Bow Street Runner represents Channel 4 Education’s first real foray into the world of delivering informal education via alternate-reality games. This one takes the users - it is aimed at the C4 Education heartland of 14-19yr olds - into an immersive environment, using impressive 3-d backgrounds blended with live-action video shot on green screen. It is a broadband experience.

Not only is it a gripping and an exciting game, but its high production values are clear. But you would expect quality video to be shot by a broadcaster of C4’s stature. Still, it is well executed by the C4 production team and Littleloud, the company that made it. You play the part of a Bow Street Runner, a pre-cursor to the modern police force aimed at helping magistrates bring criminals to justice. Played out over five ‘episodes’, you will encounter a range of crimes and will be expected to collect evidence, interview actors, solves puzzles and eventually put your case to the magistrates. Be warned - you aren’t guaranteed a happy ending if your skills aren’t up to the task.

The health warning on the launch page - presumably demanded by the lawyers to avoid the insurmountable online watershed hurdle - will do a nice line in attracting users to click on the launch icon, not a million miles from those teenagers channel flicking in anticipation of the now-infamous C4 red triangle. And much like those teenagers, perhaps they will be drawn into a piece of genuinely engaging work, like those arthouse films in the 80s.

“This game is designed to provide an historically accurate – and therefore grim, violent and salacious – depiction of life”.

My own tiny gripes are that the ’subtitles off’ icon reminds me of the Windows minimise window icon, and that whilst you can mute the sound, you cannot skip the intro. Accessibility-wise you can tab around the navigation but not the in-game elements (presumably a deliberate choice as it’s hide and seek with those). You cannot pause, go back or save. The in-scene scrolling is pretty smooth, and this is a Beta release - the first episode should be ‘hard launched’ on March 6th 2008.

The critics who argue that the game is inaccessible to a schools network audience, or is not mapped to a curriculum, miss the point. The remit of C4 is to offer unmediated, inspiring and possibly controversial content to 14-19yr olds first, and the most progressive of teachers second. Formal education just isn’t their bag - and most likely turns this audience off.

The game itself is not especially innovative - see the BBC’s CDX for example and the idea of delivering informal learning in this way is not new - the BBC also has a strong track record in this field. But, as ever C4 are pushing the boundaries. The content has an edgier feel and is more gritty than you might find over at auntie.

Flash blended video is a fantastic medium for online games & marketing, especially in the realm of delivering informal education. See BBC WebWise or Vodafone Journey for excellent examples of blended interactive flash video.

Where C4 really are innovating is by the wholesale spending of their education budget on interactive content rather than telly. Whilst other broadcasters (OK - the BBC) have large interactive budgets, C4 are the first to take such a big leap, and finally show some real confidence in the medium as a meaningful force for change in their market.

C4 have a defined audience (14-19 years of age) and so they are placing their content where this audience, diverse as it is, can be found. Specifically, this is not watching TV in the mornings during term time (or at least it shouldn’t be). C4 are launching wholeheartedly into the web. Crucially, in another leap of faith, they are also branching out their content onto other platforms such as bebo; MySpace and Facebook. Surely other content providers will follow.

Posted: February 28th, 2008 under Education.
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Assignment #55 Photograph a significant outfit
“This is what I was wearing when I finally truly understood that he was breaking my heart.”
Megs Elyse

I can’t get over Learning To Love You More. No that’s not an oblique reference to my ailing love life, it’s a website that has blown me away. Learning To Love You More is an online collaborative art project conceived by American artists Miranda July and Harrel Fletcher. Set up in 2002 it has so managed to get thousands of people to complete their art assignments and post them on the site, creating an ever growing exhibition of user generated art. Their projects are designed to inspire people to see themselves and others around them as a rich source for provocative art. Assignment #11 asks you to photograph a scar on your body or on someone else’s body and tell the story of how it happened. Two photos of cigarette burns tell very different stories. One is the mark of a girl’s struggle with a boyfriend whose aggressive impulses led him to sear her arm with his fag butt. But another girl sends in a photo of her ex-boyfriend’s scar that was given to him as a rite of passage from his gang of mates. He got it because he successfully made a fool of himself for love by banging on her door for two hours in the dead of night. Assignment #47 asks you to re-enact a scene from a movie that made someone else cry. It tells you to do in less than a minute. Kara Hearn’s rendition of E.T. is amazing. She plays all the parts herself, jacking up the melodrama as she leaps through all the characters at a frenzied pace.

Kara Hearn in E.T.

As you go through the various assignments, from “Make the saddest song” to “Write the phone call you wish you could have” you get the sense that Fletcher and July are asking everyone to reassess their lives. They’re telling us that every little corner of our lives is worth exploring. It’s a symptom of the triumph of web 2.0 where content is no longer decided by a couple of eggheads in a room whose job it is to tell us “This is culture”. Now web content relies on all of us, we are all a vital part of online culture. LTLYM wants to celebrate this by encouraging us all to create art. It’s telling us that we are all artists, not just the lucky few who get canonized by a cultural elite and remembered for their “intensity”. So this is all teaching us to feel empowered, to love ourselves more. Hmm… it’s all beginning to sound a bit like a self help book, don’t worry I’m not gonna go into a nauseating rant about “living in the moment”.

But I do want to encourage everyone who is thinking about how web 2.0 is affecting education to learn from LTLYM’s example. When we made Maths Raps with BEAM Education something quite phenomenal happened. Maths Raps was designed to help children learn unwieldy maths vocabulary and concepts in a fun and catchy way. Children watched videos of rappers performing captivating raps about mathematics. Then children were asked to write up their own raps to perform in class. This caught on and a lot of schools suddenly had a posse of wiley kids stepping up to perform their maths raps. Beam started to receive maths raps transcripts together with audio and visual recordings of this new breed of little maths MCs. It wouldn’t surprise me to find on LTYLYM an assignment that asks “Make a video of a child performing a rap about mathematics.” This leads me to think there should be some kind of online archive for creative educational assignments. The future of learning is pointing towards online learning communities, with many sites like WizIQ already building a large web connecting teachers and pupils in virtual classrooms and networks of learning. It would be brilliant to incorporate into this kind of educational social media an area where teachers can upload the results of online assignments that inspire creativity and a hands on approach to learning. It would be great to have classes all around the country fulfilling assignments. A project for English could be “Act out your favourite Shakespeare scene in the style of an Eastenders episode.” A history assignment might go along the lines of “Get a friend dress up as Oliver Cromwell and make a Channel 4 style documentary about Cromwell’s life.” It would be a great way of getting children to engage with the national curriculum in an imaginative and personal way.

Assignment#30 Take a picture of strangers holding hands.

Posted: February 19th, 2008 under Education, Web 2.0, User generated.
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So the BETT awards for educational technology have been announced and from looking at the winners we can only conclude that standards have been raised. The winning products are bright, original and versatile resources that fulfil the needs of teachers and pupils alike. Upon assessing the winners, I found the most attractive products were those that encouraged creative user experimentation. Critics have always accused educational software of stunting the scope of a child’s imagination. Perhaps in the early days this was a legitimate concern. But the winners of the BETT awards are a testament to how educational technology has moved away from its prescriptive confines. These resources invite a complex response from children, encouraging them to learn abstract concepts through creative play. Check out the winners at www.bettawards.co.uk

Screenshot from Focus on Beebot.

Focus on Beebot by Focus Education Ltd is a surprising product. It consists of a 3D sequencing programme where students can experiment with sequencing tasks to map out a route for Beebot, a bee coloured robot with a permanent smile. Students can guide Beebot through virtual worlds, but they can also programme their sequences into the Beebot floor robot in the actual classroom. This is a wonderful feature as it allows children to apply the abstract principles they have learnt from the software onto a physical piece of machinery. Children can feel satisfied about what they’ve learnt , enjoying the end result of their work by watching Beebot zoom around the classroom.

The sense of a fulfilling learning experience explains the success of 2Simple’s 2paintapicture. This is an art package that allows students to play with a range of artistic techniques. Children can see the results of their efforts attractively displayed on the screen. What gives this product the edge over other art packages is the ability to recreate the styles of well known artists. A child can learn the technical secrets behind great art at the same time as painting their own masterpieces. Noisy things by Q & D Multimedia won the Early Learning Solutions award because of its innovative approach to introducing young children to musical concepts such as rhythm, pitch and tone. Children play around with a variety of colourful, mischievous characters that make different sounds at the click of a mouse. The genius of Noisy Things is its intuitive design. There is no text to disrupt the experience, the children simply learn instinctively through interacting with the characters on screen. This is perfect for early learning because it allows children to learn about music through independent experimentation.

Screenshot from Noisy Things.

Another aspect of the winners was a new emphasis on software that allows for easy assessment and profiling. Bluewaveswift won Supporting Institutional Leadership and Management Solutions award. It was built on a lot of research done by head teachers in Leeds and is designed to provide a comprehensive profile of the state of a school’s development. Testimonials by head teachers all over the country tell of how Bluewaveswift saves hours of work.

Smartcat Profiling by Screen Learning is a selection of thirteen games that assess children’s reading, spelling, mental arithmetic, motor control, language skills and even emotional recognition. This allows teachers of children at the foundation stage to keep an eye on how each child is developing and ensure that they fulfil the needs of each child as an individual. The world of education is currently anxious about low levels of literacy and numeracy skills. Often this is a result of children not keeping up with the rest of the class. Smartcat Profiling has come at the right time, since it ensures that teachers know exactly which children need more help, ensuring everyone learns at the right pace. But what makes it really work is that each exercise is a game that the child can enjoy. This is a refreshing approach to assessment , making it feel less scary and more fun.

Screenshot from SimVenture.

Learning through games is the secret to the popularity of SimVenture. Venture Simulations Ltd have created a programme that allows students to set up a virtual business. Liam Godfrey, lecturer in business studies, has come from a background in banking and has a wide experience of simulation programmes used for professional training. He says that SimVenture is the most comprehensive software of its kind. Students are getting hooked on the game. The more competitive they get about scores the more clued up they are about the real dynamics of the business world. This is the beauty of these winning programmes: they draw children into a genuine passion for a subject. Technology isn’t there to make boring subjects interesting but to make fascinating subjects accessible. When you get sucked into a subject you love, learning is always fun. These products are taking full advantage of this phenomenon, taking us out of the Victorian austerity of the three r’s and into a future of varied and enjoyable learning.

Posted: February 19th, 2008 under Education, Design, Publishing, Web 2.0, BETT.
Comments: 1

As part of a series of debates on education, the Economist website held an “Oxford-style” online debate this week on the subject of
“Social Networking: does it bring positive change to education?”.

Ewan McIntosh, of edublogger fame, spoke for the proposition and Michael Bugeja, Director of Greenlee School of Journalism and Communication, ISU, spoke against it.

The result? Well, the audience is voting strongly in favour of the proposition (around a two-thirds majority are in favour) but, given the medium used for the debate, this is hardly a surprise.

Perhaps more interesting than the debate on the Economist website itself has been the informal debate stirred up online around the subject. Ewan, of course, has been actively blogging about the issue, and has been providing further depth to the debate by discussing issues raised by others such as uber-blogger Danah Boyd. Danah’s argument is interesting, as she has no vested interest in either side of the argument, and provides a good neutral perspective:

“In their current incarnation, social network sites (SNSs) like Facebook and MySpace should not be integrated directly into the classroom. That said, they provide youth with a valuable networked public space to gather with their peers. Depending on the role of school in their lives, youth leverage these structures for educational purposes - asking questions about homework, sharing links and resources, and even in some cases asking their teachers for information outside of the classroom.

“SNSs do not make youth engage educationally; they allow educationally-motivated youth with a structure to engage educationally… “their value is about the kinds of informal social learning that is required for maturation - understanding your community, learning the [sic] communicate with others, working through status games, building and maintaining friendships, working through personal values, etc.

“Given how regulated youth are, any open space where socializing is possible will be taken up by socializing; it’s often the only place they can see their friends. This isn’t something that the schools can fix, but they also shouldn’t be surprised when group time turns into gossip time.”

The debate continues…

Posted: January 18th, 2008 under Education, Web 2.0, Economist, debate.
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As Ewan McIntosh noted on his blog before the event, the strapline for this event: “How is social media shaping the future of learning?”, gave our panelists a broad topic to discuss, but at Matt Locke’s capable hands the debate soon narrowed down to a few overall memes:

• - Use of digital media in the classroom
• - The demand for qualifications-led publishing
• - Integration with existing social media products
• - The concept of “control” in the education system

The debate around these issues was feisty, with Ewan McIntosh providing the perspective of the technologically-savvy, modern teacher - Ewan has blogged his opinions on the debate here. Ewan’s perspective is that students get a lot more from creating their own content using free tools than they do from using publishers’ packages. One example he gave was of Sandaig Primary School, where pupils collaborated to create wonderful audio-poetry at a minimal cost.

The other side of the debate was cogently argued by Owen White of Pearson Knowledgebox, and members of the audience, who stated that whilst publishers recognise the value for pupils in using the technologies and techniques outlined by Ewan when creating products, they must also respond to the demands of the LEAs and an education system which places an ever-increasing emphasis on exam results in assessing the progress of both pupils and teachers.

Sarah Gavin from the social network Bebo explained how Bebo is providing a space in which their users, mainly from the teen demographic, can discuss ideas with their peers which they might not be able to debate in physical spaces, where peer pressure can have a limiting effect on the topic of conversation. As a result, Beboers are becoming increasingly involved in campaigning on social issues, and Bebo has set up Bebo Be One to help them to navigate around these ideas.

Sarah also described how schemes on Bebo such as writing continuations to stories, and composing poetry, have been phenomenally successful, with many thousands of children taking part. And although Sarah sees the average Beboer’s 36-minute daily visit to the site as an extension to their social lives, often driven by the relationships they establish at school, she agreed that Bebo has not become the de facto destination for young people to discuss their homework. Is this a niche that could be filled by publishers?

All parties recognised the issue of control in education, with Owen White pointing out that despite the innumerable technological advances in the past century (e.g. radio, TV and software), formal education is still reliant on the principle of one teacher standing in front of a classroom of pupils, creating a power relationship between the teacher and pupils which some teachers can be reluctant to undermine. The fear of loss of control was highlighted as a very real factor for some teachers in their decisions about what techniques, and hence what media, to use in the classroom.

The debate revealed that there is still plenty of road left for all parties to travel before social media becomes mainstream in education, but change in that direction has happened, and publishers want to be, and are already becoming, a part of that change. Additionally, it was suggested that the educational environment itself would have to alter radically if we were to see a full-scale adoption of social media in the classroom. It would be interesting to discuss this topic in further detail on a future occasion.

Online would like to extend its thanks to the panellists for giving up their time to give us the benefit of their experience and knowledge, and to everyone who attended for helping to provoke lively debate during and after the session. We were asked many times to put on more events of this type in future, and we will be delighted to oblige. Please don’t hesitate to get in contact if you would like to be in the audience next time. We’ve also set up a LinkedIn group here - please feel free to join up and meet the other delegates.

Posted: November 28th, 2007 under Education, Publishing, Web 2.0, Events, Education Unbound.
Comments: none

I’d have hoped my first post would have concerned something grander than the misappropriation of features in video games. But hey.

When I was at university (all those…weeks, ago), and trawling the very depths of YouTube as any self respecting student should, I would occasionally stumble across videos mysteriously tagged: ‘machinima’. These videos would typically involve awkward animations of computer game characters in 3D environments, in sequences involving the kind of esoteric references and in-jokes that I imagined I would understand if I only spent more time playing video games (and don’t think I didn’t want to).

At the time I dismissed them and altered my search terms so that I could find, well, anything else. However, having worked at Online for a few months now and had a couple of dips in the new media ocean, I started thinking about it again.

For a better grasp of what exactly machinima involves, I turned to Wikipedia: ‘As a production technique, the term concerns the rendering of computer-generated imagery (CGI) using real-time, interactive (game) 3D engines, as opposed to high-end and complex 3D animation software used by professionals.’ That is to say, the manipulation of 3-D characters in a digital environment to create animated videos. It is far less costly than the high-end CGI of the kind that Disney Pixar have made their speciality, but it also affords a film-maker greater control over what happens, and often gives them higher production values, than can normally be achieved using basic hand-held video cameras.

Machinima represents quite a curious development in computer gaming culture; beginning in the early nineties when first person shooter games like Doom allowed players to record their gameplay in realtime. These demo files could be shared between and viewed by players. To paraphrase Wikipedia – it turned the player into a performer, with gamers comparing their runs on various levels and tasks.

Whilst games with 3D graphics became more numerous and sophisticated (the Grand Theft Auto series being perhaps the most controversial) the greater emphasis of the creation of these sequences was gradually placed on making engaging pieces of film, rather than demonstrating any kind of gaming prowess - hence the name of the movement; a combination of machine and cinema.

Because of the way in which it developed, machinima began as an inherently subversive movement; the videos I found at university mostly consisted of taking established characters and making them do things they weren’t supposed to do. I think I’m right in saying that there’s nothing quite like seeing a bunch of World of Warcraft characters dancing the Macarena – which is not, of course, to say that it’s a good thing.

But machinima has now evolved into quite a sophisticated and well-established medium. Just reading the Wiki article we hear that Roger Ebert has described it as an ‘extraordinary’ new art form; that it is such a recognized aspect of popular culture that it’s used in an episode of South Park. An Academy of Machinima Arts & Sciences has been set up, and holds Machinima Film festivals. Entire computer games like The Movies have been developed which allow players to manipulate 3D characters in order to make films. Machinima dramas with runs outlasting most television sitcoms have appeared on, and are still on, YouTube.

Why is this important? Machinima’s redefinition of the notion of computer game authorship represents another manifestation of that ever-cited change in the way that people perceive media and communications: the move towards user-driven content, Web 2.0, interactivity…all of the usual buzzwords. Machinima provides people with a very easy way of telling a story or making a film or expressing themselves without the need for even a video camera.

It also keys into that odd fascination with easily manipulating our environment that you see in model railway enthusiasts and strategy gamers alike. The ability to represent yourself in a world over which you have more control than in physical reality holds great appeal – the success of Second Life and the excitement generated by the Playstation 3’s Home feature have shown us as much. How long before people are making sophisticated films, with elaborate stunts and lavish settings, starring themselves? There are programs which allow 3D characters to automatically lip synch any piece of spoken text; how long before people are making presentations in custom built virtual offices, via their avatars?

The effects these kinds of development have on how young people use the internet, and their learning, can only be guessed at. Although it hasn’t been too long since I was at school, it’s been a while. If, back then, my teacher had allowed me to make a presentation in class on the Battle of Hastings using animated 3D characters, I’d have loved it. Academic institutions worldwide have established themselves in Second Life to allow students’ avatars to attend online lectures. Why not animate an entire lecture, allowing your avatar to call up video and imagery with the mere gesture of a digitally rendered hand, to thousands all over the world?

Whether these ideas end up being practicable or not, they remain very exciting possibilities.

Posted: November 20th, 2007 under Education, Design, Web 2.0.
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