For over a decade the trusted voices of the award-winning PBS NewsHour’s education team have been working tirelessly to provide educators, teachers, parents and students with an abundance of free current events resources. We offer a daily video blog, lesson plans, two weekly news stories, original student-produced pieces and our newest initiative the Student Reporting Labs.  As we continue to improve our content we want to have a conversation with you, to test out new ideas and to hear your thoughts and experiences.   Let’s make this a fun community dedicated to media literacy, good citizenship and empowering young people through journalism!

Link:  http://www.classroom20.com/group/pbs-newshour

PicLits was conceived by Terry Friedlander in 2002: "I read an article from USA TODAY which talked about the most often searched words and listed in the top ten was writing/poetry.  The numbers that I read were staggering.  Add that to my "refrigerator magnets, and a personal appreciation for photography and the emergence of the INTERNET/computers and you have a entrepreneurial  expensive project.  Being reluctant to take 'no' for an answer..., I persisted.  We actually launched the site in July of 2008.  It will be four years this July.  We did a few school presentations in Boise and Twin Falls, presented at CUE in Palm Springs in 2010, and that has been the extent of our marketing and zero advertising."

Terry admits that he is not a "computer person," and feels that for the site to keep going it needs a new home, new blood, new ideas, or all three. There has been a substantial initial investment and there are ongoing tangible costs to running PicLits (hosting, photo purchasing, "wordsmithing," etc.), and the dilemma he faces is that to create a premium or revenue model for the site and to take it to the next level (or even mobile) will require an energy or financial investment he is not prepared to make.

PicLits seems to have a lot going for it:  the site averages 260,000 visitors and 1.2 million page views per month. There are 40,000 registered users, most of whom are teachers from seven different countries.

More at http://www.stevehargadon.com/2012/04/help-save-piclits-wednesday-may-2nd.html.