Let's Get Ready

 Welcome to the new Ready To Learn with WSIU blog.  This series of essays and insights will provide you with updates and impressions from the world of public media.  We hope to be your trusted guide to programs that entertain, inform, educate and inspire.

When you think of public media, do you think of your local PBS and NPR stations, such as WSIU Television and WSIU Radio?  Maybe you know WSIU as Channel 8 or 91.9 FM.  Maybe you know WSIU as instructional television or as classical music or as PBS KIDS.  What you may not know is that WSIU is available free of charge to all homes in the region, and not just through television and radio.  WSIU is public media -- on the air, online, and in your community.



A healthy public media service is one of the strongest attributes of our society.  What an amazing free resource for teachers, parents, and children!  According to PBS president Paula Kerger, "PBS stations belong to the communities they serve." The continued presence of non-commercial, educational public media is even more important as our society transitions to digital everything!  Experts predict that by 2015 -- in just three short years -- 90 percent of the data exchanged through the Internet will be video.  Now is the time to re-think what we mean by public media.  Now more than ever, it is important for us to become digitally literate, so we can help children develop healthy, positive communication and media skills. 

We hope you'll join WSIU on this journey into the most fascinating aspects of our shared experience with media.  We post our blogs here on SIFamilies.org, featuring new discoveries, diverse topics, and guest authors.  We invite your feedback and commentary on issues of concern to you.

Until next time, we offer this glimpse into a very special guest in the neighborhood at PBS KIDS.  This fall, WSIU furthers our commitment to preparing our youngest for success in school and in life.  Preschoolers will discover the new world of Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood on Sept 3!  Daniel Tiger will wear red sneakers and a red cardigan as a tribute to Fred Rogers.  For every theme in Daniel Tiger, a coping strategy is set to music.  For, in the world according to Fred Rogers, “As human beings, our job in life is to help people realize how rare and vulnerable each one of us really is, that each of us has something that no one else has – or ever will have – something that is unique to all time.  It’s our job to encourage each other to discover that uniqueness and to provide ways of developing its expression.