BBC Jam

BBC Jam was a broadband interactive informal learning service for children aged 5 to 16. The resource was designed for home use, but all subjects were linked to the curricula in England, N Ireland, Scotland and Wales.

BBC Jam’s motto was “explore. learn. create” with each subject tailored to the user’s age and needs, and was designed to be, above all else, fun and exciting. The idea was that young people would choose to come to Jam as an entertainment desitination as much as a learning one, so everything was designed to be as innovative and creative as possible. Although the applications were flash based, all commissions were highly accessible and much ground breaking work was done in the field of e-learning for users with special needs.

Atticmedia was commissioned to delivery a number of these big Jam projects, and was proud to be the first external supplier to deliver a commission to a very technically challenging learning management system which was still being built by Microsoft at the time.

These are some (not all) of the subjects Atticmedia was commissioned to completely conceptualise, write, produce, design and deliver.

French 7-11: The Clique Tour (Key Stage 2)
The French 7-11 project helped users practice various areas of the French language while at the same time providing the user with an inter-cultural understanding of France and its culture. The resource combined stylised video, animation, 3-d and specially commissioned music… all combined to provide a highly immersive and creative space where users can really practice listening, speaking and reading French.

The resource was based on the concept of the user joining a cool French band called Superstar, as they tour around France on their Clique tour. There are 10 different locations that the user can visit, finding out about the local culture, and helping out the band with their problems and difficulties throughout the course of the tour.

Students are initially categorised into one of three possible levels of French language ability via a fun and friendly game that checks their existing knowledge of French – beginner, intermediate or advanced. The available activities are adjusted according to the outcome of this initial language check. On successful completion of the activities the user ‘unlocks’ other locations where progressively more difficult educational activities can be launched, whilst hidden gigs and other events provide a rich supply of rewards to the user.

Music 7-11: The Music Circus (Key Stage 2)

Within The Music Circus children find music brought to life. The site uses character based narrative and musical themed humour to drive interest and interactivity. The Music Circus was designed so as to tap into the imagination and interests of children, to provide them with a space full of music, colour, dance, eccentricity and humour. With over 5 hours of specially composed music, users learn about musical genres, rhythm, timbre, composition and finally are challenged to film themselves playing their own composition which can then be featured within the musical circus.

Business Studies 14-16: Ahead for Business (Key Stage 4)

This resource was developed as an interactive revision and teaching tool for 14-16 year old business studies students. The site had to appeal to students with a range of abilities – from the least to the most gifted learners.

Within the product, students encounter real life enterprising people who own or work for successful, cutting edge, contemporary companies such as the Eden Project, Innocent, Google and Eidos. Through the use of video and interactive activities, users experience actual challenges faced by the featured companies and explore them in depth. Presenters introduce and guide users through learning tasks. Users interview and get to know the people in the businesses and also explore their offices and buildings, gaining clues and information about how they could complete various challenges.

English 7-11: Quest of the Storyminer (Key Stage 2)

Quest of the Story Miner is a rich, engaging resource where the user has to save a magical world from the threat of ‘greyness’ – a constant danger represented by a world of grey monsters beyond the edge of the word.
The user must explore the Story Mines, collecting inspirational elements for stories, and then generate their own, brand new, stories. Users can collect characters, objects, scenes, sounds and effects. They can use existing story frameworks or they can generate their stories from scratch. Stories are published and shared with other children. Children can decide to write sequels, prequels or reviews on any of the published stories, thus allowing a wealth of shared, collaborative writing.

The Story Mines allowed the user to produce a wide number of different ‘story’ formats and genres including drama, poetry, news & weather, sports reporting and rap.