POPtalk

I want to promote another service. Normally, blogs from companies tend to talk about their own product. But, as you must have noticed, we are not a normal outfit!

In the past fortnight I have become increasingly impressed and excited by the opportunities that Skype offers us.

Skype is like a phone, but over the internet! You can video conference and share screens (so you can see what the other person is doing on their computer if they invite you). Skype is very easy to use, and has lots of free stuff (like BrainPOP UK ) and has even more useful premium features, at a cost (also like BrainPOP UK!)

I have already posted about our day in Shropshire, where Ann and I drove up to a hotel near Shrewsbury, and spent the day meeting attendees at a conference – in an exhibition area full of suppliers. Fun as the day was, we did travel 250 miles to be there at 8:30 only get  60mins when we were able to talk to teachers (30 mins as part of two breaks).

We believe that quality is more important than quantity of conversations when we do events, but that means that we don’t get to see everyone. This reduces the Return on Investment (ROI) we get on the event – because unless we need to get a certain number of people to pay for a subscription in order to pay for the costs of the event!  I guess what I am saying is that although the personal touch and chance to meet people in person is always better, there are big costs to consider:

• Internal Impact - cost of a day out of the office, costs to pay for the event, exhibition fees, printing charges, etc (BrainPOP UK pays!)
• External Impact – carbon footprint of a car journey (9 kg of CO2) and of stand (printing on paper, electricity, etc) and being just another ‘supplier’ at another ‘stand’ in another hall in another event – being part of the crowd reinforcing an old model. (Everyone pays!!)

Now, it was totally worth going to Shropshire – because we met loads of great people – but mainly as we did not have to ‘hard sell’  – as Steve Beard, a local ICT advisor, already loves us! As a result, we had lots of high quality conversations! Which was nice.

But making decisions about where and when to go when we are invited is not always so easy. The same week I had been invited to a new product demo day, to the LA advisory team in Doncaster. There was no real prior knowledge of BrainPOP UK, except that one of the team, Damian Ward, is one of the Yorks and Humber Teachmeet organisers, for whom we made a bespoke Teachmeet movie . We were to be one of many suppliers invited in to meet the team, show new stuff and then leave. The advisory team might buy BrainPOP UK for the LA – but this sort of decision takes months! More likely is that advisors are always looking for new resources to tell their schools about. This demo would give them the info to decide whether BrainPOP UK is something they wanted to recommend. This is not something we have the infrastructure to do all the time! We are a small team without a national sales force – so it is not as easy for us as other suppliers to get to meet everyone!

It would have been a 6 hour round trip from Oxford to Doncaster (20kg of CO2) for a 60min slot with 3 people.

This is where Skype came to the rescue! Thanks to the support of their excellent IT technician, Phil, we were able to get around the system blocks to skype, and get a video conference going.

OK, so the sound quality was not as good as it would have been if I had been there in person, and we did not get to shake hands, or really ‘connect’ on a personal level,…

BUT, we did get to meet the Doncaster ICT advisory team, demo BrainPOP UK, talk through their questions and concerns, discuss the subscription prices, and got some good feedback about the site! They asked for a trial, which I gave them, to evaluate it further with their schools. … Then it was time for the next presenter – my time was up – and I said goodbye.

All in all, I think we made the right choice about using Skype for this opportunity, and we’d like to do this more.

So – what do you think?

Would you be happy to have a demo of BrainPOP UK through Skype?

Are you able to access Skype from your school computers?

Today, all of us at BrainPOP are marking a month since the death of Naomi Kadar. You probably won’t know who she is, but she was at the heart of the BrainPOP family. You see, BrainPOP is a family. As you can see from the blog post and comments written after her death there was a shared sense of loss in BrainPOP teams across the globe.

To mark her passing we all worked to make a new movie about ‘Mourning‘. You can read more about it here.

To see it in the other languages (and voices) follow the links below:

• BrainPOP US Version
• BrainPOP France Version
• BrainPOP Espanol Version
• BrainPOP China Version
• BrainPOP Israel Version

Tuesday took us to Shropshire for a special event -  ICT @ the Heart’ Using Technology to Support Learning ICT & E-learning Conference.

We met teachers from across this diverse area, which stretches from North Wales and across into the West Midlands, through urban and rural, large and small schools.

We were invited by Steve Beard, who has been a long time fan of BrainPOP UK, and who we really wanted to do something special for.

Shropshire schools were given a great deal and their own sign up page, partly because Steve was so keen to promote what we offer to his schools.

So, in many ways this was the ideal event. A friendly advisor, some lovely goodies to give away, teachers who were keen and excited to see new resources, and a fanstastic resource to tell them all about!

Even the total lack of access to the internet (the only requirement to use BrainPOP UK!) did not dampen our spirits too much! The hotel had changed their set up without telling anyone and the wi-fi did not reach to the rooms we were in! However, our 3G dongle just about got enough signal (in a signal blackspot!) to display enough of our lovely site to show vistors to our stand. And that we did. It was nice to be able to have deeper and more supportive discussions with teachers about their needs than is possible at an event like BETT.

BrainPOP UK is still one of the new kids on the block, and although there were lots of other suppliers there, most of them have been around for ages, and we benefitted from the fact that our material is fresh, engaging, constantly refreshed and growing.

Apart from raising awareness of our site and the special offer to Shropshire schools (which is why we were there), we  were lucky enough to hear John Davitt and Andy Black talk!

If you haven’t seen these guys talk, then you really should try! John’s oblique humour and gentle delivery contains highly practical, inspirational and informative support that really seemed to get the delegates at this event scribbling away, noting down ideas, and urls. Andy brought us the challenges and opportunites of the technology – from the kids point of view – and reminded us of our obligation to make the most of what is before us. But,  Andy rarely does things in a ‘normal’ way – as you can see from his use of a table cloth as a projection screen.

We also gave away a load of prizes, including a whole class subscription for a year to Prees Primary School!

Thanks to Eileen from the ICT team for making sure we picked the winner fair and square!

I presented a BrainPOP UK bag with the subscription certificate, a rare BrainPOP UK mug, badges, and a Cadbury’s Cream Egg to Gareth from the school.

He was a very happy man!

Thanks to Steve, and all the ICT team for inviting us and to all the delegates for making us so welcome.

We recently asked on the Edugeek forum if anyone would be willing to help us research integrating BrainPOP UK into their school VLEs.

The response from the Edugeek community was amazing (a dedicated blog post about that another time). We’re still collating the research but we wanted to show you an example of how generous and helpful some people can be.

The below are two screencasts made by James May, ICT Manager at St Margaret’s CE Junior School. They are evaluating the Its Learning VLE (Virtual Learning Environment) platform for their school.

Obviously one of the major considerations when buying a VLE is ease of use and ability to integrate the products you know and love. Our request was just the excuse he needed to apply his growing Its Learning skills.

The first movie shows how he inserted our new POPbox (our POPbox shows the current featured movie and can be embedded into a webpage):

The second shows how he linked BrainPOP UK movies directly into a “discussion” page, using an iFrame technique (using an auto-login URL we supplied so the user doesn’t need to login to BrainPOP UK to access the resources). iFrames can show “a webpage within a webpage”. This is useful as the teacher can link directly to an individual movie, invite comments and the pupil doesn’t need to necessarily leave the VLE.

Huge BrainPOP UK thanks to James for his time.

What does this tell us?

1. BrainPOP UK is pretty easy to integrate into your VLE. The techniques James showcases here are fairly standard and could be replicated in the vast majority of VLEs. We’re building a set of “How to” pages for each of the major VLEs in the UK. If you are unsure, let us know and we’ll help.
2. If you don’t ask, you don’t get. We are very grateful to the EduGeekers for their support and experience.

POPboxes are another brand new BrainPOP UK feature for 2010.

A POPbox enables you to embed our Featured movie right into a webpage! This is what it would look like:

Sounds pretty fun, doesn’t it? So every time we update our free featured movie it will appear as if by magic in your webpage. Or classroom blog. Or VLE. Or intranet. Or School website…

Now, we only want it to go to deserving homes where Tim & Moby will feel comfortable spending a bit of time. We will have to approve any requests for a featured movie POPbox. That’s the golden rule.

So if you want to “POP a POPbox” on your website go to the POPbox request page and fill in the small form. We’ll then be in touch with the code and the rest is up to you.

How does it work?

The POPbox is a code snippet that you need to copy and paste to the body of your HTML page. Saving and publishing the page will make it show up.

What if it doesn’t show up?

We’ve found that some VLEs, or web platforms e.g. hosted WordPress.com blogs, will block Javascript being displayed via a security setting in the browser. POPtalk is a self hosted WordPress blog (www.wordpress.org) so we can control what gets shown and what doesn’t.

Getting security settings changed is a matter for your Support technicians or VLE Manager. It might be (although we hope not) that you cannot display our POPboxes at all due to technical restrictions. Sorry.

Can we choose our own BrainPOP movies to show?

No. The featured movie POPbox will change automatically every time we update it so it will remain refreshed. But we decide what and when. It can only show one movie at at time. If you have a special educational event, research announcement, promotion or similar that you think would benefit from a BrainPOP UK movie/POPbox to accompany it we may be able to help – just get in touch.

Does it come with the POPquiz?

Sorry, it’s the movie only. To use the POPquizzes you will have to be a subscriber. There is a button in the movie player to make the POPboxes full screen though.

Do I need to be subscribed to BrainPOP UK to get a POPbox?

Nope. But you do need to agree to place it onto an appropriate web space. And we reserve the right to allow or deny a website access to a POPbox. As to what is deemed “appropriate”… we hope it can be informed by old fashioned common sense. But if you’re not sure add your questions as comments below or ask!

We’ve thought long and hard about how we can make being a BrainPOP UK subscriber even more beneficial than it already is. On that note (drum roll please) we’d like to introduce you to a brand new feature: Spotlights.

Being part of BrainPOP UK  should be rewarding, providing a sprinkle of inspiration each time you log in. So a subscriber-only space where we bring together movies, additional content, and fun stuff all in one place seemed to be just the ticket.

The main aim being? To create a place of inspiration for teachers and students alike and ensure you get the most from being part of BrainPOP UK.

Hence, Spotlights. We’re unveiling them this week. But, what are they?

Spotlights bring together hand-picked movies relating to a central theme. They also provide additional content in the shape of fun experiments, info sheets, lesson plans, links to handy Spotlight-related websites and POP Spot; a special Spotlights area of POPtalk.

We’ve come up with a different Spotlight for each month of the year so hopefully you’ll find something useful for lessons.

To help you plan, here’s what’s coming up:

Spotlight on…stupendous structures and oustanding construction. Gravity, compression and tension at work.

Spotlight on…wet, windy and wonderful weather. Eyes skywards for some cloud spotting with Tim & Moby.

Spotlight on…your world. Up for a rescue mission? Taking responsibility to reboot, reuse and recycle.

Spotlight on…growing up. Can you blame it all on the hormones? Yes you can! Tim & Moby help with a few growing pains.

Spotlight on…the human body. It’s an amazing machine. Learn how it works, and how to look after it properly, with Tim & Moby.

Spotlight on…a galaxy far far away. Tim & Moby journey into Space, avoiding the Death Star, to investigate planets, stars, galaxies and more.

We’ve made our first Spotlight accessible to all to start with so that everyone gets the chance to try Super Structures on for size.

Your feedback is like gold dust to us so let us know what you think – any suggestions welcome!

We’re doing much nail biting in anticipation (eugh!)

Spotlight on…stupendous structures and oustanding construction. Gravity, compression and tension at work.

Topics for the Super Structures Spotlight include:

• Architecture
• Bridges
• Building Basics
• Calculus
• Dams
• Force
• Gravity
• Measuring Angles
• Pulleys
• Seven Wonders
• Skyscrapers
• Slope and Intercept
• The Great Wall of China

For our first Spotlight we’ve come up with a few fun activities you can try with your students.

1. Virtual lego

Get your class to create their own virtual lego super structures!

Download the Lego Simulator here. Tim & Moby aren’t too pleased with our sorry attempt…they think you can do better!

2. Design a super building

We’d love it if you and your class created a Moby-related super structure but you could start off easy, draw Tim & Moby a house.

Tim & Moby House Blueprint

We used free software from SmartDraw but you could just as easily use Paint, Microsoft Word^©, Paint.NET or good old paper, pencil, ruler and rubber.

3. Get building!

Why not build a lego super structure together as a whole class activity? Look at what Zoe POPpette achieved!

4. Spotting super structures

Fancy some fun outside of the classroom? Here’s our suggestion…

Why not head out with your class to take photos of local super structures? Here’s a very famous super structure local to us BrainPOPpers, Hertford Bridge:

Whether you draw, build or photograph a super structure, please send us the results.

Try and find at least 3 reasons your structure is so super. Who will use your super structure? Can people live in it? Any environmentally friendly features? Any robot friendly features?

Here’s what we said about our photo of Hertford Bridge:

1. Our super structure was completed in 1914
2. It is often referred to as the Bridge of Sighs because of its supposed similarity to the Bridge of Sighs in Venice but it actually looks more like the Rialto Bridge in Venice
3. It is called Hertford Bridge and is part of Hertford College

Not very exciting but perhaps your pupils come up with a super structure that:

1. turns orange when the sun shines?
2. recycles grey water?
3. knocks at least one of the world’s tallest buildings from the top ten?

Email photos and files to info@brainpop.co.uk with “We’ve got a super structure” in the subject line.

We’ll upload everything you send us to this Spotlight blog and, at the end of the month, Tim & Moby will pick their favourite.

It’s time to start being social with those bookmarks, BrainPOPpers!

Delicious is a free online bookmarking tool. It’s owned by Yahoo, has been around ages and is our service of choice for collecting weblinks for our new Spotlights. This is us: http://delicious.com/brainpop_uk

We’ll be spotlighting a new topic every month. We want to gather a list of useful websites to compliment them so you and your pupils can explore around our chosen Spotlight.

Here’s an example. In March our Spotlight is on “superstructures“. We’ve got movies on such things as Seven Wonders of the World, Levers, Architecture and so on. The Spotlight is supposed to be a hub of inspiration for you and your students.

This is how it works:

1. If you are a Delicious user already then please add “brainpopukspotlights” to your Delicious network. If you are not, then sign up – it’s incredibly useful in general.
2. Make sure you have the Delicious tagging buttons installed to your browser.
3. When you find a site that you think might be useful to other BrainPOPpers on a particular Spotlight then “tag” it using one of the tags from our list of Spotlight tags and “send” it to “brainpopukspotlights”.
4. It’s important you use exactly the right keyword or it won’t aggreategate all your submissions to the same place.
5. Doing these two things will make sure it appears in our Spotlights Delicious bookmark list and appear in our Widget. You are welcome to add other tags of your choice too, which would also be helpful such as “buildings” or “Skyscrapers”.
6. Other users will then be able to access this growing list of weblinks anywhere they can get to the internet.

Why do this?

The more links everyone adds the bigger and more useful each collection gets. The BrainPOP UK team will be adding useful sites they come across too.

Do I have to be a Delicious user to take advantage of this?

You DON’T need to be a Delicious user to access all the weblinks – only to contribute new ones. It’s entirely up to you.

Do you control what gets added?

We don’t have external control over any websites except our own. You follow links external to BrainPOP UK at your own risk. We cannot stop you tagging websites but we will monitor the list every day and remove any from our account we feel are inappropriate.

How do I know if a website is relevent to a Spotlight?

Simply use your common sense. We WANT BrainPOPpers to add anything they think useful or insprational. Perhaps you use a website/tool/resource/game and want to spread the word. As long as it is related to a Spotlight it will be useful. In Delicious you can also add a description to any website you tag so use this to perhaps describe how you might use it in an educational setting.

What if I find a good site and the Spotlight has finished?

Our Spotlights will be archived. So you can add weblinks now for Spotlights not due for ages. And of course you can add weblinks well beyond when a Spotlight has finished! So add any relevent weblink at any time you like. It could be useful to someone.

The clever boys and girls at Common Craft are extremely good at explaining different web tools so let’s leave it to them to explain Delicious (via TeacherTube):

Other educators using Delicious:

http://delicious.com/Bill_Lord – emphasis on Ed tech and literacy (Bill Lord, Regional Adviser in Literacy for the National Strategies).

http://delicious.com/priestsic – general useful school weblinks gathered by Priestic School via Tom Barrett

Our delicious tags up until August:

March – Super Structures – tag: superstructures

April – Sky Spirits – tag: skyspirits

May – Reboot, Recycle, Reuse – tag: reboot

June – Growing Pains – tag: growingpains

July – BodyPOPping – tag: bodypopping

August – Starship BrainPOP – tag: starshipbrainpop

If you’re unfamiliar with Delicious and feel you need some tips on how to use it, click here for some help.

PLEASE NOTE: We don’t have control over any external websites you may choose to visit from this blog/widget. You follow links external to BrainPOP UK at your own risk.

Thanks to everyone who came along and helped make a success of the West Lothian BrainPOP UK demo at the West Lothian Education Centre yesterday.

We’re really glad so many teachers attended and were keen to have a shot!

Thanks especially to all who took part in our mini-competition.

Congratulations to t-shirt winners, Kirsteen, Jennifer and Ms. Ferguson! Your Mobylicious prizes are heading northbound today so keep an eye out for a pretty orange package popping through your letterbox…