Overview
PBS LearningMedia is to a teacher, what a candy shop is to a kid. It’s a never ending treasure chest of free classroom-ready, curriculum-targeted digital resources. Resources that are aligned to Common Core and National Standards, including short videos, interactives, and in-depth lesson plans. All tagged and organized, it’s easy to browse by standards, grade level, subject area, and special collections.
Name: PBS LearningMediaPricing: Free
Compatibility: Web
Access: Email signup optional
Privacy: Private (privacy policy)
A Quick Look
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MnUXXC2CkZ8
In Practice
1. More than just resources
While there is a vast quantity (over 87,000 according to PBS) of high quality resources available on PBS, the platform itself allows you to manage and use these resources in much more meaningful ways. If you choose to create an account, you will have access to a teacher’s dashboard where you can create assignments for your students and arrange digital objects to design storyboards and demonstrate lessons.
2. Finding the perfect material
Perhaps the most simple but exceptionally powerful part of PBS LearningMedia is its educator-focused search feature. With such an enormous library of resources, being able to find exactly what you are looking for is essential. Using the search bar at the top of the screen, you can choose to search by standard, grade or subject. Once the search is made you can then easily filter further by media type (video, document, etc.), language, accessibility features and permitted use (stream, download, etc.).
3. Professional development
One of the lesser known features of the extensive PBS LearningMedia library is the huge collection of over 1000 professional development resources created specifically for educators. Try perusing one of your personal areas of interest or improvement, such as Assessment and Evaluation, Effective Instruction, Learning Environments, Planning & Preparation and Professional Practice.
4. Take advantage of PBS on YouTube
With a huge proportion of resources available on PBS being extremely high quality video productions, it makes sense that they have a strong presence on YouTube. To find great video resources, the best place to start is by browsing and searching their extensive YouTube Channel. One of the real benefits of using a standard platform such as YouTube, is that video are easy to embed on blogs and class sites, as well as share with anyone you think may benefit.
5. Student TV
This idea comes from fifth grade teacher Luke Carnwell who uses large video libraries such as PBS, Ted-Ed and Discovery Channel to encourage his students to create their own broadcasts or mini-series. Try tasking your students with creating an eight video playlist on a certain topic where they must research and source all the video content from YouTube. Each video must build on the last to tell a larger story and the final product can be shared with the class or family and friends.
Links and Next Steps
- PBS YouTube Channel – Explore the massive collection of high quality PBS video content
- PBS LearningMedia FAQ – Comprehensive answers and help with PBS LearningMedia
- Teacher Tools – Overview of the tools available on the PBS platform
- Professional Development – Direct link to the PBS development resources
- Student Page – Student interface for PBS LearningMedia
- Student Help Section – Help for students
- PBS Kids Lab – More resources from PBS for learning
- Registration Page – Create a free account on PBS LearningMedia
Another way to download pbs videos is here Allavsoft.