Many of us grew up with a tradition of lecture based instructional media with little or no interactive engagement with students. All this has changed dramatically, thanks to the internet, YouTube and more sophisticated approaches to how students learn. How do all the pieces fit together in one of the largest school systems in the country?
To set the stage, the Fairfax County public school system is the number 1 employer in Virginia with 188,000 students and 24,000 employees. They move more people a day than the Greyhound Bus system. FCPS Digital Media Production has 14 full time employers with 800 projects per year, ranging from PSA's to hourly programming. The subject matter is educational, public information and professional development with some content for broadcast while other programming goes directly to the web. Fairfax Network is the distribution arm for educational programming that is grade level or curriculum specific. The FCPS's YouTube channel has 1238 videos.Their work is 93% grant funded and some of their many educational partners include the Smithsonian, National Archives, Library of Congress, Mount Vernon and NASA. These partners may provide funding but always provide subject matter expertise.
