Mobile County Public School System (MCPSS), the largest school system in Alabama, today announced an expansion of its partnership with Discovery Education, provider of digital content and professional development for K-12 classrooms nationwide. The district has launched the “Digital Literacy Media Project,” a professional development program that builds a network of teacher leaders and media specialists to design, implement and share successful and innovative teaching strategies that accelerate the transition to Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) environments and prepare students for success in the global economy.
Since 2002, MCPSS and Discovery Education have partnered to provide district teachers digital resources. Students district-wide currently have access to Discovery Education Streaming Plus, a digital library of over 150,000 learning objects aligned to state and national standards. In this new phase of the collaboration, 16 schools throughout the district have joined the Digital Literacy Media Project. Each school has teams composed of one administrator, media specialist and three teachers who are engaged in the initiative. The project will span a five-year period, with additional schools throughout MCPSS joining each year.
“At Mobile County Public Schools, we are committed to helping educators grow their classroom practice through meaningful professional development,” said Michele White, instructional technology coordinator at Mobile County Public School System. “We are pleased to continue our partnership with Discovery Education, as it supports that commitment and helps create a school system where library media specialists, teachers and administrators work side by side in a collaborative, shared-leadership model to maximize the learning experience for each student.”
The Digital Literacy Media Project is based on Discovery Education’s Digital Leader Corps, a system for professional learning and leadership. Featuring a combination of professional learning, pedagogy and tools, the Digital Literacy Media Project offers participating educators strategies for integrating educational technologies and digital media into classroom instruction. Through educator created, student-centered Learning Labs, media specialists and teachers bring to life new teaching strategies, and practice and adapt their skills in a classroom setting before sharing their successes broadly with their colleagues.
