It’s been a fun day over at BEE HQ! We have spent the last few hours watching videos and playing quizzes – don’t worry, we aren’t having a day off, instead we have been reviewing BrainPOP UK, the online learning tool.

BrainPOP UK
BrainPOP is a highly engaging website which contains hundreds of short animations and quizzes explaining cross-curriculum subjects from English and Maths through to Science and Citizenship. The lessons are taught through the two main characters, Tim, and his robot friend, Moby. BrainPOP has been a huge success in the USA and is now brought to you through the UK team in Oxfordshire.

Features
BrainPOP UK is an exclusively web-based system. Once a school registers for their yearly subscription, teachers, parents and pupils can log into the website and access a whole host of short videos with related quizzes. The videos are not intended to be an entire lesson but are best used in conjunction with more traditional teaching methods to reinforce subjects.

The website is incredibly easy to navigate – first choose your subject matter such as Maths, and then find a video to suit, Algebra for example. Viewers can also search for any topic to be presented with a list of related videos and quizzes. Once chosen, the video loads in the centre of the browser but does not interfere with the framing of the website, so viewers can continue to navigate around BrainPOP UK. No downloads are necessary to play the videos, bar the usual install of Adobe Flash, and the site has been configured to work across multiple browsers.

The quizzes take the same format as the videos – an in-browser, interactive multiple-choice scenario with results delivered on screen or emailed to a teacher.

The Teacher’s Perspective
Dawn is a teacher in a London junior school. We asked for Dawn’s thoughts after using BrainPOP UK for a number of months...
‘We have had BrainPOP UK on a trial basis, primarily to use to look at the PHSE within Year 6 however we also used it in Humanities, Maths and Literacy - especially on the run up to SATs.The children really engaged with the product especially the characters of Tim and particular Moby as they are able to break down the learning for the children and demonstrate concepts some tricky and some embarrassing in a fun way.’

‘The way that I usually use BrainPop is to have a look at the site during planning and see if there are any videos that would be of use - there normally are - as a class, we watch the video and then go through the questions with the children usually using the IWB, however, have also used it in the suite and now that we have 24/7 access will be telling children about it to go and use  at home as well.
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! 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!’

Ease of Setup: 5
Ease of Use: 5
Fit for Purpose: 5
Value for Money: 5

Future
BrainPOP UK is continually adding more videos and quizzes and welcome suggestions for future content from teachers and pupils alike. Additionally, the team has recently released the BETA
version of Deep Beep. Deep Beep allows teachers to find online BrainPOP UK resources in accordance with the objectives in their planning. Teachers in England and Scotland can now find videos which relate to the curricular guidelines through using the drop-down features of Deep Beep. After many hours considering what to call this facility, BrainPOP UK decided on Deep Beep in homage to Douglass Adams’ Deep Thought super computer – it’s okay, I have tried out Deep Beep and it doesn’t return my search after 7.5million years with the result ‘42’, so ‘Don’t Panic!’

Deep Beep will soon be embeddable within school VLEs, making accessing the videos even simpler, and BrainPOP UK are now looking for ‘evaluator’ and ‘ambassador’ schools, where you can gain discounts, rare merchandise, exclusive viewing of new animations and much more! 

Pricing
BrainPOP UK have created a number of pricing structures dependant on size of school and requirements for home access and parental access, but it ranges from £200 - £700pa (+VAT). Certainly a considered purchase, but is it worth it? ‘I do think it is good value for money for the breadth of the curriculum that it covers and that the site is constantly added to. Will we be signing up next year - I certainly hope so but with everything, it is down tobudget constraints, but will be putting it into my bid for money as feel that it would be good to have’

Final Thoughts
After spending many hours watching videos and trying the quizzes (inadvertently proving to ourselves why we would never be very good contestants on Mastermind) we have been incredibly impressed and captivated by the educational yet often comical animations of Tim and Moby. The short length of the videos ensures pupils do not get distracted, but there is a surprising amount of knowledge being taught within the 3-5 minutes. BrainPOP UK certainly gets a big two thumbs up from us!