Maryland District Rolling Out Digital Learning Environments, PD from Discovery
Maryland’s Kent County Public Schools (KCPS) is using competitive state funds to adopt Discovery Education’s series of digital textbooks, as well as a new digital library with more than 150,000 learning objects.
Last year, KCPS was one of six public school systems to be awarded a competitive grant from its state’s Digital Learning Innovation Fund. A portion of the grant was used to pilot Discovery’s Science Techbook in seventh grade classrooms. Next year, the district will begin rolling out digital texts in math and social studies as well. The digital textbook series features materials like virtual labs, video clips, and an interactive glossary.
In addition, all K-12 classrooms across the district will have access to Discovery Education Streaming Plus, a digital library of more than 155,000 learning objects that support all subject areas and learning styles.
KCPS will also implement Discovery Education’s Digital Leader Corps, a professional development resource that helps educators integrate technology and digital media into instruction through consultation, coaching, modeling, and feedback from education experts.
Educators will also use the Discovery Educator Network (DEN), an online global education network, to support their efforts with digital media.
About the Author
Stephen Noonoo is an education technology journalist based in Los Angeles. He is on Twitter @stephenoonoo.