POPtalk

How often do you hear the following phrase, directly after someone receives a prize:

“I never win anything!”

Well, we hope the following schools utter this immortal phrase when they read their emails this morning. Because they all won some nifty prizes when they came to chat to us on our stand at a recent Aberdeenshire authority event and signed up to a free trial.

1. First prize – A 6-month school subscription to BrainPOP UK, a limited edition Moby T-shirt and a mug:
   Morag Andrew at Fishermoss School
2. Second prize – A limited edition Moby T-shirt, mug and mouse mat:
   Allicia Coates at Mearns Academy
3. Third prize – A limited edition Moby T-shirt and mouse mat:
   Jill Duncary at Clerkhill School

Well done to all 3 of you.

So next time give the competition a try – you never know when it might be YOU!

This week torrential rain in the North of England has flooded parts of Cumbria. And there’s more severe weather on its way.

Courtesy of wittoboyo: http://www.flickr.com/photos/wittoboyo/

The BBC News site advises:

• Gather essential items together either upstairs or in a high place – have torches, medication and waterproofs to hand.
• Fill jugs and saucepans with clean water.
• Move your family and pets upstairs, or to a high place with a means of escape.
• Turn off gas, electricity and water supplies when flood water is about to enter your home, if it is safe to do so.
• Do not on any account touch sources of electricity when standing in flood water.
• Keep listening to local radio for updates or call the Environment Agency Floodline on 0845 988 1188.
• Flood water can rise quickly; stay calm and reassure those around you. Call 999 if you are in danger.

Courtesy of: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/8370243.stm

To stay in touch the very best place to get up to the minute news seems to be the Cumbrian Twitter service: http://twitter.com/cumbriacc .

There’s also some very interesting citizen journalism happening. Check out the audio blogging on this Audioboo page.

Schools have naturally been effected by this. There’s little we can do to help on a practical basis but we’d like to do what we can. For example, we have made our Floods movie free this week.

We would also like to offer 6 weeks of BrainPOP UK completely free to any school that has had to close during this time.

You can pass the login details to your kids and they can watch Tim & Moby anywhere they can get access to the internet, including home use.

We know it’s only a small thing but if you are one of the schools that has been closed please get in touch and we’ll sort it out from there.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/britt_w/

A few days ago we received a tweet from @digitalmaverick inviting us to the 140 Character conference http://bit.ly/kHE7X as his guest.

We use Twitter and social media channels all the time to talk to teachers. And we do love it so.

So we said: @digitalmaverick 140 times yes! Thanks so much for inviting us. We’d be intrigued and excited to attend.

This is brand new type of conference about social media, the tools that are turning our understanding of communication on its head.

The conference was marketed as “Real-Time Internet / State of “NOW”. How could we resist?

Twitter defines itself by limiting what you can say to 140 characters, including all spaces and punctuation.

Hence the conference name and its hash tag: #140conf. Then you can search for the keyword “#140conf” to hear what’s going on, live.

So I turned up at the O2 arena (never seen it before – what an incredible and space distorting structure!) in my Moby T-shirt. Natch.

@jeffpulver, the organiser and visionary, opened with passionate and fascinating keynote about the way we consume and create media.

@jeffpulver “Listen. Connect. Share. Engage” << love it!

You can see an Open University interview of Jeff here and it’s well worth a watch: http://bit.ly/KX2vx

Then a star turn by @stephenfry who cogitated on the nature of celebrity tweeting, & the power of a million followers.

He called himself a “Twillionaire” The first of lots of Twitter related jargon we were to hear that day.

@stephenfry also exhorted us to remember that Twitter was called Twitter for a reason. It’s about people, not technology.

What followed was stream of expert panels and keynote speakers. I’ll highlight those I personally found interesting.

I particularly enjoyed @JeffreyHayzlett, the CMO for Kodak, who is blending real time comms & crowd sourcing to shape products.

The Twitter and Small Business panel struck a cord. Small businesses (like us) benefit from the opportunities social media grants us.

Because we can make customers feel *personally* looked after. That’s a struggle for large companies.

The Twitter music panel was also an eye opener, as it had a DJ, musician, digital marketing exec from Warner and a Producer.

They told interesting tales about an industry in flux. They were also, by far, the grooviest panel yet

PS: Follow @mannynorte , the Kiss FM DJ, if you want to know someone who knows Jay Z and Beyonce.

JP Rangaswami (@jobsworth) the Chief Scientist at BT told us how his Twitter following helped him find his daughters missing gerbil.

This is where twitter really works. Not when it’s used as a broadcast tool, but as a participation tool. Please RT!

Josie Fraser (@josiefraser) a Social & Educational Technologist focused on the Re-Tweet (someone “re” tweets your tweet to their network).

RT @BrainPOP_UK Josie Fraser, a Social & Educational Technologist focused on the Re-Tweet (someone “re” tweets your tweet to their network)

The “Police who Tweet” panel was eye opening as it seems that civic bodies are on board with social media and woken up to listening!

The panel I was holding out for was the Education panel. For obvious reasons…

http://www.flickr.com/photos/britt_w/

David White (@daveowhite),Drew Buddie (@digitalmaverick), James Clay (@jamesclay),Shirley Williams (@shirleyearley) & Sue Black (@Dr_Black)

What was apparent was that they had formed (or enhanced) friendships via Twitter. If not, maybe it was just shared joy of teacherhood .

Immediately, as Teachers are trained to do, they involved the audience. It did feel up to this point, that the audience were rather passive observers.

They turned that on its head. @jamesclay – you were particularly disruptive and it was a pleasure to see

The main issue was “How can tools like twitter be used in learning?”.

It seemed the challenge wasn’t teaching the tool, but teaching the behaviours; how to gain from digital social comms, safely & wisely.

So was attending #140conf worth it?

Downsides: No Twitterfall (http://bit.ly/Wghue), no wifi & slightly passive nature of the event.

Upsides: The ideas and passion were clear. There was also lots of intelligent and exciting debate. An important event.

Social media is the future. Whether we like or not. The door has been opened to freedom of expression, global community and real time media.

Thanks for the authenticity, @jeffpulver and @digitalmaverick for his inclusion and generosity. Both of you are worth following.

BrainPOP UK is looking for a Content and Website Geek.

Go and look at our website. Then come back.

Hi again. Cool, isn’t it? What do you think, though? Did you get a rush of blood to the head thinking how you would manage and improve the BrainPOP UK website? Do you get goosebumps thinking about all the wonderful ways those movies can be organised? Can you think of ways we could improve the way our website works?

You do? Yay!

We’re looking to find someone who not only gets animated Flash content but geeks out on producing it, managing it, tagging it, and how best to display it. We’ve got many more digital resources coming and ambitions to change the face of elearning in UK Schools.

Essentially, you’ll be in charge of our movies and quizzes. Those that are being made, those that are already there, and helping us plan new ones. This is no small task and we don’t offer that responsibility lightly. You make things happen quickly and without fuss. You’ll have to be able to demonstrate project and asset management skills. You’ll also have to be gifted in HTML, CSS and UX, enough to help us make front end changes.

Schools, Teachers and kids love BrainPOP UK and Tim & Moby. We don’t take that for granted. Everything we do revolves around putting the customer first and trying to understand how they work and what their needs are. You will be an integral part of that ethos.

You should:

• Have experience of working with a CMS, digital assets and data organisation.
• Can build and maintain a production schedule coordinating script writers, animators, programmers and audio talent.
• Have a sound familiarity with HTML and CSS/site design, enough to get by and improve on.
• Get that listening to our customers is as important as talking to them – you will need to discover and implement ways to react to their pedagogical, content and technical needs.
• Relish the idea of working in a small company, start-up culture and hot-house environment, with all the pleasure and pain that brings. You will represent a big chunk of BrainPOP UK and you will be working with some extremely talented people. You will have to stand up and be counted.
• Be demonstrably great at working across boundaries – you’ll be liaising between international teams and will have to have exceptional interpersonal and communication skills.
• Be excited about working under our team motto: “Always be yourself, but on a good day“.

You shouldn’t:

Be a developer. You will be bored. This is a job for an organiser; a content guru; a multimedia aficionado.

It would be nice if:

• You understood VLE and managed systems/portals such as Sharepoint, Moodle etc.
• You had a background in some capacity in the education arena, get the jargon and our market place idiosyncrasies. If not, do your homework.
• You could show a solid knowledge of Javascript, Actionscript 2, Flash, dynamic content and flashvars.

What do you get in return?

• You get to work in our brand new offices in Summertown, in Oxford.
• You get to work inside one of the most fun and exciting elearning companies in the world, with international offices and millions of users.
• You get to develop relationships with some of the most interesting, passionate (and challenging!) customers there are: Teachers, Parents and Kids.
• You get flexible working, around core hours, to be part of an ethical and socially responsible business, and you’ll get the time, tools and training to allow you to grow and flourish.
• We know how to spot talent and will pay above market value for it! The salary range  is £20k and £30 – but don’t be afraid to pitch to us.

OK, now we have your attention how do you apply?

1. Send us a critique of the content management of BrainPOP UK. We could tell you what to comment on, but we believe that if you have read this far you will know what we are looking for and have something to say!
2. Tell us in what ways you answer our needs. You know you have the right stuff, tell us about it.

What form your responses take and what media you use is up to you. Surprise us!

So, how long have you got to apply?

Applications close on December 4^th 2009. Interviews will be held w/c 14^th December.

Applications to:  info@brainpop.co.uk

BrainPOP UK had an interesting couple of days at the Health & Wellbeing in Education Exhibition 2009.  We, along with everyone else, didn’t really know what to expect – it was the first year of the exhibition – but we like to think BrainPOP UK isn’t afraid to try new things. And anyway Tim and Moby always draw the crowds.

So we tripped off into the unknown – otherwise known as the Birmingham NEC – and set up camp next to Rethink and Slimming World.

While struggling to keep warm and yell over the bongo drums workshop or the Yoga lady who was running sessions that went very quiet and THEN GOT VERY LOUD we met quite a few teachers and TAs which was great.

We also met Social Workers, School Nurses, Occupational Therapists, Physiotherapists, and SEN specialists. A delightful mix of folk.

We showcased our PSHE movies and were chuffed to see a particular favourite for the Physiotherapists was Broken Bones. Well, chuffed, but not surprised. And, one School Nurse we spoke to even said “that’s exactly what we say when we’re talking to children!” after watching the Addiction movie.

Everyone we spoke to seemed to like what they saw so we were really pleased. It’s always hit and miss at events like this as you never know if you’ll fit in or if BrainPOP will appeal to the crowds. There were a few requests for movies we don’t currently offer but we take all suggestions on board so watch this space.

A couple of exhibition highlights:

1. 5 a Day Fitness and their great exercise DVD. 5 minutes of exercise for schoolchildren to do in the classroom everyday. We’ll be implementing this plan for mornings at BrainPOP HQ soon enough (maybe to banish the inevitable Festive season weight gain?).
2. Another memorable event: Squishing and squashing a pound of fat at the Health Edco stand. DISGUSTING!

Hmm…bearing in mind that rather realistic pound of fat, we think the deliciously cheesy garlic bread scoffed the evening of the first day shows BrainPOP UK’s commitment to health and wellbeing.

Maybe not.

Report card reads: must try harder.

We met the lovely Annette Iafrate (twitter: @annette__i ) at the recent Scottish Learning Festival Teachmeet in September 2009.

She is a big BrainPOP UK fan and told us stories about how her class used Tim and Moby as characters in their climate change wall posters.

Well, suffice to say (after we waved a whole book of Moby stickers at her), she kindly agreed to tell us the story of that lesson. We just LOVE pupil made Tim & Moby stuff! Anything we can share and enjoy that comes direct from the classroom is the juice that keeps us motivated…

“Hi BrainPOP,

I’m currently doing my probation (NQT) year at Knightswood Secondary, Glasgow.

I have a fantastic S1 Geography class, with whom I have been working through a unit on weather. Towards the end of the unit I decided to include a few lessons on climate change. We focused on the causes, environmental impacts and what pupils can do to help prevent it.

I decided to use the BrainPOP UK movie on Global Warming and quiz as a plenary to the lesson. I signed up for a free trial as I had been directed to the site after reading Ollie Bray’s blog.

I used the global warming movie because it brought together everything we had been learning during the lesson.

Using the clips with the lower school (S1/2) was useful because they are short, fun and cater to different learning styles.

They engage the pupils with their bright and colourful animations and at the same time are packed with geographical content. The quizzes are great too because the pupils are given instant feedback.

After watching the movie the next lesson pupils were given was a task to design a poster to be placed around the school that makes people think about their actions and what they can do to help limit climate change.

I specifically asked them to make the posters fun so as to attract pupils their age to read them. Some pupils had asked me to play the global warming movie again as they wanted to include Tim and Moby in theirs. The poster was then taken away to be completed as homework, and the photos you see below were the end result.

I have also used some of the movies with other classes – PSE and tutor group – the bullying and Swine flu movies.

Annette Iafrate”

Sounds like you used Tim & Moby to inspire some real creativity. You have also inspired the team to establish our own climate change manifesto. Thanks so much for sharing your lesson with us, Annette.

…because today sees the premiere of our first ever exclusive BrainPOP UK movie!

(Feel free to watch this Pearl and Dean intro to get in the mood)…ladies and gentlemen of the BrainPOP UK community…we give you…Bonfire Night.

Over the next few months you will see brand new BrainPOP UK movies being launched. Up until now all our movies had already appeared somewhere else, such as on BrainPOP US. Our up coming exclusive movies will all showcase UK specific topics that are pertinent to British educators’ needs.

So this is kind of a big deal for us and we’d love your feedback. It deals with a very British subject, with particular relevance right now. So to celebrate we’ve made the movie free for everyone this week.

Happy bonfire night, everybody!