Florida’s children, families and educators will soon have access to thousands of customized digital learning resources at no cost through Florida PBS stations and the Florida PBS LearningMedia.
As part of the 2014-2015 state budget, FPBS was awarded $1 million to customize more than 85,000 digital learning materials from the national PBS LearningMedia library to meet Florida state standards.
Once complete, these resources will be added to Florida PBS LearningMedia’s digital platform, a free and innovative digital education service developed to support curriculum-based teaching and learning from pre-K through college.
“I applaud Gov. Scott and the Florida Legislature for their commitment to furthering digital learning opportunities for Florida’s children,” said FPBS Board Chair JoAnn Urofsky. “By leveraging public-private partnerships, Florida is on its way to becoming the national leader in digital resources for education.”
Working closely with the Florida Department of Education, FPBS is expected to complete the Florida standards customization process by the fall of 2014. The enhancement of Florida PBS LearningMedia comes at a pivotal time, as Florida mandates that half of classroom instruction be delivered using digital materials by the fall of 2015.
“FPBS is thrilled to partner with the Florida Department of Education as they strive to meet this mandate and bring quality digital content to our classrooms,” said Executive Director of FPBS Janyth Righter. All Florida PBS LearningMedia content is organized by subject, grade and standard, and is easily accessible by educators in public, charter, private, Florida virtual and home schools. The collection features video footage, audio clips, interactives, photographs, animations, interviews and graphics, and enables customization to curriculum needs at classroom, school district and state education agency levels.
Since its launch in 2012, more than 36,000 Florida educators have registered for the Florida PBS LearningMedia, with more than 1000 teachers registering per month on average. As additional content is added and all objects are customized to meet Florida standards, even more teachers are expected to utilize these high-quality, research-based materials to supplement their instruction.
For more information on Florida PBS LearningMedia, please visit our website at www.fpbs.org.