PEOPLE, LEGACIES OF JAMESTOWN HIGHLIGHTED IN ELECTRONIC CLASSROOM

October 29, 2007        

Jamestown-Yorktown Foundation Partners With WHRO,
People, Legacies of Jamestown Highlighted in Electronic Classroom

WILLIAMSBURG, Va.--“Discovering Jamestown,” an online educational program developed by the Jamestown-Yorktown Foundation in partnership with WHRO Public Broadcasting for Hampton Roads, is the latest in a series of initiatives undertaken with public broadcasting entities to bring the story of America’s first permanent English colony and its legacies to a national audience.

The Jamestown-Yorktown Foundation is a Virginia state agency that operates Jamestown Settlement and the Yorktown Victory Center, history museums that chronicle the nation’s beginnings.  WHRO is a regional media company that promotes education, culture and citizenship.  Owned by 17 local school divisions, WHRO operates a public television and two public radio stations and delivers educational and new media services to students and educators.

Accessible at www.historyisfun.org and www.whro.org/home/education/teachers/, “Discovering Jamestown: An Electronic Classroom Adventure for Teachers and Students” consists of videos supported by lesson plans and image galleries picturing Jamestown Settlement and objects in the Foundation’s collection.  Five subject areas are covered:  the Powhatan Indian, English and west central African people of Jamestown; the voyage to Virginia; and Jamestown’s legacies.

In addition to statewide public television broadcast this fall, the video components of “Discovering Jamestown” will be distributed to public television stations nationwide by the National Educational Telecommunications Association (NETA).  The videos also are available from Apple’s iTunes through free download as podcasts and Discovery Education streaming, also known as unitedstreaming.

Last year the Jamestown-Yorktown Foundation partnered with WHRO to develop a 30-minute documentary, “Jamestown: Founding of America,” and with WCVE Community Idea Stations in Richmond to produce a series of “Quadricentennial Minutes” for public television and radio broadcast and webcast. 

“Discovering Jamestown” supplements an array of educational materials available on the Jamestown-Yorktown Foundation Web site www.historyisfun.org including lesson plans, historical background essays and videos:  “Jamestown Chronicles,” biographies of individuals associated with America’s first permanent English colony, and “Quadricentennial Minutes,” highlighting key historical themes and the contributions of the cultures that converged at Jamestown in the 17th century.

The new electronic classroom was supported by gifts from Dominion and the Dominion Foundation and John F. Estes III in memory of his late wife Dorothy Estes.

For information about the Jamestown-Yorktown Foundation and its educational programs, call (888) 593-4682 toll-free or (757) 253-4838 or visit www.historyisfun.org.