August 29, 2008
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History & Innovation Combine in Wisconsin’s ECB to Provide Great Entertainment + Educational Materials
The Wisconsin Educational Communications Board (WECB) consists of a network of six regional public television and radio stations that began broadcasting in 1954 with WHA in Madison, a university licensee. In 1971, ECB became an independent state agency, created by state legislation. The TV network began with the construction of WPNE in Green Bay in 1972; followed in 1973 by WHWC in Menomonie/Eau Claire and WHLA in La Crosse; then in 1975 by WHRM in Wausau; and in 1977 by WLEF in Park Falls. Additional state broadcast coverage is provided by affiliate stations in Duluth (WDSE) and Milwaukee (WMVT).
WECB’s mission is “to provide a statewide telecommunications system and assistance in the diffusion of advanced technologies in support of education.” It is funded through the state legislature and thereby ensures that public television and radio programming and services are available throughout the state of Wisconsin, focusing on the educational and cultural needs of the state’s residents.
WECB’s Education Division provides instructional materials and educational services to K–16 educators through Wisconsin Public Television and on the Web, an extensive multimedia library for classrooms — now available by datacasting, and including ECB-produced programs—Digital Parade of Programs, and professional development support through distance education and online learning, as well as on-site workshops.
- Datacasting is the latest innovation in the WECB network of stations, one that allows Wisconsin Public Television to turn TVs and home computers into vast libraries of media-rich information. With the national switch from analog to digital television coming within a year, programs can be enhanced with additional information, such as customized educational materials to teachers, students, and lifelong learners. This data—video, audio, graphics, and text—can be embedded into the broadcast signal to be downloaded to computers, stored, and viewed later. DatacastWisconsin is made possible by the Educational Communications Board, Wisconsin Public Television, and the University of Wisconsin-Extension.
- WECB’s online database, Digital Parade of Programs, lets teachers search for content by curriculum area, grade level, topic, and academic standard. Every program broadcast is correlated to one or more of the Wisconsin Model Academic Standards. Teachers can find program resources that meet their curricular needs and make arrangements to tape them or acquire them from their schools’ library media specialists.
WECB has been developing and producing instructional materials for 20 years, and their award-winning programs are proof of the excellence of those productions. The most recent awards include:
- For the social studies series democracy it is!
- Program # 4 (Tier II) “Activism and Social Justice”—a 2007 Ava Platinum Award
- Program # 4 (Tier I) “Choices and Changes”—a 2007 Telly Award
- Program # 2 (Tier I) “Rights of Citizens”—a 2007 Aurora Gold Award
- For the language arts (reading) series, Into the Book
- The Into the Book series—a 2007 Parents’ Choice Silver Award
- Program # 7 “Evaluating”—a 2007 Telly Award and a 2007 Aurora Gold Award
- Program # 1 “Using Prior Knowledge”—a 2007 Telly Award
Working in close collaboration with the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction, ECB develops instructional and professional development materials that are needed in the state’s school districts and classrooms. New projects currently under development are Local, State, and Tribal Governments; World Languages Assessment; and Personal Financial Literacy.
The Wisconsin Public Broadcasting Center of the Wisconsin Educational Communications Board is located at 3319 West Beltline Highway, Madison, WI 53713-4296. The Administrator of WECB’s Education Division is Linda A. “Lin” Hanson, who may be reached via email at: linda.hanson@wisconsin.gov.
For more information about Into the Book, read our Featured Interview with Marta Bechtol, WECB’s Director of School Programs.
For more information about democracy it is!, read our Featured Interview with Kurt Griesemer, one of WECB’s Instructional Programs developers.