We sometimes say that a Tim & Moby movie takes your understanding of a concept “from nothing to something“. That also couldn’t be a better way of describing what we’ve been through in 2009.

There’s so many things we could list and the team will never agree on exactly what the top 6 should be, but we all think the following were pretty significant moments.

1. Our first customer!

You never forget your first time, so they say. Well our first ever customer was Okehampton College in Devon. Thank you for placing your trust in Tim, Moby and the BrainPOP UK team. We hope you’ve had a very BrainPOPpy year.

2. BETT 2009

If you’ve ever run or staffed a BETT stand you’ll know what a rush to the head it can be. We were a teeny tiny team at the start of the year and the sheer amount of tasks we needed to squeeze in took us by surprise. We thought we’d ticked all the many, many BETT boxes but we’d missed off one important thing: electricity. We just didn’t realise power was something you had to organise.

And for an online service electricity is pretty important.

Luckily our very able stand design company, BJA Designs, sorted us a last minute Sparky and we were up and running in time.

On the plus side our hard work paid off and we met 100′s of teachers, the vast majority of whom hadn’t heard of BrainPOP UK, and made some firm friends. Just don’t get us started on the amount of pens we ordered. It was also good experience for exhibiting at BETT 2010.

3. Teachmeet at the Scottish Learning Festival and multiple TeachMeet movie adaptions

Ollie Bray, a long time fan of BrainPOP (especially in Geography), asked us if we could produce a special one-off BrainPOP UK movie to inform people what a TeachMeet is all about. We’ve always been big supporters of CPD and TeachMeet – how could we refuse? You can see our TeachMeet movie on Youtube, where anyone can embed it into their own website.

Soon after, as tends to happen when an idea really starts to gain traction (go viral?), we were asked to do movie adaptions for Perth, Blackpool, East Lothian and Falkirk TeachMeets. Little known fact: If you ask for an adapted TeachMeet movie we put YOUR name into the famous Tim & Moby letter.

The TeachMeeters also kindly put the movie on the front page of the TeachMeet Wiki website. This year TeachMeet is going to happen across 3 nights: TEDxOrenda, AMPed (Amplified) and the TeachMeet itself.

As well as TeachMeet Takeover, where exhibitors open up a part of their stand for a TeachMeeter to “takeover” for half an hour to demo free and useful Web 2.0 type classroom tools. Naturally, we think that sounds really worthwhile and lots of fun so we voluteered too.

4. Our Swine Flu movie goes past 10,000 hits…then 20,000…then 30,000…

A little while back Swine Flu was a big headline topic. One thing BrainPOP does well is react quickly to classroom needs, when we are able.

In this instance we made a Swine Flu movie aimed at kids, to help answer some of the basic questions (“You can’t catch it from eating bacon, can you?”) and quell a few fears children may have.

We decided to upload it to Youtube and allow people to embed it in their own school blogs and websites. To keep an important topic free. We wrote all about our decision to do this on our blog: The little movie that could.

We got loads of favourable comments on the movie and it even ended up being reported in the TES and the Times Schoolgate blog.

5. Our first UK movie – Bonfire Night

BrainPOP UK is part of the global BrainPOP family. Our resources are currently nearly all anglicised versions from the incredible collection of movies on BrainPOP.com. But part of the appeal of a UK BrainPOP is to develop new UK resources that are meaningful to UK classrooms. Our first UK movie was Bonfire night. It was a UK subject scripted by a UK author. It was a very proud moment to finally launch a bit of BrainPOP history.

There’s lots more coming in 2010, but we won’t spoil the surprise just yet.

6. Listening to classroom stories

This is a fine entry as our last pick and a personal favourite. As well as the reviews BrainPOP UK has garnered over the last 12 months there’s little better than hearing from our users.

We love to tell classroom stories of how different teachers around the UK are using BrainPOP UK resources with their pupils. Whether you are a Newly Qualified Teacher, Home educator, Award winning ICT Specialist or Maths Teacher we’re happy to show off your BrainPOP thoughts on our blog.

We know there will be many more stories to tell in 2010 (2009 was just lighting the touchpaper for the BrainPOP fireworks coming in 2010) so we’ll simply wish you a very merry Xmas and happy new year from all the BrainPOPpers, from around the world.

Ho ho ho!

Dawn, a Senior Year 6 teacher and ICT Co-ordinator at Oakdale Junior School, has very kindly offered to give us her take on using BrainPOP UK.

Dawn is perhaps best known for her ground breaking work with game based learning in the classroom  – see her presentation here using Nintendo DS in the classroom. She is also deservedly a finalist for the Hand Held Learning 2009 Special Achievement Awards winner of the Hand Held Learning 2009 Special Achievement Awards!! (Well done, Dawn!)

If you’ve been fortunate enough to hear her speak you’ll know what an inspirational teacher she is, and how passionate she is about integrating exciting and engaging ICT into the realities of classroom life.

“I am not sure when or where I first heard of this product but have a feeling it may have been at BETT.

I remember being drawn by the bright colours and the characters of Tim and Moby. This is true as well of the students themselves when they first use it; however there is a lot more to this package than colours and characters.

BrainPOP UK is an online environment, where as a teacher and as a pupil you can watch short (5 minute) videos explaining a range of subjects across the National Curriculum.

The videos are well presented and convey the information in both a child-friendly and factual way as well as injecting humour – a must I feel with some topics! After each video there is a short activity and a quiz, although you do not need to complete this if you chose not to.

I used BrainPOP UK a lot during the Summer Term with my year 6 class, and found their videos covering puberty and PHSE invaluable as they dealt with these topics sensitively, but with a sprinkling of humour!

When I asked the class which part of the topic they had enjoyed – they all agreed watching Tim and Moby as it:

• ‘…made it clear’
• ‘…did not talk down to us’
• ‘…I felt they understood us’
• ‘…I liked the fact that the letters are written by real children’ (a fact that I nor they knew until we asked via Twitter – another recommendation by one of the class when I admitted that I did not know).

Once we had used it for this topic – the class were eager to explore other areas – they wanted to know what else Tim and Moby talked about!!! We then discovered some great resources for Literacy and Maths which we watched before we sat the SATS.

Again this idea came from the children not me and proved a hit as one they were all watching, learning and relaxing before their tests. There are numerous ways of using the resource. I tend to use it to introduce the topic, and use the quiz at the end as I find that this equips the children with a good degree of knowledge before we start any topic.

BrainPOP UK is a subscription service, but the range of subjects that they cover is vast and they are constantly looking at ways of improving and are great at listening and responding to suggestions from both pupils and teachers.

They also offer free videos each month – a great idea particularly when the Swine flu hit schools and children were worried. We embedded this onto our school blog and children were able to share this with their parents at home.

It can also be watched on a trial basis, which as a teacher I feel invaluable when trialling out resources with my children. It can look really good and sound really good in a sound bite or blurb on company website but it is when it is used in a real context that, for me, is the real test!

I and the class thoroughly enjoyed trying out BrainPOP UK during the Summer term – now the only question is – where did I leave that order form?”

This is not really a post about BrainPOP UK. We made our special movie about Swine Flu for kids, and placed it on You Tube as well as our site, and it has had 12,000 views (so far) on YouTube alone – partly because it seems no one else is explaining this subject in a way that communicates clearly to a younger audience.

Weirdly, we are also finding that our movie is being used by adults, and those informing adults, in workplaces and even in care homes for the elderly.

Unfortunately, it seems that no one in government, or in senior positions in our health services and media, can find a way of doing this for grown ups without further adding to the confusion and hysteria!

Like thousands of parents this weekend, I was not just concerned in general, but very specifically. One of my children got ill.

High temp, sore throat, and very listless. So, we looked for information to see whether she might have swine flu, and whether we should go to the doctors.

We walked in to a sea of poorly communicated and misleading information.

The main symptoms that adults are meant to watch out for include aspects of self-reporting (a really bad headache? aches and pains typical of a bad flu?) which a small child cannot possibly accurately provide.

We thought she was ok but did not want to miss the 24 hour window to give her anti-virals (Tamiflu). We also had that strange and unnecessary fear of being seen to overreact when she probably just had a normal bug.

So, should we go to the doctors, call NHS Direct…wait and see? What are the risks of not going? The doctors surgeries don’t want people who think they have swine flu in the building.

We rang NHS Direct and they got our doctor to ring us and he diagnosed over the phone. She did not have Swine Flu. For the moment, we believe are in the clear – and our daughter is almost 100% this morning. Good news!

So, what is the bad news (apart from the ongoing risk and growing pandemic)?

There is a huge disconnect between the messages and information available to the general public, and the debate and data that the experts are grappling with.

Put simply, the science and statistics are being poorly reported, because the belief amongst those who are setting policy is that the general public cannot handle the facts and uncertainties without panicking.

Is this true? Are we so poorly informed and educated in these areas that when something of this level of importance challenges our whole society that we find ourselves on the wrong side of a gulf from the experts?

40 years ago, all of the world was inspired by the lunar landings and the power of science was made accessible and attainable to all. We have some enormous challenges before us – such as finding sustainable energy sources, economic models, and new health concerns.

Our science establishment should be demonstrating the depth and value of this aspect of society at this time of crisis – and bridging the divide between our fears and what we can all positively do to protect our families and communities.

These failings have been exemplified by the advice given to pregnant mothers over the weekend. But, in many ways, this is our fault too!

The terrible truth is that we all have got used the idea that science is something that we don’t need to think about because someone else will explain it to us. Only one journalist seems to be giving us the news that we deserve – but nowhere else

As a nation, our quality and numbers of science students have been dropping off a cliff, and we are struggling to fill spaces in engineering and health roles in the UK, due to a lack of high calibre applicants. Science is something that other people do – right?

So, what is my simple advice?

• Demand clearer information from your sources. Post comments on the website of the paper you read if they are not explaining thing in a way that helps you.
• Your doctor is human. Get used to the idea that the health services you depend on might not know best or enough. And that is ok! Ask them questions – but don’t freak out if they cannot give you a simple answer. Ask them to explain it again in a clearer way. We all deserve to know the facts – and part of a doctor’s job is to explain health issues to us.
• Your instincts are probably right about your kid – and if you are worried – get help, and don’t wait.
• Statistics are only useful in context. They do not predict the future. If you don’t understand them – ask your doctor or find someone who does.
• Tell your children how you feel about it. Make it clear that you are trying to find out about Swine Flu and that information is empowering. Tell them to Catch it, Bin it, Kill it and to maintain good hand hygiene. But don’t hide  that you are worried, and that there is something to be worried about!

(post script – just had a call from my wife, and she has come home early from work feeling poorly…. Uh oh!)

The featured movie is always free – to anyone who visits BrainPOP UK, not just subscribers or those on a free trial.

It appears on our front page and is kind of a “spotlight” movie. Today we changed it from the long standing “Swine Flu” movie to the enlightening “Surrealism” movie. We try to change it regularly as we can. Or remember

How do we choose what gets to be a featured movie?

It really does depend. We usually check the days headlines by visiting BBC news and the brilliant CBBC Newsround website and see if there’s been any interesting stories that might come up in the classroom. We also try to tie featured movies into events and topics e.g. Pi day.

Here are some we chose in the last few months (you may need to be logged on to view some of these movies):

• Satellites – when American and Russian satellites collided
• William Shakespeare – to celebrate National Children’s book week
• Email & IM - when we reached our 100th follower on Twitter (but we can’t remember who it was!)
• Floods – due to flooding in North Dakota (these photos are amazing!)

Once we even made our “Sun” movie the featured movie simply because it was a lovely sunny day outside. And why not?

If nothing in the news or around us seems appropriate we’ll usually turn to you guys and ask.

A good way of doing that is to turn to our Twitter crowd to see if there’s any teachers on there that can be helped out by one of our movies.

For example @stevebob79 recently asked:

We reckoned we could help out so we said…

“@stevebob79 We’re very proud of our Blog movie for KS2. Would make a cracking starter. I’ve made it free, just for you: http://bit.ly/ePnGA“

So the Blogs movie became our (free) featured movie because @stevebob79 had a need for one. Simples. He also suggested a way we could tweak it to make it more effective which we did.

Our tweet was also spotted by another one of our followers, @HGjohn, who said:

In fact, HGjohn (John Sutton of CreativeICT blogs fame) went on to mention us and the movie as a recommended resource in his newsletter. Peter Rafferty (@Raff31) also said:

As my Granny said, if you don’t ask, you don’t get!

So there you have it for the humble featured movie. If you want to suggest a featured movie that you can use with your class we are all ears.

They all star in movies coming soon to BrainPOP UK this year.

BrainPOP UK currently has 100′s of Tim and Moby movies spanning the curriculum for Key stages 2 and 3. In fact, you can see the whole list here.

There are 100′s more on their way (the most recent were Extinction and Fish – you will need to subscribe or take out a free trial to see them). Soon enough we will be delivering extension and supporting material to complement the movies. We are also able to react quickly to world events such as the recent Swine Flu outbreak.

Any website worth its salt has to remain vital. By definition we cannot solve every classroom resource need (and we don’t want to, that would be a Sisyphean ordeal). On the other hand, we do aim to make BrainPOP UK as close to an “everyday application” as possible for educators.

An everyday app is something that, well, you turn to (nearly) everyday. Facebook is a perfect example of an everyday app. Or Twitter. Or any service that, almost unconsciously, you find yourself auto loading when you fire up your browser. Websites you simply have to know what’s happening with as much as possible.

The inimitable Josh Porter, who inspired this post, says:

“An everyday app is one that is used every day (or most days) by its users. This means that each and every day they do something with the app. Maybe they’re communicating with coworkers, or creating wireframes, or sharing what they ate for breakfast. Everyday apps in theory are as plentiful as bees in a blossoming apple tree. In practice, however, everyday apps are exceedingly rare.”

http://bokardo.com/archives/everyday-app/

He quotes a study that suggests the number of “everyday apps” used by UK teens is 9. It’s likely less for the average adult. And maybe even less for the average classroom?

If you subscribe (or even if you don’t) to BrainPOP UK we want to make it so useful, so interesting, so engaging that you bring Tim and Moby into your teaching whenever you can, no matter how small or large and for whatever reason.

I’ll extrapolate on Josh’s theory even further by saying that defining what makes an everyday app might lie in how you form “connections” to it too. It might not be just through the website. BrainPOP UK could become “everyday” for you in a number of ways:

• Special offers, competitions or breaking news via our BrainPOP UK  Twitter feed.
• Free movies you can embed or comment on from our Youtube channel.
• Making a classroom display out of the Tim and Moby images on our Flickr page.
• Spark ideas for lessons from our new movies section that’s updated every Thursday.
• Check out what links we’re saving in Delicious.
• Sending us your BrainPOP UK classroom photos, videos and stories that we can then upload for others to see.
• And, of course, reading this blog (hello!) or subscribing to the RSS feed.

For a classroom resource to become truly useful, in the sense of “daily use”, it could, and should, be useful from many different angles and places. Our movies are a big part of that but we hope we can help you in lots of other ways too – the above are just the start…