Discovery Streaming on the Way Out

MMSD decided to give Discovery Streaming the ax. Discovery Streaming costs the district $60,000 a year for second tier content. Discovery Streaming's best content was over $120,000 a year.  As a district we did not use this service enough to warrant the price tag. Over the years there have been issues with account access as well as video quality. Overall, not renewing the Discovery Streaming content was the right decision but...

I was under the impression it would be replaced with a more reasonably priced service such as I shared with you a few months ago. Instead the district felt that there was enough free content on the web, a video subscription was not justified at this time. Hopefully this is something MMSD will come back to at a later date. Certainly the way I have approached Discovery Streaming was as a digital replacement for video and DVD purchases. While You Tube is a great resource I am not sure in the long run it can supply all our video needs.

Here are resources MMSD is suggesting to replace Discovery Streaming. Maybe now that we are primarily relying on You Tube for our video content, we will soon be able to use You Tube with our district Google accounts.

• ECB - Education Communication Board: Media for Wisconsin Schools
• TEDEd - Lessons worth sharing (Technology Entertainment Design)
• Next Vista - Vetted Teacher and Student Created Videos.
• YouTube Education - Free videos appropriate and safe for schools
• YouTube for Teachers - Videos aligned with Curriculum Content
• Khan Academy - 3,100 educational videos in math science and history
• Steve Spangler Science - YouTube- Free science videos

I have been toying around with some different approaches for organizing this wealth of content.  For example, as you begin a unit of study - Wisconsin for example - a curriculum guide could be at your finger tips. For this to be successful a degree foresight is required.  Such a guide could include electronic resources, videos, and even books from our LMC collection.

Right now I am just planting a seed. A seed to remind you while during curriculum planning, to forward that information to me.