Connections

Giving every child a chance to learn

One of the more unique characteristics of WHYY's service to the Delaware Valley community is the way we use our on and off-air resources to inspire a lifelong love of learning in each child in our region.

We know that if you teach kids when they are young to learn to love learning, they will grow into adults who reach their fullest potential.

For years, you as Members have trusted us to educate your children with an award-winning lineup of quality children's programs each day on WHYY-TV. Now, we are stepping into the future with a new generation of services that allows us to maintain that trust and become more than just a great TV or radio channel choice.

In December, I joined our good friends and supporters Stanley and Edna Tuttleman and other community leaders at the grand re-opening of the Haddington Branch of the Philadelphia Free Library in the city's Overbrook section. This event celebrated the transformation of the Haddington Branch into a 21st-century library and launched WHYY's groundbreaking new Digital TV Learning Project, the first initiative of its kind anywhere in the United States.

Thanks to a generous grant from the Tuttlemans, WHYY has installed a computer workstation equipped with a built-in TV receiver card at the Haddington Branch's Tuttleman Community Room. (More info...)

This technology allows us to turn an ordinary PC into a digital TV set, extending the value of WHYY's Educational Service and creating unprecedented opportunities for lifelong learning.

It also becomes the backbone of new relationships between WHYY, its Members and community partners -- in this case, expanding an already rich content relationship with the Free Library of Philadelphia.

Beginning in March, WHYY will digitize the multimedia materials, including lesson plans, video and audio clips, printable flash cards and other documents, that support such on-air programs as Sesame Street and Mister Rogers' Neighborhood, and send them directly to the computer desktop at the Haddington Branch via our digital TV signal. Stanley and Edna Tuttleman

Staff members from several local day care centers will use these monthly "datacasts" in a series of eight workshops at the Haddington Branch from March through June. The sessions will introduce specific topics and activities that these educators can use to give their preschool students a stronger start by better preparing them for school.

We are also working on a similar project, made possible by a grant from the Verizon Foundation of Delaware, with five day care centers in Wilmington, giving child care providers the tools to help even more of our region's young people learn and grow.

Using our digital capabilities in this way will help us to broaden the reach of our more traditional Ready to Learn and Family Focus workshops and seminars, currently held each month at the WHYY Technology Center and in the community, which give hundreds of parents, teachers and caregivers the resources and skills to improve the learning and development of the children in their lives.

With this new digital TV technology, we have the power to send limitless amounts of information to any computer within minutes, giving us the potential to reach virtually every child and their parents and guardians anytime, and anywhere, with hours worth of educational content. We will, in effect, create virtual classrooms, extending the effectiveness of all forms of community-based educational initiatives for young people.

You have told us many times over the years how greatly you value the award-winning children's programs that we air on WHYY-TV. We hope that you will continue to offer your generous support as we take the lead in children's education with innovative off-air endeavors such as the one-of-a-kind Digital TV Learning Project. Using our traditional broadcasting resources and new technological capabilities, we can truly become the region's communications partner, giving every child the chance to learn, grow and succeed in this exciting new digital age.

Warm regards,
William J. Marrazzo
President and Chief Executive Officer