Streaming Media

Hawaii Partnership To Bring Digital Content to Classrooms

• By Scott Aronowitz
• 04/15/10

The Hawaii State Department of Education has entered into a partnership with Discovery Education to provide access to the company's streaming Plus and Discovery Education Science (DES) services to 222 public schools throughout the state. Discovery offers the two services as a way for schools to improve both the quality of learning and the engagement of students by enhancing in-class and independent study with audiovisual content.

streaming Plus is a digital media content service aimed at augmenting and enhancing learning in all subjects and at all grade levels. Owing to partnerships with several companies and organizations prolific in producing educational video content, including PBS, Pearson Education, and BBC Worldwide, the service offers a topic- and keyword- searchable library of more than 155,000 items aligned to Hawaii state standards, including full-length video programs, clips, articles, still images, and interactive activities.

DES offers online individualized instruction, content, resources and assessment for core science courses at the elementary and middle school levels.

HDOE "is committed to improving student academic achievement and building a competitive, tech-savvy 21st-century workforce through the effective integration of digital content and the latest educational technologies into curricula," said Daniel Hamada, assistant superintendent, HDOE Office of Curriculum, Instruction, and Student Support. "Through our partnership with Discovery Education, our students will enjoy vivid digital content that will take them far beyond the shores of these islands.  In addition, [this] content will fuel our existing literacy initiative, supporting the development of literate learners across the state."

The company is also providing professional development services to enable teachers to learn and master the technology's use in a classroom environment.