Comcast and Discovery Launch On Demand Educational Video Service for Home

• By Scott Aronowitz
• 10/19/09

Seeking to expand opportunities to increase student achievement, Discovery Education has joined with the Indianapolis Region of Comcast Corp. to launch a video on demand (VOD) service in Indiana specifically to make its extensive library of educational videos available to students and parents at home.

The new service offers more than 200 videos from the Discovery Education library covering curricula in Indiana schools in all grades and in a variety of subjects, including math, science, reading, writing, health, geography, and culture. All Comcast cable TV subscribers in the central and northeast Indiana regions with digital cable can take advantage of the new service at no additional cost.

More than a VOD service, however, the Comcast-Discovery Education program is meant to complement the work the state's teachers do in the classroom, said a spokesperson. The program has three key components:

• On demand: Videos scheduled are specifically aligned to the Indiana Public School curriculum, and new content for all grades will be added each month;
• Online: The partnership provides a free online resource, Comcast Learning on Demand, that features streaming video content and hands-on activities, homework help tools, interactive content, subject guides, puzzles, and more; and
• Professional development: To help teachers incorporate the latest technology into the classroom, Discovery Education and Comcast will offer 10 in-person teacher training sessions that will be held around the state, as well as 15 scheduled Webinars.

Indiana State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Bennett attended the program's rollout at the Indiana State House last month. "There is such an emphasis on a new world," said Bennett, "that sometimes we as educators call it 'edutainment.'  And that is a way of making education come to life in the way children want to learn."