At the BBC: Interview with Makers of CBeebies Playtime App

Last week POSCON Network Members from fragFINN and My Child Online got to meet and interview key team members of the BBC who planned and produced the very successful “CBeebies Playtime” App. We met with Lizzie Leadbeater (Senior Content Producer), Leanne Dougan (Senior Designer) and Jon Howard (Executive Product Manager) at their office at the BBC headquarters at Media City UK, to look behind the scenes and talk about how their app developed from the first ideas and dreams, through research, prototypes and testing until its launch in August 2013.

The whole app planning, production, designing and marketing process focused on delivering the best product possible to engage children under 6 years of age to be inspired by creativity and imagination and encourage learning through play – the motivating philosophy of BBC’s CBeebies media content and services. Another important aim, being a public service in the UK, was to meet the needs of as many families and people as possible: That is why the app is available for free on the most popular and common devices in the country.  

A crucial thing we learned was that even within big public services such as the BBC, the project team felt like a little family: The whole team of CBeebies colleagues, researchers, advisers, even the external agency are dreaming, discussing, struggling, improving and succeeding together. Witnessing this positive, collaborative and family-like atmosphere we probably saw a key factor to the huge success of their Playtime app, which is destined to inspire others.

To round off its two-year mission of stimulating positive online content for children, POSCON is currently working with Mijn Kind Online on the publication of a book aimed at both professional and amateur producers of content and services for kids. With the help of this specially designed book, creative producers can inspire others to make appropriate online products for children. You will be able to read the detailed interview of the “CBeebies Playtime” App team and learn why this app has become such an inspiring best-practice example of digital media for children. It will also include practical tips and advice on how to start if you aim at producing great app for kids.

More information: BBC introducing CBeebies Playtime app games for kids (http://www.bbc.co.uk/cbeebies/grownups/article/cbeebies-playtime-app)

Thematic Network POSCON meets in Barcelona

On April 9-10 the 3rd POSCON Network Meeting was held in Barcelona, Spain. 21 POSCON Network Members attended the meeting and discussed topics around positive online content for children. One important subject was the POSCON Repository – a data collection about positive content in different European countries the Thematic Network is currently working on. The data collection covers three different categories: gateways and platforms, such as children’s browsers, search engines, starting pages, whitelists; services and websites like websites for information or games, web radios and TV, media sharing platforms, blogs or social networks for children; and apps.  

Specific needs of and requirements for children with disabilities were another priority topic at the meeting: The internet offers many opportunities for people with disabilities, but also a lot of barriers regarding the use of online content and services can be found. One aim of POSCON in this context is to raise awareness for accessibility, especially for children with disabilities. POSCON will contribute to this topic with a checklist and recommendations for content providers of how to create online content accessible for children with disabilities. Further information regarding this topic will follow soon and can already be found in this blog entry: Accessibility of Online Content and Services for People with Disabilities.

Further topics discussed and focused on during the Barcelona meeting were e.g. how to promote, foster and encourage producers to develop good content for young users and how to fund such projects. Further outcomes and results of the very inspiring and productive meeting will be found on this blog soon. 

Towards a European net for Children – the POSCON Repository

One of the main aims of POSCON is heading towards more positive content and services for children and also more “European versions” of positive content. As a first step towards this aim, the project will provide a comprehensive overview of the market for positive content in Europe. 

Currently POSCON is collecting data about positive content offerings in different European countries. The data collection covers three different categories:

1. gateways and platforms, such as children’s browsers, search engines, starting pages, whitelists, 
2. services and websites like websites for information or games, web radios and TV, media sharing platforms, blogs or social networks for children, and  
3. apps.  

The basis for the entries is the POSCON Checklist and Concrete Criteria for Positive Content and Services (http://www.positivecontent.eu/checklist/).

Additionally the POSCON network members analyse “their” landscape of positive content and services. Beyond the number of websites and apps, which the repository will provide, POSCON will highlight the framework and conditions in the different countries – the special situation, characteristics and best practices, existence of support programmes, cooperation with industry, specific challenges as well as an analysis of problems and needs.

The repository will provide a basis for a European extension of link lists, whitelists, browsers and platforms as well as development of multilingual websites and platforms. The repository will keep on growing, the data collection will constantly continue until the end of the project in November 2014.

Media Literacy Lab “Kinderzimmer Productions”

The second edition of the Media Literacy Lab (MLab) of University of Mainz in Germany took place in February and March. This time the open online course "Kinderzimmer Productions" (www.medialiteracylab.de) focused on digital creativity and (online) productions by children and teenagers. It is all about what young people make in the digital world: What do they build, produce, create or design? What kind of tools and services do they use when they produce videos, music clips, pictures or drawings and to express themselves? Hackasaurus, Scratch, Minecraft, MakeyMakey or 3D printing are only some of the tools which were tested and discussed. More than 200 participants joined the open and free of charge online course, among them students, scholars, media educators, providers of online content, services and apps, industry and parents. 

The participants were able to work within three different sections: collector space, maker space and reflector space. Each space had a different focal subject: The collector space aimed at collecting and systematising tools and services to get creative as well as examples and descriptions of how to use them. People got to test and use popular and upcoming tools and services within the maker space. The reflector space invited to discuss and evaluate tools, services and productions especially regarding their impact on creative possibilities in an educational context. Working groups were formed according to individual interest and wish or possibility for involvement (see list of all groups http://wiki.medialiteracylab.de/index.php?title=Arbeitsgruppen and the course community https://plus.google.com/communities/110663979727411675817).

The Makergallery www.makergallery.de was developed as an online gallery showing all exhibitions and results of the course. All three spaces are present in three different levels: the gallery of tools and services (collector space), the gallery of examples (maker space) and the gallery of reflections with presentations, brainstorming results as well as discussions with experts.

 

  

The video talks with experts from all over the world within the section #mlabtalk are especially fascinating for an international audience (see youtube playlist www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLUymajA6PlKAYPSUsCJKY2DzZs-pWUs41), some of them were held in English.

#mlabtalk on MaKey MaKey (www.makeymakey.com)

Eric Rosenbaum (@ericrosenbizzle, http://web.media.mit.edu/~ericr/) and Jay Silver  (@wakeupsilver, http://web.media.mit.edu/~silver/) from Massachusetts talked to the MLab team about MaKey MaKey and other of their inventions. The video offers a glimpse of their breathtaking creativity that striving to change the world for a better: 

#mlabtalk on LA Makerspace (www.lamakerspace.com) 
What does a kid friendly hackerspace in LA look like? Tara Tiger Brown (@tara, http://taratigerbrown.com), co-founder of LA Makerspace speaks about eTextiles, DIY LED Laterns and how makers and tinkerers come together in a community space to create and collaborate: 

#mlabtalk Digital Makers - Digital Literacy. A talk with Julian-Sefton Green (www.julianseftongreen.net) Dr. Julian Sefton-Green is an independent scholar, Principal Research Fellow at the Department of Media & Communication, LSE, and research associate at the University of Oslo. He is also Honorary Professor of Education at the University of Nottingham, UK and at the Hong Kong Institute of Education. Julian Sefton-Green talks about maker education and comments on media education in the 1980s to digital making in the 2020s. He maps the current digital makers’ landscape and explains why digital literacy is important and what digital literacies young people need:

#mlabtalk The Digital Producers of Tomorrow - A talk with Øystein Gilje

Øystein Gilje, Postdoctoral Fellow at the Department of Education at the University of Oslo, Norway, talks about digital production practices among young people. What's the point of producing, making, tinkering and editing online? He talks about digital literacy, schools and learning and why a digital remixing youth is basic for society:

About Media Literacy Lab 

The Media Literacy Lab is a pro-open project which takes the learner and the learner’s group into consideration, while at the same time it tends to put lower priority on instructional aspects for conveying subject matters. The organizing team is attempting a didactic media approach in dealing with digital options for peer-to-peer learning, interest-driven learning, collaboration, problem-oriented learning, and the consideration of the different approaches and paths to learning. For more information see http://medialiteracylab.de/english/ and http://makergallery.de/impressum.

Twitter: @_MLAB (https://twitter.com/_MLAB)