eMediaVA.org

Now what does that title imply?  e for electronic, Media--makes you think of video files, audio files, interactive lessons, etc.  and VA leads you to believe that this is somehow special to Virginia.  If those are the things you'd assume from the name of the website, you would be correct   Putting all of this together you might get the idea that the site is something like Discovery Education (DEstreaming, unitedstreaming).  Once again, if that is what you would assume, you would be correct.  Indeed eMediaVA was created with the thought that one day DEstreaming would become cost-prohibitive for divisions to maintain their annual subscription. WHRO and the Hampton Roads Educational Technology Association (HRETA) began developing a product that could eventually fill in the void.  Indeed, Mathews County no longer subscribes to DE streaming as the cost became too much for a school system that has made drastic cuts in teacher positions.

eMediaVA is relatively new and is adding more content all the time.  They are underwritten, in part, by the Virginia Department of Education.  Therefore, the content is searchable by SOL rather than by the Common Core Standards.  At this point they have over 8000 videos, over 500 audios, and over 650 interactives, as well as links and documents (mostly background material supporting the videos, etc.)  Trying to determine which of the two services provides more content turns out to be no small tasks, and is not important for you to know.  What is important for you is; How much content do they provide in your field?  The answer seems to vary greatly depending on what field you are referring to.  I didn't find much for French, but I found a lot in other areas. I think you'll like the search engine. You can sort through their content based on specific SOLs, or other filters which include subject and grade level (which is done with a slide bar).

You may be aware that with Discovery Education you may download the videos (so that you don't need to use up bandwidth by streaming them), but you can not keep what you download for more than a year--you are supposed to do a fresh download with each school year.  One difficulty you will find with eMediaVA results from the fact that they have obtained their content from various sources, meaning that some you can download and show in perpetuity and others you cannot download at all (but will need to stream).  If you can't find the link that allows you to download, it is most likely because you can't.

eMediaVA has some features I'm not going to review today.  However, you can go to the site, log in, sample and download content, and explore the other features for yourself. As you do so, don't overlook the interactives. You have an account that has been set up for you (thanks to Melissa Rollosson).  Your login is your school email and your initial password is "welcome".  Your students also have accounts--although they probably aren't any more aware of that than you were until you read this.  Their login is their school id. and their password is their first name.  So, go have a look and you can comment below on what you find.