POPtalk

Is it nearly Xmas already? Where did the year go?

Guess it’s time to dust off the Santa hat, crisp up the turkey and settle back with a glass of Moby’s special egg nog to take a wander down memory lane and give you my top 6 moments of 2012.

This is my 4th annual “Top moments…” post, by the way. If you want to look at our journey over the last 3 years (rose tinted glasses optional) you may do so from these links:

• “From nothing to something” – Our Top 6 BrainPOP UK moments of 2009
• “The power of YOU” – Our Top 6 BrainPOP UK moments of 2010
• “Perfectly personal” – Our Top 6 BrainPOP UK moments of 2011

Back in the present? Nice. Let’s begin the countdown…

6) and 5) If you’re ‘appy and you know it

2012 saw the arrival of two significant product enhancements: full access to all the BrainPOP UK movies and quizzes on our mobile iOS app and single sign on & pupil assessment through our Google App. Even though they are two separate technologies I’m adding them together because they reinforce a message that’s important to BrainPOP: it’s not about the tech.

BrainPOP UK app on iPhone and iPhone

It’s about how the tech gives educators an increased ability to blend BrainPOP into a variety of different contexts. For example, this great blog post describes how our mobile app enabled students to learn independently:

“Recently I used the BrainPOP app to encourage students to learn independently from the teacher with great outcomes. Students were motivated to learn as they were in control. The element of choice motivated students to learn in a variety of ways. Students enjoyed the short animated movies and all feedback was very positive. Students felt that they learn better from using the app and that they found it easier to use than YouTube and BBC Bitesize because the way that the app was set out and the quality of the videos and quizzes. The multiple choice quizzes provide a competitive twist to AfL and all students enjoyed taking part.”

Gavin Smart, Teacher of Science at Priory Community School -  ”Students learn independently using the BrainPOP UK app“

And for Google we have to highlight Norfolk Shared Services, the only county to have rolled out Google Apps for Education to all pupils and staff. First we were delighted to be endorsed by schools within Norfolk and meet the technical and curriculum criteria set by ICT and the Norfolk Integrated Education Advisory Service.

Then our Google app was added to their new cloud portal as the UK’s first LA wide integration to an educational resource!

This enabled 150,000 Norfolk students and teachers to seamlessly sign in to BrainPOP using their Google credentials and add their quiz results to their Google spreadsheets.

This is just the start. There’s such delights coming your way in 2013 it’s taking all my willpower not to disclose them to you now.

Just remember, it’s not the technology, it’s what the technology enables you to do.

4) Taking the 100 Word Challenge

The 100 Word Challenge is a wonderful example of a grass roots blogging/literacy initiative. Run (unpaid) by the inspiring Julia Skinner and her volunteer team of teachers it’s encouraging young writers across the world.

We were deeply honoured to be offered the opportunity to provide the creative writing prompt for the challenge in May 2012. We created a one-off animation which saw Tim & Moby trekking through a mysterious jungle only to discover…well, that was up the fertile imaginations of the entrants!

We 100% support the efforts of the 100WC and implore you to check it out. As a stimulus for literacy it’s one of the best.

3) Free BrainPOP CPD

In September we launched our Webinar series, free online CPD for teachers looking to learn how to enhance their BrainPOP knowledge.

We also hosted some amazing guest teachers such as Ian Addison who demonstrated “Google Apps and Project-Based Learning” and Danny Nicholson from Think-Bank on “Making your Interactive Whiteboard POP”.

We’ll be running one a month in 2013. If you would like to guest or co-present a webinar in 2013 please get in touch. It’s a terrific way to demonstrate to other teachers what you’ve found works in the classroom.

2) A grand day out, Moby style

In June Moby visited his first UK school, Titchfield Primary.

The class had produced some fantastic BrainPOP home work which they shared with us together with piles of hand made invitations to Moby. How could we refuse?

You can read the full story and watch Moby unexpectedly gate crash their assembly (and hug the Headteacher) in our post “A Grand Day Out“. A brilliant day was had by all

It’s also just as fun to see what the kids themselves had to say.

1) Reluctant writer

My No.1 is a small thing.

Insignificant, really, in comparison to some of the bigger, more headline grabbing entries above.

I chose it because if any moment in 2012 showed us why BrainPOP delivers a learning experience like no other then this has to be it.

Read the following first, by a year 3 boy:

“In summer the sun makes a rainbow from droplets of rain from the clouds. The sun can get very hot and if it goes on glass it can reflect the sun and could start a fire. When it is hot I stay inside on my bed.”

Seems unremarkable at first glance, right?

But this was the most this particular child had ever written. This is a child who was classed as a “P Scale writer” who usually verbally told the teaching assistant what he needed to say and copied from the scribe. This is a child who would be defined as a classic “reluctant writer”.

So why did we hear about it? Because it happened during a BrainPOP UK evaluation and specifically exposure to our “Rainbow” movie. It inspired him to  independently put pen to paper and just write.

Apparently BrainPOP, and specifically Moby, connected him to the subject matter in such a way that it led to unexpected and profound literacy benefits. Learning about rainbows was only half the learning journey.

So that’s (nearly) it for 2012. From Tim, Moby and all the BrainPOPpers we wish you all a splendid Xmas and happy new year and we’ll see you, bright eyed and bushy tailed, in January 2013.

Chris Bradford, Head of BrainPOP UK

Related Posts:

• The full access BrainPOP UK App has landed
• BETTer late than never – highlights from BETT 2012
• Scottish Learning Festival 2012
• Olympics Topic Activities – Low impact exercise for maximum results
• We’re football crazy, football mad…

Announcing a MAJOR upgrade to our popular Featured Movie app.

Subscribers can now access every BrainPOP UK movie and POPquiz through an iPad, iPhone, and iPod touch*.

This is available to every subscriber – school & home – no questions asked. If you have a username and password you’re in!

BrainPOP UK app on iPhone and iPhone

What’s the benefit of full app access?

BrainPOP is designed to make the integration of learning and technology a seamless and simple experience. Schools that employ iPads or iPod Touch devices in class will be able to bring BrainPOP into mobile learning strategies – with high quality pedigree content that’s highly visual, short and impactful. It will deliver an unsurpassed breadth and depth of animated educational content.

Out of school access - if your school subscribes to BrainPOP you now have a terrific way to blend our content into your parental engagement strategy. Some parents will have Apple devices – encourage them to get the App. It’s free to download! We’ll be building support for schools who want to extend their BrainPOP use to their parent community.

• Every movie is fully subtitled
• Every movie can go full screen and can be paused and scanned easily (pausing is a great way to stop and discuss what’s happening and engage)
• The app has “predictive search” which means we try to guess what word you’re searching before you finish typing it!

Logged in to BrainPOP UK on the iPad.

If you already have our app simply update it through the iTunes App store > Updates. If not, go and get it or search iTunes App store for “BrainPOP UK”.

Got it? Good! Now here are your options:

“I am/We are already subscribers…”

All school and home BrainPOP UK subscriptions include full mobile access, at no extra cost. To access any movie or quiz that requires you to be a site subscriber simply enter the same username and password you normally use to access the BrainPOP UK website.

“I am/We are NOT subscribers…”

If you aren’t a BrainPOP UK site subscriber you can still browse the app and check in every day to watch the free Featured Movie and its related quiz. The 21 extra free movies will remain free too.

“I/We want to subscribe to access all the movies…”

Go to our website store and order your subscription type. Once your subscription has been activated you will be able to log in and view all content.

“I literally cannot wait to experience all the movies on the go BUT I’ve forgotten my username and/or password!”

Oops. Please visit our password reminder page. If you’re still having trouble email us at appsupport@brainpop.co.uk and we’ll get back asap. We’re open 9am-5pm, Mon-Fri. It would also have been sent to you on email when you subscribed. As login details are often shared you cannot change it via the website.

BrainPOP UK full access app - choosing a movie on an iPad

*iPad, iPhone and iPod Touch are trademarks of Apple Inc., registered in the U.S. and other countries.

Related Posts:

• Writing a Rainbow – Our top 6 moments of 2012
• BETTer late than never – highlights from BETT 2012
• Why you need to go mobile with BrainPOP
• WEBINAR: BrainPOP and Creativity on your iPad
• Popping open minds at the RSA Academy

Jude, BrainPOP UK’s ELearning and Mobile Consultant, recently visited the RSA Academy in Tipton. Mr Naeem (@umerz1) and the gang have been using BrainPOP for nearly a year now so she was keen to see how the students and teachers use BrainPOP as part of the Opening Minds curriculum.

“RSA Opening Minds promotes innovative and integrated ways of thinking about education and the curriculum. Teachers design and develop a curriculum for their own schools based round the development of five key competences:

1. Citizenship

2. Learning

3. Managing information

4. Relating to people

5. Managing situations

A competence based approach enables students not just to acquire subject knowledge but to understand, use and apply it within the context of their wider learning and life. It also offers students a more holistic and coherent way of learning which allows them to make connections and apply knowledge across different subject areas.”

From About RSA Opening Minds

The “Opening Minds Curriculum” is used in over 200 schools across the country and the RSA Academy was one of the first schools to practice a dedicated Opening Minds curriculum. It has won many awards since, the latest being The Naace 3rd Millennium Learning Award.

21st Century learning and realsmart

Armed with my trusty iPad and clinking with badges I went to meet Mr Naeem and Mr Morton. Over a cup of tea they told me how they had been using BrainPOP with the realsmart Learning Environment. Realsmart works with Google Apps so it was great to see they’d already set up the BrainPOP Google App integration and were using the quiz results.

Some of the classrooms had ActivExpression devices so I was able to show them the Promethean Quiz integration. Staff and students were also using Vimeo to upload class videos to realsmart and the Maths Department has a twitter account to encourage Maths by tweet.

Opening Minds

I popped into Miss Josh’s Year 7 Science lesson. Observing the class really helped me understand why Opening Minds methodology is different. For example, one teacher may take the same class for a lot of their school time and teach across a number of subjects. BrainPOP is a valuable scaffold for this because it lets you access topics from across the curriculum.

Also, communication is a key skill re-enforced in every lesson. Even though we were in a science lesson, the students were thinking about the different ways information was presented. So if we were learning about atoms we might learn by reading about them or a more visual method (such as an animation!). Everyone got a chance to speak and say which way of learning suited the task best.

I asked the students if they were aware they were being taught in a different kind of way?

“Yes,” said one, “because the lessons are far more fun and less boring.” Another added, “Yes, because we’re very special.” Well said.

Miss Josh shares her thoughts on BrainPOP:

“BrainPOP is definitely something which can be used at key stage 4 in science as it really does cover the content for the AQA GCSE Science specification. But the use of BrainPOP doesn’t stop there. At key stage 3 the Academy delivers the Opening Minds curriculum and BrainPOP on many occasions has been used within the lessons. An example where it has been carried out is when a group of students were developing their logical thinking skills within the lesson. Students were asked to watch a BrainPOP video and then use their logical thinking skills and the information gathered from the video to complete a worksheet.

Students have also used Tim and Moby to help them evaluate communication skills. They watched videos and looked at how the characters communicate the information to their audience. Feedback from the students:

Student A: “Tim and Moby spoke at a steady pace”

Student B: ”The key words are always shown on the screen to help the students”

Student C : “The videos are really colourful making the people watch it because it is eye catching”

BrainPOP is definitely an education tool which can be used in a range of ways even outside the curriculum. It has also been used to help my tutor group when they ask questions about certain topics. After watching these videos it has helped the group to develop a range of class discussions.

BrainPOP is brilliant – it’s a great way for students to learn, the more you use them the more your students grow to love the characters. I now have year 7 students proudly wearing their Moby badges around the Academy!”

The last person I met was the librarian, Mrs Shakespeare, who told me the Online Safety and Referencing Sources would be just the thing for library inductions.

The flipped classroom

I found the visit really helped me understand why BrainPOP is good for student-centred and student-led learning, or the “flipped classroom” as Mr Naeem called it, where students have more control over their learning. Knowledge is important, and Tim and Moby are great for passing that on, but what students do with the knowledge is even more important. The fact that Tim and Moby do the first bit lets teachers concentrate more on the second.

Thank you RSA Tipton – I hope to visit again soon!

Related Posts:

• Writing a Rainbow – Our top 6 moments of 2012
• Cloud busting in Norfolk
• The full access BrainPOP UK App has landed
• 5 ways BrainPOP inspires confident learning
• Bart Simpson and BrainPOP?

Jude, BrainPOP UK’s ELearning and Mobile Consultant, recently called on one of our subscribing schools. Here’s how her day went…

Ben Wood (a.k.a. @Referoo) has been a BrainPOPper for a year or so now and when he came to see us at BETT this year, he politely requested a t-shirt. I was all for popping one in the post but thought better of it – why not deliver it personally?

Ben was on board so on a bright afternoon I had the honour of visiting Menston Primary, where a very demanding BrainPOP focus group awaited me.

I met three separate Year 6 classes: Mrs Anthony’s, Mr Wood’s, and Mrs Gregson’s. It turns out that each class had already done some work thinking (and writing) about BrainPOP. We watched a couple of movies related to their lessons, Digital Animation and Hip-Hop and Rap, and in one class we completed the Smoking quiz together. We didn’t watch the Smoking movie as the class assured me they had watched it some time ago – they ended up getting an impressive 10/10!

I hope I showed them a trick or two they weren’t aware of. For example, they didn’t know that our February spotlight coincided exactly with the theme they were studying in school – Space.

The major part of the sessions involved students and teachers giving me some amazing feedback on BrainPOP (and very very strange team names).

What did they like?

• BrainPOP makes topics fun: “BrainPOP has good information not dull information,” said one young BrainPOPper
• Another student liked the way BrainPOP challenges them which can only be a good thing!
• I nearly fell on the floor when one very clever young chap told me that BrainPOP suited his style of learning as he was a visual learner – it turns out the class knew about styles of learning from when they studied the Brain earlier in the year
• Mrs Anthony liked the way difficult vocabulary is highlighted in the movies as sometimes this led to discussions, like the other day when the class discussed the word “appeasement”

By this point I wondered if I really was in a Year 6 class as everyone seemed so advanced!

BrainPOP at home

We discussed how the kids used BrainPOP at home in the evenings. Nearly everyone had an iOS device, or knew someone who did, and our free Featured Movie App got two thumbs up. Those who didn’t use the App tended to use the family computer.

Being able to watch movies at home was useful if you don’t catch everything when you watch it in class.

Was there anything they didn’t like? Not really! The jokes are a bit corny sometimes but they decided they could live with it.

There were lots of movie suggestions and quite a few students said they wanted to see more characters in the movies…especially girls. I pointed out the Cassie and Rita comics in the FYIs but the general consensus was that Cassie and Rita should get speaking roles. Watch this space for our Period movie coming later in the year.

Someone suggested guest appearances from other animated characters could feature in the movies. Bart Simpson anyone?

Image courtesy of http://www.simpsoncrazy.com/pictures/bart

What’s in a name?

I had a marvellous afternoon and left saying I would mention the group names of everyone I met. All the students compete against each other in groups and sometimes the BrainPOP quiz results feed into this score, so here goes…

Big up to…The Sugar Wangers, Girls R Us, The Epic Video Gamers, The Blue Devils, Marshmallow Horses, Meerkats with a Manicure, Angels Burgers, The Ninja Kiwis, The Banana Bandits, The Whizzy Wine Gums, The Pink Pandas, The Groovy Geeks, The Crazy Lemmings and the Lovely Loveheart Lovers!

Menston Primary is clearly a very fun place to learn.

Keep Up the BrainPOPping!

Related Posts:

• BrainPOPping all Summer Long
• Writing a Rainbow – Our top 6 moments of 2012
• WEBINAR: BrainPOP and Creativity on your iPad
• EXPLORE A TOPIC: Roald Dahl
• What makes a good BrainPOPper?

There’s no shortage of post-BETT chatter clogging up the internet super highway this week and most folks can sum up their time far more eloquently than us, plus we were kind of tied to our stand for the duration, so we’ll keep this debrief…brief. Our highs, lows, and everything in between…

1. VIBs and a girl named Phoebe

For the past few years, we’ve invited VIBs (Very Important BrainPOPpers – expert BrainPOP Educators) to help us out on our stand. We figure it’s better for teachers to hear from teachers about BrainPOP than just a demo from us*. So a round of applause and huge thank you to Dawn Hallybone (@dawnhallybone), Charlie Deane (@charliedeane) and Ian Addison (@ianaddison) who all rolled up their sleeves and got stuck in for BrainPOP.

Special mention must go to an honorary VIB, who operated the stylus on the IWB for us when we showed BrainPOP movies on the Saturday afternoon, like only a 10 year old history fan can. She worked the board as competently as any dyed in the wool classroom teacher.

Phoebe watches the Cleopatra movie

Phoebe, we salute your laid back style and whiteboard skills. And you’ve got great taste in movies: Black Death, Queen Elizabeth I and Cleopatra to name but a few.

*Please note: we don’t actually pitch, that’s not how we roll.

2. TeachMeet Takeovers

Having been the host to the first ever TeachMeet Takeover in 2010, we were keen to offer up our stand once again. On Thursday we watched Mark Anderson (@ictevangelist) present on Web 2.0 tools you can use straight away, followed by Friday appearances from Julia Skinner (@TheHeadsOffice) who kindly shared what she’s been up to with her 100 word challenge, and Phil Bagge (@Baggiepr) who talked about using Posterous on the iPod touch. We’ll be doing a post shortly showcasing all of their presentations – there’s too much to fit in here – so stay tuned and watch this space!

It wasn’t a Takeover but we also welcomed Mr Handley’s class who presented a masterclass in BrainPOP. They were incredible and a real highlight of the show for us. This presentation deserves a full blog post to itself so look out for that. In the meantime see the post they wrote up on their BETT visit.

Mr Handley's class meets Moby at BETT 2012

3. The heart-stopping moment when your wi-fi fails

We were so excited about our “media counter“. We were finally going to be able to show off just how flexible BrainPOP is: For use at school, home, and on the go. BrainPOP can be accessed via the Sony PS3, various flash-enabled tablet devices, and also our free app for iPad, iPod touch and iPhone. We were also keen to hear Dawn Hallybone’s top 5 educational apps.

However, none of this is possible if your wi-fi connection fails. And fail it did!

It’s fair to say we were pretty devastated about both of the above but have learnt a good lesson for forthcoming years. Do not rely on wi-fi at BETT.

4. Are you using iPads, iPod touch or iPhones in school?

A question we asked everyone we spoke to. And it seemed for every teacher with access to iPods or iPads in school, there were another three who were visiting BETT to help them make a decision: Is there enough content available to justify the spend on such devices?

While we can’t speak for other suppliers, we are well aware of the growing multitude of helpful apps and tools available for mobile devices which can be used in schools. As we’ve mentioned many times now, we’ve got a free app you can download from iTunes and start using it today. You’ll find top tips for classroom use available on our Mobile page.

5. The goodies, the goodies!

As ever, BrainPOP goodies seemed to go down a storm. But, when we’re surrounded by suppliers who seem to be offering less and less giveaways on their stands each year, we’ve got to wonder whether it’s truly worthwhile having them.

What do you think? As a teacher, does it make any difference whether you get something to take away and share with your class? Or, does it all end up in the bin at the end of the day anyway? We implore you to let us know.

6. Evaluate BrainPOP? No bother

If you spoke to any of the BrainPOP team at BETT you’ll know that this year we opted to set up a generic free trial for the event. This meant that anyone could walk away and log in to BrainPOP as soon as they liked; no messing with emails and activation links and all that jazz.

Not only did we make the free trial process as simple as can be, we created evaluation booklets, each with a photocopiable topic sheet so your class could complete an evaluation of BrainPOP for you. Download the PDF here if you didn’t manage to grab a copy last week:

Click image to download

7. Moby does the robot

Erm, there are no words?

(iPod touch, iPhone and iPad are all trademarks of Apple Inc.)

Related Posts:

• Sharing the TeachMeet Takeovers from BETT 2012
• Teachers Takeover BETT 2011
• Turning it up to 11 at BETT
• Back from BETT 2010 Part 2 – Teachers Takeover BrainPOP UK
• Writing a Rainbow – Our top 6 moments of 2012

Whether you’re heading off on holiday shortly, or you’re staying put for your summer break, we thought we’d remind you, in a not very eloquent or grammatically correct style, that we ain’t goin’ nowhere!

We’ll still be answering the phones if you have any questions and Tim & Moby will still be answering your questions all summer long.

1. Send Tim & Moby home to Mums and Dads.

BrainPOP is a great tool for encouraging parental engagement. If you have a 24/7 school subscription we’ve provided a letter template for you to alter as you see fit and send home with the kids at the end of term.

Simply download the template, alter as you see fit, send home with your pupils, and the learning can go on all summer.

Download the letter template

2. Get a BrainPOP hit every day with our Daily Featured Movie.

As well as featuring a different movie for free on the homepage every day, the same movie features on our free featured movie App and our POPbox.

You can download our free App from the iTunes store to access our featured movie on your iPhone, iPad or iTouch.

Or, if you fancy seeing our featured movie on your own website or blog every day,  request a POPbox .

3. Have no fear, Tim & Moby will be here

You might have a fresh set of eager minds to engage and inspire in the new school term and we’re sure you’re already thinking of ways to tackle the post-summer gloom (or, back to school over-excitement!) with gusto. Let Tim & Moby help your students get back in their learning stride.

Use Deep Beep, our curriculum matching tool, to see if there are topics mapped to the curriculum you’ll be following in the new term.

And remember that we add new topics to the site every week – and we’ll keep it up all summer long! We’re certain there’ll be a few new bright gems to capture your own bright gems’ attention: What’s new?

One final point…remember to stay safe in the sun and don’t let an orange robot anywhere near your suntan lotion. You have been warned.

Related Posts:

• WEBINAR: BrainPOP and Creativity on your iPad
• Bart Simpson and BrainPOP?
• Using BrainPOP with vertical tutor groups
• Embed-tastic! Put our Featured movie on YOUR website
• The Pupil Premium and BrainPOP