Educational Technology Innovation and Impact/Edutainment/BBC Jam

BBC Jam – Learn, explore and create with the BBC’s fun learning service

In January 2006 the BBC launched a new digital curriculum service known as BBC Jam. It is a free on-line service aimed at five to sixteen year olds and can be accessed either at home or at school. The service aims to offer a learner centred approach to learners least likely to succeed through more traditional learning environments. It aims to do this by providing an innovative combination of curriculum-based activities, video games, audio and animation and includes opportunities for learners to write teen soap storylines in French, and create audio, video and games. Content in maths, English, science, geography, French and business studies is available and materials will build over the next two years. However the launch has not been without its problems. There was concerted opposition to the proposal for a new online curriculum from commercial companies leading to a judicial review sought by educational software companies who argued that the use of state money to fund the BBC's plans would be illegal under European law. In early 2003 an out of court settlement was reached. In 2005, the online content was piloted in hundreds of UK schools. The BBC intends to provide a service that complements the existing marketplace for education services and will exclude teacher focused provision, concentrating more on learner centred activity establishing a dialogue directly with learners rather than teachers and parents. This Learner centred approach is designed to provide learning resources that motivate the learner and make a real difference, both to their personal development and to their understanding of a topic. This approach will provide a complementary educational experience to other forms of learning, and the BBC will exclude covering those areas where it feels that it will be difficult to offer a new or distinctive approach. The Department for Culture and Media and Sport has placed conditions on the range and scope of the learning topics the BBC Digital Curriculum Service can cover and in general the Department requires the service to stimulate, support and reflect the diversity of the UK, to innovate continually and to promote technological and pedagogical experimentation and to be distinctive from, and complementary to, services provided by the commercial sector. Additionally issues of access will need to be addressed and many subjects will have Welsh language versions of the content, and some subjects will also be made available as Scottish Gaelic or Irish Gaelic versions.

References http://www.bbc.co.uk/info/policies/digital_curriculum.shtml (accessed02/05/06) http://www.ltscotland.org.uk/mfle/creativeteaching/BBCdigitalcurriculum.asp (accessed 02/05/06) http://ferl.becta.org.uk/display.cfm?resID=13871 (accessed 02/05/06) http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/4655292.stm (accessed 02/05/06)