Recognizing the need to engage a new generation of students who are visual learners, Maryland's Baltimore County Public Schools--the nation's 25th-largest school system--has installed video servers and a video-on-demand system in all of its 169 schools.

The system, SAFARI Montage by the Library Video Company, will allow teachers to access and play more than a thousand video programs from leading publishers such as National Geographic and Scholastic. It also will enable Baltimore County to expand not only its curricular offerings, but also its professional development, according to school district officials.

"The vision is to make the curriculum more 21st-century and engaging," said Della Curtis, coordinator for Baltimore County's Office of Library Information Services (LIS).

The use of video on demand is nothing new for schools. A growing number of districts--including such large school systems as the Chicago Public Schools and Nevada's Clark County School District--have begun integrating digital video clips into lessons. But what distinguishes Baltimore County's effort is that the district has convened teams of teachers in each school to brainstorm ways of using the new resources to their fullest potential across each academic discipline.

School district officials aim to implement the system district-wide to "support the entire curriculum, and make it multimedia," said Andrew Schlessinger, CEO of Library Video Company. He added that Baltimore County's video project "represents our vision for how we'd like to see the product used. ... This is really the first district I can honestly say is 100 percent behind everything that SAFARI Montage can do."