www.ecb.org Media for Wisconsin Schools 2007-2009 Biennium From the Executive Director Partnerships Trusted. Quality. Educational. These are just some of the words that describe the work of the Wisconsin Educational Communications Board (ECB) and its mission to provide public service media to the citizens of Wisconsin. The decades-long partnership between the ECB and the University of Wisconsin-Extension provides the foundation for Wisconsin Public Radio and Wisconsin Public Television. The proliferation of alternative media platforms also means that the need for trusted, high quality, educational content has never been greater and the ECB provides that in a number of ways. The ECB’s Education Division acquires and produces some of the highest quality educational content in the country. Over the last two years, ECB’s educational productions have continued to win nationwide recognition while serving the needs of over 56,000 teachers and 870,000 students throughout the state. Produced in cooperation with the Department of Public Instruction and with a strong adherence to Wisconsin’s model academic standards, the ECB’s Educational Division delivers over 37 hours of instructional programming every week on Wisconsin Public Television alone. Whether it’s through Wisconsin Public Television, ECB’s partnerships with Milwaukee Public Television and WDSE-TV in Duluth, Minnesota—or through datacasting and Internet platforms, the ECB remains committed to statewide service. But providing high quality content is just one part of the ECB’s responsibilities. ECB’s Delivery Division is responsible for building, operating and maintaining the broadcast infrastructure that hundreds of thousands of Wisconsin residents rely upon every day. In addition, the ECB is also responsible for maintaining Wisconsin’s NOAA weather radio system, the Emergency Alert System, the Amber Alert system, and other public safety systems. During the last two years, all state agencies including the ECB, have faced significant funding challenges on a variety of fronts. While these changes have required significant budget cuts and changes in operations, the ECB’s focus on providing high quality educational and public media programming for all of Wisconsin’s citizens remains its top priority. Gene Purcell Executive Director, ECB 2 Education Division www.ecb.org During 2007-2009 ECB’s Education Division provided a n Soundwaves~Wisconsin Youth Radio Festival wide variety of educational media, classroom resources and Each year the SoundWaves~Wisconsin Youth Radio Festival professional development to Wisconsin’s educators. invites students in grades three through 12 to produce radio programs such as dramatic adaptations, original works, Approximately 130 standards-based instructional television interviews or public service announcements. Sponsored by series were broadcast through a partnership with Wisconsin ECB in partnership with Wisconsin Public Radio, winners Public Television, Milwaukee Public Television and WDSE recreate their works at the Madison public radio studios with Duluth, Minnesota. Nearly 1,500 program episodes covered all the assistance of WPR professionals. The productions air on curricular areas identified by the Wisconsin Department of Public Norman Gilliland’s “Old Time Radio Drama” show each May. Instruction. A comprehensive Web site provided educators with Winning entries can also be heard online. teacher materials, additional student resources and schedule information. All instructional programming and resources are n The War Project selected or developed by the ECB in conjunction with the In collaboration with Wisconsin Public Radio and the Educational Department of Public Instruction. Communications Board, The War Project set out to document true stories from World War II. Coached by Wisconsin Public Radio staff, students interviewed World War II veterans and produced a one-hour program telling their stories for Educational broadcast on WPR. media n Datacasting Current Programs and Projects Instructional programming was also distributed to school districts through datacasting. Using the capabilities of The 2007-2009 biennium saw the completion and implementation public television’s digital broadcast signal, programs were of several projects: embedded into the broadcast signal as data and enhanced n democracy it is! with additional information such as teacher materials. This Four additional programs for grades six through 10 were added data was downloaded, stored and viewed later on school to democracy it is! portraying students exercising their rights and district computers. Fifty-one school districts received over 602 fulfilling their responsibilities as citizens of their communities. instructional programs and accompanying materials. Awards: CINE Golden Eagle Award, National Educational n Blueprint: Designing Wisconsin’s Future Telecommunications Association (NETA) Best Instructional Series Blueprint: Designing Wisconsin’s Future examined how schools, 2007, Aurora Award Platinum Best of Show, Aurora Gold Award, businesses and communities are partnering to prepare students Ava Platinum Award, Parents’ Choice Recommended Award, for the 21st century workplace and society. Midwest Emmy nomination. n Wisconsin Hometown Stories Educator Project n Into the Book Web site Committees of teachers in Green Bay, La Crosse and Manitowoc- This reading comprehension resource for K-4 students and Two Rivers worked with education staff to write teacher materials teachers accompanies the broadcast series Into the Book. These to accompany this Wisconsin Public Television series. online interactive activities provide opportunities for students to practice their reading strategies. Awards: National Educational Additional Resources Telecommunications Association (NETA), Best Instructional n Parade of Programs is the annual print publication describing Media Product 2008, National Educational Telecommunications the instructional programming, broadcast schedule, services, and Association (NETA), Best Teacher Resource 2008 resources available from ECB’s Education Division. n World Language Assessment: Get in the Mode! n Interconnect 2.0 replaced the print version of “Interconnect,” World Language Assessment: Get in the Mode! is a professional with up-to-the-minute information online about programming, development series for teachers of world languages to assist them opportunities and broadcast schedules. in developing and implementing the best strategies for assessing student learning. Each program emphasizes different elements n www.ecb.org provides online resources for teachers, related to assessment. Awards: Wisconsin Association For including teacher materials, Web links, series-specific Web sites, Language Teachers (WAFLT) 2009 Anthony J. Gradisnik Award professional development opportunities, streaming video and more. 3 Education Division Innovative EDUcation Looking to the Future ECB’s Education Division is working on several new projects for the next biennium. n Financial Literacy: TEACH IT! is a multimedia professional development resource designed around Wisconsin’s Personal Financial Literacy standards. Videos demonstrate effective teaching of each of the content standards in 21 Wisconsin classrooms. n Financial Literacy: PARENT IT!, a companion multimedia project to Financial Literacy: TEACH IT!, will help parents guide their children in forming successful lifelong financial habits by Pictured above are the hosts of ECB’s production, World Language Assessment- connecting them to the skills, knowledge and ideas being taught Get in the Mode! Paul Sandrock and Pam Delfoss from the Wisconsin Department at school. of Public Instruction guide viewers through this professional development series n and provide valuable insight as it pertains to the assessment of students in world ENGAGE: State. Tribal. Local. Government, a broadcast language classrooms. and Web-based series is designed to teach high school students about three aspects of Wisconsin government: state, tribal and local. The series is being created in collaboration with the Department of Public Instruction and a committee of educators. n n Parade of Programs’ online database contains detailed Climate Literacy Digital Media Project in partnership with information about ECB’s instructional programs, including WGBH, Boston and ThinkTV, Dayton will develop digital media broadcast times, program descriptions and correlations to resources for middle school focusing on climate literacy. Wisconsin’s academic standards, and is searchable by topic, n Blueprint: Designing Wisconsin’s Future will add additional grade level, curriculum and standard. programs to this series featuring school-community-business n PBS TeacherLine offers Web-based professional develop- partnerships in Wisconsin. ment courses in a range of subjects, including mathematics, reading/language arts, technology integration and science. n Descriptive video versions of two ECB-produced series, democracy it is! and Into the Book, are available allowing the blind and visually impaired to access a program’s video content. n Social Media—ECB’s Facebook page and Twitter stream provide information on ECB events, programming and resources. WIECB, ECB’s YouTube channel, provides access classroom to several instructional videos n The WISTEM.org portal supports young people as well as adults interested in pursuing STEM careers by linking them to sources supportive role models, excellent instruction and training, and re access to real world applications