PBS LearningMedia is the brand new digital library from IPTV and PBS designed for educators to engage students in media-rich learning environments with videos, audio, and interactives. With over 14,000 resources, and more being added every week, LearningMedia is the place to reimagine classroom learning, transform your teaching, and engage your students in new ways.

There are a great number of ways to go about searching for different resources, but what are the most effective ways to use this new service? That being asked, here are ten steps that will make it easier for you to innovate in the classroom.

Watch video

Of course, this may sound like an obvious suggestion, but it’s all in how you present video. Do you use video as part of your entire lesson for a day or do you use short clips that supplement a lesson? Thinking about how and why you use video, will help make learning more meaningful to your students.

Listen to an audio clip

Sometimes audio can heighten a lesson in ways that a video cannot. Audio clips can bring in different perspectives or force students to consider a new viewpoint or help to spark a discussion.

Get struggling students to speed up and push strong students ahead

Videos can help supplement in class teaching for struggling students. Likewise, students can review at home so you’re not forced to teach continually to the middle.

Save your favorite resources

With thousands of resources available, it’s easy to forget about pieces of content you find in PBS LearningMedia. That’s why LearningMedia has created a handy “favorite” button. Click it and know exactly where you put the materials you like.

Tag your resources

Say your creating one lesson for your English 9 class and another for your composition class. You can tag your saved resources and organize your tags accordingly.

Create a video homework assignment

The chances are increasing that your students have access to the Internet outside of the classroom. If your students watch a video of a basic concept (like gravity) at home you then can focus on applying those concepts in class the next day.

Share what you find

Become social and click the share button. You can post any resource you find to your Facebook or Twitter account and most other popular social networking sites. You can also embed anything into an email or your class website.

Recommend good resources to other teachers you’ve never met

LearningMedia created a handy button called “recommend.” If you like a resource you find, you can click the recommend button. Other teachers can click the button as well, and given enough time thousands of teachers can recommend the resources they use most, which can filter the very best and most innovative  resources in the digital library.

Innovate your curriculum and meet standards

PBS LearningMedia offers resources that are aligned to standards. This way you can use the material available to ensure your students grasp the big ideas or benchmarks.

Adapt Lesson Plans to Meet Your Style of Teaching

LearningMedia offers lesson plans that help you find innovative ways of using video, audio, or interactives in the classroom. But don’t feel you have to use it exactly as it says. Aim to apply your best techniques. If, for example, you  teach best by using small-group discussions, use the pause button. Have your students make predictions, form a connection to a larger idea, define a word, or highlight a point made in the video.