Thinkport
Developed by Maryland Public Television and the Johns Hopkins University Center for Technology in Education under a grant from the U.S. Department of Education, Thinkport harnesses technology in the service of education. Thinkport fulfills Maryland Content Standards for education with four “experience channels”—Think Classroom, Think Career, Think Technology, Think Family & Community—offering distinctive content that helps teachers work more effectively, inspires students to learn, and builds bridges between schools and homes.
Arkansas Educational Television Network: Teacher Training and Accreditation
The Arkansas Department of Education partnered with the Arkansas Educational Television Network to meet the professional development needs of K-12 licensed educators by offering research-based, technology-delivered professional development courses to improve academic and teaching knowledge and skills of certified personnel. Through this partnership, education leaders in Arkansas have developed comprehensive professional development policies to improve student performance. These efforts were recognized in Education Week’s 2008 Quality Counts report as being among the best in the country.
Kentucky Educational Television: Professional Development
KET ED, Kentucky Educational Television’s digital education service for Kentucky schools, offers a wide range of instructional series, programs, professional development seminars, and Web resources in all content areas. KET’s Professional Development staff has been producing content-rich, research-based training and enrichment materials for educators since the early 1990s. Developed in partnership with education organizations and advisers across the state and the nation, these video and multimedia materials answer critical teaching needs through in-depth presentations, real-world classroom examples, and extensive follow-up resources.