PBS Gets Funding From Gates Foundation

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Government budget-cutters may be hungrily eyeing
funds for noncommercial TV and radio, but Bill Gates is investing in the
service.

According to PBS, the Bill and Melinda Gates
Foundation has given it the $500,000 it asked for to produce math-related digital,
interactive content for a New York City Department of Education Project. More
generally, PBS will launch a pilot initiative, the Digital Learning Object
Academy, to encourage noncom producers to create targeted digital educational
resources.

The new in-classroom content will be designed for
sixth graders and its effectiveness measured by an independent research firm.

The Digital Learning Object Academy will launch in
January, with its first order of business soliciting proposals to create the
math digital learning "objects" for the New York school project. 

John Eggerton
John Eggerton

Contributing editor John Eggerton has been an editor and/or writer on media regulation, legislation and policy for over four decades, including covering the FCC, FTC, Congress, the major media trade associations, and the federal courts. In addition to Multichannel News and Broadcasting + Cable, his work has appeared in Radio World, TV Technology, TV Fax, This Week in Consumer Electronics, Variety and the Encyclopedia Britannica.