Online Resources: Discovery Education Streaming Update

Discovery Education (DE) was not awarded the 2011-2013 Iowa AEA Online video-streaming contract. The statewide bid for DE Streaming was a 500% increase in cost. (This is separate from the DE Science K-8 product.) DE changed their marketing strategy and will target individual schools and districts, rather than work with AEAs or state consortiums. We share the schools’ disappointment in the loss of this resource statewide.

In response, the AEAs

• have identified the most-used video titles/series in DE Streaming and are in the process of purchasing digital rights to the same or similar content. The target, of course, is to support the Iowa Core.

• will continue to add new content to the other online video streaming service available to schools—Learn 360, http://www.learn360.com. For example all the new science titles from Visual Learning and eBioMedia will be available through Learn 360.

We wanted you to be aware of the plans for the statewide purchase of digital rights, and to remind you and your staff of the availability of Learn 360. In addition to the statewide initiative, Heartland is looking into the feasibility of adding another streaming service—Safari Montage. If your school or district is considering the direct purchase of DE Streaming and would like usage statistics to help with the decision, please contact Susan Schrader at sschrader@aea11.k12.ia.us or (800) 255-0405 ext. 14332.

DE Streaming Terms of Service After June 30, 2011
According to the DE Streaming terms of service, after June 30, 2011 users will no longer be authorized to view, save, store, display or use in any manner, any of the Discovery Education content. As agreed upon in the Iowa statewide contract for the subscription, once the subscription expires, schools may not access or view any of the content thereafter, wherever it may be located, and have committed to make sure that any and all copies or materials that you, or any students, teachers or administrators, have downloaded or saved from Discovery Education are completely erased, deleted or destroyed from all school computers, servers, flash drives, DVDs and other portable storage devices. This includes downloaded videos, images, audio files, lesson plans or presentations from the Discovery Educator Network Resource library.