Eoban Binder (left) and Payton Knobeloch (right)

WFIU/WTIU employees Eoban Binder and Payton Knobeloch were recently accepted into PBS professional development programs.

Binder, director of digital for WFIU and WTIU, was selected for PBS’s 2021 Data Literacy Group. Starting this month, he along with 24 other member station staff are delving into an immersive learning experience by engaging with virtual curriculum, interactive activities and assignments, and discussions with mentors and subject matter experts.

The PBS Data Literacy Program is designed to help station staff use data to make informed and strategic decisions. By providing staff with the knowledge, skills, and mindsets to use data in an effective and purposeful manner, the data literacy program aims to build a data literate public media community for the betterment of individual stations and the entire system.

Payton Knobeloch, digital crusader at WFIU and WTIU, will be part of the PBS 2021 Digital Immersion's accelerated scholarship program. The accelerated program is for a small subset of six station staff who have a solid foundation in digital coming into the program.

Digital Immersion helps stations improve their digital efforts while offering an opportunity for station staff to connect to a greater public media community of professionals. The experience focuses on developing strategic and organizational tactics, with the selected participants being able to draw on the project’s teachings and a national network of public media contacts to further digital success at their station and at the local level.