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myBBC – the most personal summer of live events from across the BBC

2016-07-19T09:05:00+00:00

If you’re anything like me and a massive sports fan, this summer has the perfect line up. With Andy Murray winning Wimbledon along with Wales’ triumph at the Euros (I grew up there – so not just riding the glory wave) it’s got off to a great start. And, with the Olympics starting in just under two week’s time, it’s about to kick off all over again.

Our goal is to make this year’s summer of sport and live events the best ever, by making it more personal and relevant to you.

Over 7 million of you have signed into the BBC in just over a year – and over a third of you come back on a monthly basis to benefit from a more personal experiences. And since the last time I blogged, we’ve seen huge numbers of people benefit from these signed-in experience.

As you might know, we offer push alerts for football matches, cricket teams, F1 races, rugby union and rugby league teams, and live event reminders. We recently launched news alerts for major sports - so people can get the biggest headlines for their favourite sports first. Since launching this:

2.2 million of you have received alerts in the BBC Sport app
We offered match alerts for every Euro team. No surprise -England and Wales were the most popular teams during the Euros
And a massive 129,773,607 alerts were sent during the Euros

We also offered the Euros predictor so that you could join leagues and compete to predict the results of Euro 2016. This was more popular than we ever imagined with:

297,474 total players
7,277,318 predictions made
159,903 private league users
And 36,842 private leagues set up

We are continually adding to the benefits you get from being signed in. For instance, last week we launched radio recommendations on the Homepage.

I can’t put my phone down. And I can see from our stats that I’m not alone. More and more of you are watching, listening and reading content on-the-go on your mobiles – so as previously mentioned we’ve been building a new app called BBC+. The app brings together the breadth and range of content from across the BBC together in one simple, easy to use app that you can customise to your tastes and interests. So, whether it’s talked about TV, breaking news, summer trends – or the latest craze (not mentioning Pokemon Go) – you’ll be able to find the content you care about – all in one place. You can read more about it here.

I’m thrilled to say that we’re launching the first version of this today – and will be listening to you over the coming weeks and months to tweak and make it the best it can be. I can’t wait to hear what you think of it and am looking forward to rolling out even more personalised features for the Greatest Show on Earth – The Olympic Games. Come on Team GB!

Phil Fearnley is Director Homepage and myBBC

Read Introducing the new BBC+ app

Introducing the new BBC+ app

2016-07-19T08:48:23+00:00

I’m Clare Hudson, Executive Editor of the BBC Homepage and now, the newly launched BBC+ app. My colleague Phil Salt has written about the development of BBC+ and in this blog, I’m going to talk about what content users can expect to find if they download the app.

BBC+ provides a single place from which users can access the best articles, clips and programmes from the BBC. Content is timely, relevant and topical and features a snapshot of the day’s events, themes, topics and people in a way that’s personal to users because they’ve chosen what they are interested in seeing. In each collection of interests is content, handpicked by editors, from right across the BBC that updates regularly throughout the day. Collections, titles and images will guide the users to things that they can relate to.

The team that curates BBC+ also curates BBC Homepage. Some of the collections on offer in BBC+ have been on the homepage since launch but following feedback from users during a trial we ran last year, we devised several new collections for BBC+ that reflect a more specific range of interests than, say, ‘lifestyle’ or ‘sport’. So users will now be able to choose from collections such as Mind and Body, Faith and Philosophy, Love and Relationships, Family and Parenting, and The Week In Sport. Each collection features a mix of formats, genres, BBC brands and BBC talent and has its own tone of voice.

In the next few months, we’ll be launching new collections that reflect mood, time of the day or week as well as events and seasons. Earlier this year on Homepage, we published collections of Glastonbury highlights chosen by Radio 1’s Clara Amfo and Radio 2’s Jo Whiley. Later this year, look out for a collection of musical highlights compiled by a presenter or artist appearing at this year’s Proms. As we learn more about what users are interested in, we’ll be working on new topics, some in collaboration with other teams such as 5 Live In Short, BBC Sport and BBC Three.

If you’ve got any comments and suggestions, please let us know below

Clare Hudson is Executive Editor, BBC Homepage

The BBC+ app is now available for download at Google Play (Android) and iTunes (iOS)
Read also BBC+ & the Mobile Application Framework

Match of the Day hits 3 million Facebook fans

2015-09-23T16:03:27+00:00

Match of the Day may be one of the BBC's oldest and best-loved television programmes, celebrating its 50th birthday last year, but it has also been one of the best at embracing social media. This is particularly important when audience behaviour, particularly among younger viewers, is dramatically changing in an evolving media landscape.

While the @bbcmotd account on Twitter has in excess of 1.5 million followers, last week the Match of the Day Facebook page reached the milestone of three million fans.

Although there are pages across the BBC with a larger fan-base, including BBC Sport's Facebook page with 7.8 million fans, the Match of the Day page has become one of the most successful at driving referrals, as well as encouraging people to watch the programme.

'Knowledgeable', 'Cheeky' and 'Irreverent'

In terms of Facebook, we are really proud that Match of the Day has 1.64 million fans in the UK alone, with only Manchester United in the Premier League boasting more in the UK.

And while reach is extremely important, after the FIFA World Cup in 2014 we wanted to improve engagement.

Research showed us that our target audience wanted the tone of the Match of the Day social accounts to be slightly less serious and focus instead on being 'knowledgeable', 'cheeky' and 'irreverent.' This is hardly surprising given that 53% of the page's Facebook fans are aged 24 or under.

They also wanted the tone to mirror more closely that of the show's presenters and pundits when they tweet or post from their own accounts on social media.

From 35,000 a week to 3.7 million

During the past year we've therefore evolved our content strategy. This has been strongly influenced by analytics, looking at the frequency and timing of our posts, the style and tone in which we create content and experimenting with targeted posts aimed at reaching fans of specific teams.

The impact of this has been dramatic in driving social referrals i.e. where fans click on posts on the Match of the Day Facebook page, and come through to the BBC website.

Such has been the success of this change of strategy that, comparing the first week of September 2014 with September 2015, referrals from page posts have increased organically, using similar staffing levels, from 35,000 a week to 3.7 million in the same time period.

Importantly, our referrals strategy has not been focused on simply posting content about the most popular teams in the Premier League.

Instead, it has showcased our distinctive and diverse range of football content on the BBC from a local, national and global perspective, promoted people to play the game through Get Inspired and the FA People's Cup and driven interest in the women's game, particularly around the Women's World Cup last summer.

We don't just try to broadcast to fans on social media, but engage with them as well.

This includes regularly replying to our users, using pundits in live Q and A sessions and offering a sneak preview of the running order each weekend.

We also provide behind-the-scenes videos with the likes of Gary Lineker to promote the show, allowing fans to vote on Goal of the Month, and curating the best of social media to reflect back in broadcast (particularly Match of the Day 2 Extra) and the BBC Sport website.

Such has been the popularity of this engagement that this season we have launched Match of the Day Social, a digital companion on the BBC Sport website to Saturday's show, where additional tactical analysis and the best fan comments on our social media channels are reflected in our live page. Although we are only in the early stages of the season, during transmission this page is commonly the most visited page on the BBC website at that time.

Chris Hurst is Digital Development Editor, BBC Sport

Introducing the BBC micro:bit website in beta

2015-09-18T12:26:33+00:00

In July, we unveiled the BBC micro:bit to the world. Today marks the next milestone in the project, and I’m delighted to launch the new beta website for the BBC micro:bit today, developed in collaboration with Microsoft - www.microbit.co.uk – let the coding begin! My colleague Sinead Rocks has blogged about the project here, and I wanted to tell you a bit more about the site, what it includes and how to start using it.

The BBC micro:bit website has been created as a one-stop shop to introduce teachers, parents and students to all aspects of the micro:bit. Anyone can have a go, write code, and see how it would play back on the BBC micro:bit online simulator. This initial beta release focuses first on giving teachers and educators the information and inspiration that they need to start to plan how they’ll use the BBC micro:bit with their students. We’ll be updating the site over the next few months as new resources are added, and as we build up to the micro:bit arriving in schools, classrooms and homes.

Let me outline some of the resources that have gone live today.

Getting Started

The new BBC micro:bit beta site is the place for teachers, students and parents/guardians who are new to coding and the BBC micro:bit to get started. In the first instance, watch some short videos that offer inspiring ideas for using the BBC micro:bit, and get introduced to the different code editors.

Learning Resources

Our amazing partners are producing an abundance of resources to kick-start students and support teachers and parents on their BBC micro:bit adventure. There are exciting projects to remix and download, step-by-step interactive tutorials and lessons plans, and detailed information on each coding editor. Explore some examples on the BBC micro:bit homepage from partners such as Microsoft, Kitronic, Technology Will Save Us and Institution of Engineering and Technology.

Create code for the micro:bit

Select “Create Code” to choose an editor and start writing code for the BBC micro:bit.
This week we’re releasing the Microsoft Block and Microsoft Touch Develop editors. Coming very soon is the Code Kingdoms JavaScript editor, followed by a Python editor from the Python Software Foundation.

Run your script on the Simulator
Once you’ve written a code script, select “Run” from within the editor to run it on our online simulator. Light up the LEDs, make some virtual button presses and spin the compass dial! It’s a great way to test how your code’s working before transferring it to a BBC micro:bit – and a helpful tool for teachers ahead of the delivery of the devices themselves.

Teacher registration

From today, teachers and other educators will be able to register on the website, enabling them to

Save and retrieve their content (via their login)
Compile code scripts (into a format ready to transfer to a micro:bit device)
Publish code scripts (to share with other micro:bit website users)

If you’re a teacher and haven’t yet registered your school to receive BBC micro:bits and website registration codes, please do so using our online registration form. You can read more about the device delivery plans in Sinead Rocks’ blog post.

What’s next?

We’re in Beta, whilst we complete our testing and add some more features and enhancements. We’d welcome your feedback, either via the comments below or to microbitsupport@bbc.co.uk, to inform our next stage of development.

Over the next couple of months, we’ll be focussing more on the experience for the Year 7 children or equivalent who will be receiving BBC micro:bits. These students will then be able to register to use the website, via their teachers, closer to the time that micro:bits will start arriving in schools.

I’d like to take this opportunity to acknowledge and thank our key collaborators for this website launch:

- the Microsoft Touch Develop team, who have led with us on the development of the website and web services. They have designed and developed the web application and editor environment, based on their Touch Develop platform, as well as the Microsoft Block Editor and Microsoft Touch Develop Editor.

Tangent Design, who have designed and built the top-level website, in collaboration with the BBC and Microsoft
Code Kingdoms and The Python Software Foundation, whose editors will follow shortly
ARM, who provide the code compilation service
Lancaster University, who have written the Runtime: the firmware that specifies the micro:bit functions that the editors can write to
Our Learning Resource providers and champions – listed on our Partners page

Leigh Aspin is Executive Product Manager, Knowledge and Learning

Next steps for the BBC micro:bit

2015-09-17T16:00:46+00:00

It’s been just over two months since we unveiled the BBC micro:bit alongside our 28 partners and I wanted to give you an update on what we have been up to since then as well as information on what’s coming next.

This is a massively ambitious undertaking and that’s been reflected in the levels of activity over the summer months. We have been busy getting ready to support teachers on every aspect of the BBC micro:bit, and have been in touch with schools and teachers up and down the country. Thousands have already registered and there’s still time to get involved - you can sign up using our online registration form which can be found on the BBC micro:bit website.

Engaging with schools has always been central to this educational initiative - our teams have been hard at work creating and producing all the resources teachers will need to bring it to life, allow lesson planning to start, and to make it a success in the classroom.

We want to help teachers start to plan how they will use the BBC micro:bit in their classrooms and the beta release of the new BBC micro:bit website will be arriving very soon. It has been designed to equip teachers, parents and students with a one-stop intro into everything they need to know about the BBC micro:bit, and to help teachers get going in advance of the devices arriving in schools. My colleague Leigh Aspin will blog about the website in detail when it launches but here’s a short introduction.

The brand new BBC micro:bit website contains a wealth of resources to get users started. These include a series of videos, step by step tutorials, and fun projects and resources to inspire users from the BBC and our partners, including Code Club, Code Kingdoms, Cisco, The Institution of Engineering and Technology, Kitronik, Microsoft, Technology Will Save Us and TeenTech.

Crucially, the new site includes code editors to help users start to write code for the BBC micro:bit itself. We’re releasing Microsoft Block and Touch Develop editors, with editors from Code Kingdom and Python Software Foundation coming soon. The site also includes a simulator, which will let users to get hands on, practise, and see how their coding will illuminate the LEDs and press the buttons on the device. All a key part of how teachers can start to use the site to plan lessons and activities. And we will be improving and updating the site regularly over the coming months.

This is just the start - we will be in touch with more detail in the coming weeks to help teachers get to know the BBC micro:bit and to plan creative ways to bring it to life.

As you would expect, rigorous and extensive testing of the BBC micro:bit has been another key focus over the summer. It’s a new piece of hardware developed in conjunction with a coalition of expert partners and getting the device right before we manufacture a million of them for distribution is our priority. As a result of this testing, we’ve decided to make some minor revisions to the way power is supplied around the board, as this was affecting a few devices in rare and isolated instances. This will have an impact on our timings for distribution but we are working hard to make sure you get your micro:bits as quickly as possible.

As we have always said, teachers will still get their BBC micro:bits before pupils, and we aim to start delivering devices to them before Christmas, and to children in the new year, as part of the new school term. We want to make sure that when the BBC micro:bit arrives, it has the greatest possible impact in the classroom, playground and at home, and are planning exciting programmes across BBC TV, radio and online in the new year to bring them to life.

All the organisations involved in the BBC micro:bit initiative want to inspire a new generation to get creative with digital technology – to do that we need your continued guidance and support. Together, we will make the BBC micro:bit a transformative initative, working together to achieve what none of us could on our own.

Sinead Rocks is Head of BBC Learning

Making it a #nicerInternet

2015-02-13T15:44:53+00:00

Vloggers including Danisnotonfire, AmazingPhil, TomSka, Jack and Dean, Patricia Bright, Charlie McDonnell, Sprinkle of Glitter and Jim Chapman

I tried vlogging once, about eight years ago. I wasn't terribly good at it I don't think. That's why I prefer words now. I can control the written word more and the image I project of myself. In that way, the written word creates a protective barrier.

Video leaves me feeling all exposed. That might be my age. At 42, I don't consider myself old of course (whatever 'old' actually means). Rather, I recall a time when I was a little more fearless. Using video to express offered potential opportunities, creative satisfaction (videographers will nod in agreement when I say the cutting of clips against a music soundtrack can be the most satisfying jigsawing process ever). I knew I was never going to get a massive following. But, what the internet promised was my own space - there was enough room for me and everyone else. That was why (along with a bicycle accident which saw me incapicitated for ten days) I made this video about the BBC Proms brochure in 2007.

I quickly discovered the addictive quality digital creativity presented and with it an inherent fear of being criticised. "There's a lot about you, isn't there?" said one producer (just as there is in the opening two paragraphs of this blog). The point was that the fear of negative feedback as well as that posted online underneath your creation had its impact. Creativity became a compromise: wanting to go free-form on the one hand, but also not wanting to do anything which would invite negative feedback.

BBC Webwise's talking heads videos published as part of Safer Internet Day really struck a chord. Head of Media Literacy Andrew Tomlinson blogged about the project earlier in the month, explaining how the contributions from schoolchildren had been made possible. The results are compelling. Young people sharing their experiences about life online. Good stuff and bad stuff. All of it there, plain to see.

Captivating and absorbing individuals whose stories have an unexpected effect: they make me both proud and protective of people I don't know. In part, because as an adult I recognise something of my own experience in their stories. But, also because the medium I've relied upon as a channel for my creativity, and later my livelihood, is the same medium which makes some of them experience pressure of the kind I never had to experience as a kid. There's bravery stitched into those talking heads too and a defiance which, even as I type, can make the tears well up. If you've not seen them, take a look.

Off the back of the BBC Webwise videos, I've made a point of listening to the Radio 1 events and programmes dedicated to anti-bullying and just this morning watched the Anti-Social Media Live show on the Radio 1 channel on BBC iPlayer. I assumed I'd be shuffling uncomfortably from foot to foot, aware that this was something intended for a different group of people. It didn't take long before that was proved wrong and some other thoughts took their place, noted below.

1. There are some phenomenally natural Vloggers out there who exude warmth, passion and love for the online space they occupy. They are beacons for their primary audience and signposts for the rest of us.

2. The advice they offer is advice I could usefully follow myself given my weakness for Twitter and the rate I find myself distracted by Facebook, blogging and email. I like the idea that people younger than me can give me advice. It challenges my assumptions about the world and somehow makes it a more colourful, vibrant place to live.

3. That advice - the analogy of a troll being a little like a pig who likes to roll around in the mud; why would we want to roll around in the mud with them when only the pig enjoys the process? - is as applicable to the real world as it is to the digital space. Whilst we're pursuing a #nicerinternet, might we help shape a more positive generation?

4. If you're in a bad mood, having a bad day or considering saying something negative online, consider it through the prism of: would you say this to your friend's mother? It's the same sound advice as considering whether what you're about to say on Twitter would be something you'd be prepared to say live on the radio.

5. Not tolerating (or indeed condoning) cyber-bullying seemed the easiest advice to take on board: ignore, block and report. Something which naturally leads on to the question: why on earth would you do anything which might prompt someone to ignore, block and report you?

Jon Jacob is Editor, About the BBC Blog

Radio 1's anti-bullying programmes are available online at BBC iPlayer and on YouTube.
Read more about BBC Learning's Be Smart campaign.
For advice about internet safety visit BBC Webwise.

It's Technacool to make it digital

2015-01-26T09:30:00+00:00

Lyn Picken explains how the BBC is trying to teach some of our younger audience why a career in technology can be creative, fun and rewarding.

I love it when we open up our doors to bring audiences in to our buildings – it can be rewarding and fun to see people experience what happens behind the scenes and learn about how we do things. There are loads of reasons why we do this and our events can take many shapes and forms – sometimes we’re trying to understand what audiences want from us or how we can do things differently, for example, and other times we might trying to help people understand more about the way our programmes are made.

This week, on 28th January, we’re trying to help some of our younger audience know more about the different jobs people do to keep our online content going! Technology is hugely important at the BBC and we hope this event will help the next generation of IT experts understand more about what a technical career at the BBC could look like, and inspire them to choose IT related GCSE options at the end of this academic year.

It’s called Technacool and we’ve invited 80 girls in Year 9 from schools near our London sites; they’ll take part in various workshops based on real jobs – like how to fix an online Radio 1 film when it doesn’t look like it should or deciding whether or not to launch a new app. Some of the girls will be creating their own fantasy Strictly Come Dancing line up in a coding exercise and they’ll all be shown around New Broadcasting House on a Tech Tour.

Technology careers can be hard to picture, especially if it’s not something you have experience of, and they vary immensely. It’s rarely just people sat in computer labs or staring into screens. By giving the girls a short taster of a few different available career paths, we’re hoping they’ll agree with us that a technical career can be creative, fun and rewarding. There is still a gender imbalance in the IT industry and we’re hoping this will inspire some future female technologists.

BBC Future Media is the part of the BBC that looks after things like iPlayer, Red Button and BBC Online – basically, anything for our audiences who want to access and interact with BBC programmes and services through the internet. Across the BBC, we aim to be an inclusive employer and we value diversity – therefore, addressing the gender imbalance in the IT industry is a priority for BBC Future Media. We make the best products for our audiences when our staff reflect those audiences.

We’re really excited about the event and looking forward to meeting the girls and showing them what we do!

Lyn Picken is Diversity & Networking Inclusion Manager, BBC Future Media

Helping young people Be Smart online

2015-01-16T12:23:47+00:00

Capturing young people’s intimate thoughts on film can be a challenge, especially when we’re asking them to talk about sensitive subjects like the pressures they’re subjected to online. That’s why the Be Smart team at BBC Learning decided to take an unorthodox approach to marking Safer Internet Day 2015.

We’re installing a self-op video booth in a secondary school, so students can tell their stories on camera without all the usual film-making distractions. St Margaret Ward Catholic Academy in Stoke-on-Trent is the school taking the plunge, not because their students are any worse than other kids when it comes to online behaviour, but because they see internet safety as a big issue which they want to help us highlight. It’s a brave move, so huge credit should go to the students, parents and staff.

We’re doing this because all the research tells us that children and young people respond best to their peers. Whether they’re under pressure to take part in a dangerous prank, or to victimise someone, or whether they’re an online bully themselves, stories told by other young people are most likely to resonate and to help them cope, or change their behaviour.

The young people at St Margaret Ward are being invited to tell their personal stories: how they deal with online pressure; how they helped a friend get through a difficult episode; why they became an online bully... and what made them change. After an exhaustive compliance process, the stories will be posted online, along with links to BBC content and to external organisations that can give help and advice. We’ll be using the content on television and radio too, building it into films and radio output in the weeks following Safer Internet Day on 10th February.

It’s not the first time a video booth has been installed in a school for this reason, but we think it’s the first time it’s been done in the UK. In 2012, CBC in Canada ran a similar project, focusing on bullying. From a school roll of a thousand, 200 students made recordings. Some were very frank and moving and often positive and constructive too. Both the programme and website won numerous awards, and the school principal now frequently speaks about the positive effect of their involvement.

The Be Smart campaign is all about helping young people understand and deal with the pressures of being online. As well as the video booth, BBC Learning is helping Radio One produce a range of content fronted by hugely popular vloggers, including an hour-long live debate show. We’re also working with CBBC to make sure the issues are reflected on Children’s output ranging from drama to news – and we’ve commissioned a poll to provide us with a snapshot of how the issue affects young people across the UK.

Not only that, but we want famous BBC faces to tell their stories and to give their tips and advice about how to deal with online pressure. So after its week at school, we’re taking the video booth to BBC North at Media City in Salford so some of the famous faces there can tell their stories.

There are risks involved, of course. Who knows what kind of contributions we’ll get from the students. Perhaps we won’t get any at all. But if our experiment works, get ready to hear some frank and moving personal stories from the heart of The Potteries. I’ll let you know how it goes.

Sinead Rocks is Head of BBC Learning

Safer Internet Day is on 10 February 2015
Read CBBC's Safer Internet Day webchat
See BBC WebWise

BBC iPlayer and iPlayer Radio content now available for 30 days

2014-10-06T08:29:59+00:00

30-days-on-BBC-iPlayer--730x410.jpg

Today we announced that programmes on BBC iPlayer and BBC iPlayer Radio would now be available for a period of 30 days for catch-up listening and viewing.

In a press release issued on the BBC's Media Centre website, Director-General Tony Hall said: "BBC iPlayer pioneered online viewing. It is recognised as not just the first, but the best service of its type in the world. It offers amazing value. But we want to go further. That’s why we began reinventing iPlayer earlier this year with a brand new redesign and features. Extending the catch up window to 30 days now makes the best value on-demand service even better. We have a fantastic autumn schedule and the public will now have more opportunities to watch the shows they love."

Head of BBC iPlayer Dan Taylor-Watt provided some insight about the development and explained what the impact would be for iPlayer users. General Manager of the Radio Product, Future Media, Andrew Scott, outlined how the changes would effect radio listeners.

Paul Sawers writing for The Drum said of iPlayer: "there’s little question that BBC iPlayer has set the benchmark for what an online catch-up service should look like in the 21st century. Today, viewers and listeners place more than seven million TV and radio programme requests each day across the country, so by increasing the window to 30 days this can only lead to an increase in viewing."

CBeebies Playtime launch Furchester Hotel Game

2014-09-26T09:56:50+00:00

Filled with great games designed to aid child development and allow our young children to learn through play, the CBeebies Playtime App has reached 3 million downloads since its launch one year ago.

The latest update sees things get a little furry.

You may have heard that CBeebies and Sesame Workshop joined forces to produce ‘The Furchester Hotel’ - a children’s show set in an ‘almost’ world-class hotel run by a furry family of cheerful monsters. Chaos ensues, as you’d expect. Furchester introduces brand new characters, welcoming the beloved Elmo and Cookie Monster from Sesame Street. Coinciding with the show’s premiere this September, the CBeebies Playtime app launches a brand new Furchester Hotel Game in its latest update.

App users can explore the hotel and solve some monster problems, like making music for Elmo to dance to, or helping Furgus to drain a flooded room of water. There are different ways to solve each problem - even the silliest ideas might work.

To mirror the TV show, CBeebies Playtime’s Furchester Hotel game promotes and builds on open-ended problem-solving skills too. It focusses on the idea that there can be more than one way to solve a problem - encouraging the player to experiment with potential solutions, and even make mistakes in the pursuit of finding an answer. Whenever possible we’ve used playful animations for incorrect answers so the child doesn’t feel prohibited to take risks.

Each problem is fun-filled, and calls upon intuitive app features. Shake your device like a snow globe to create a blizzard for the Penguin Bobsled Team, or sing to Elmo and give him something to dance to. These features provide lots of opportunities for fun and engagement and are designed to encourage the little ones to play them again and again. We really hope they will love it.

That’s not all. The Furchester family are not the only ones to check into the CBeebies app.

New Alphablocks words: The Alphablocks ‘Word Magic’ game helps support the development of early year phonics skills. This update features a completely new set of words for kids to have fun making and reading. It also includes an added element giving children the chance to help the Alphablocks use their new word in a sentence too.
New Octonauts missions: Kids can expand their Octonaut Cadet Training with four brand new missions, guided by Kwazii and Pesco, exploring the ocean floor helping to rescue and protect creatures in need of help, including helping to clean a shark’s teeth.
New features to the Andy’s Dinosaur Adventure game: We have squeezed even more into the Andy’s Dinosaur Adventure game with two brand new features: play ‘fetch’ with their dinosaurs; and help Andy to keep the dinosaurs clean with a swipe action on their device creating soapy bubbles.

The CBeebies app has been played over 15 million times at an average of 9 minutes each time over the last three months… That’s a total of over 135 million minutes of CBeebies Playtime fun enjoyed by little ones across the UK. We understand summer is always a great time to be out and about, and family trips sometimes involve long car journeys. So we’re hoping we’ve managed to keep CBeebies fans entertained as they have been on the go this summer, with over 11 million app plays across July and August alone.

Over the next few months we’ll be working hard to add a very special surprise into the Playtime app, for little ones to get ready and countdown to Christmas.

And for you grown-ups… many of you have told us what you and your little ones love about the app, what their favourite game is and what you’d like more of. We really appreciate that feedback, so thanks for letting us know. We’re always interested in your suggestions and ideas. Please do leave a comment below.

Lucy Beckett is Content Producer, Children's.

The Furchester Hotel starts on CBeebies on Friday 26 September at 5pm.
Read a Q&A with the Furchesters and the performers on the CBeebies Grown-Ups blog.
Read more about CBeebies activities online on the Internet blog.

Coding and digital creativity - planning for 2015

2014-09-08T05:57:48+00:00

Last October, Director-General Tony Hall said he wanted the BBC to embrace one big education project a year. In 2014 it's World War One. I’m delighted to announce that in 2015, the BBC’s new Make it Digital initiative will shine a light on the world of digital creativity and coding. And that is exactly what we are going to do. But because there's so much to highlight we thought we'd start early, so at the start of the new school year for most, we are giving a taste of what we have planned.

The very first Make it Digital examples include our brand new Bitesize guides to support the new Computing curriculum that is being introduced in England. We're also launching relevant Computing content for pupils studying the subject in curricula across the rest of the UK. Our content supports both primary and secondary school pupils as well as their teachers and parents - all under the Bitesize brand for the first time. Alongside these BBC Learning projects we have some exciting children’s programmes coming out this Autumn that will help inspire our youngest audiences to discover the digital world and to take their journeys of digital discovery further. Dick & Dom's Absolute Genius will become Appsolute Genius, Technobabble will look at the technology which will shape children's lives, and Nina and the Neurons will go digital. You can find the full details here.

Why are we doing this? This generation of coders and computing creatives are standing on the shoulders of giants. The UK is the birth place of computer science, and pioneers such as Charles Babbage, Ada Lovelace and Alan Turing. We have just celebrated 25 years of the World Wide Web, created by Sir Tim Berners-Lee, and we are home to game-changing games makers and entrepreneurs like Michael Acton Smith from Mind Candy and Ian Livingstone.

And the BBC has history too: back in the Eighties we made a commitment to inspire a generation to get passionate about computing. We broadcast hundreds of hours of TV, created a new coding language, and gave millions their first taste of computing with the BBC Micro. It’s firmly rooted in our public service commitments and is exactly what the BBC should be doing. And in 2015 we want to capture the spirit of what we did with the BBC Micro, but this time for the digital age.

The potential for this country’s future is as rich as our past, but there are dangers. Martha Lane Fox estimates we are going to need a million more people working in the technology sector over the next 10 years – but right now many of our youngsters are lacking the digital skills they need.

A wealth of fantastic organisations are already inspiring the next generation. Organisations like Code Club, Free:formers, Apps for Good, Coderdojo, Technology Will Save Us and Code Academy; enablers like Nesta, Nominet Trust, the Mozilla Foundation, the iDEA initiative, and the Make Things Do Stuff movement; big companies like BT, Microsoft, Google, Intel and Samsung are all running wonderful initiatives. However, it’s a very different landscape to the one we had in back in the Eighties when we launched the BBC Micro. So we’ve been talking to people across the digital and educational communities to help us define what the BBC can usefully do here, and help us answer these questions:

What can the BBC do in 2015 which no other organisation can deliver?
What are the ways in which we can partner most effectively?

Partnerships are the key to our approach. By working in partnership with others we want to celebrate the rich heritage of this country, but we want to play our part in inspiring a new generation to get active with computing. And that has never been more important – it helps all of us be active shapers of our world, rather than passive consumers.

Our conversations have highlighted that the BBC should work with the industry, raising awareness and inspiring people to get interested in coding and digital technology.

In early 2015 we will be able to share in-depth details of what is planned and there will be something for everyone. We want to show audiences how Britain has helped shape the digital world and why digital skills matter.

We will harness the power of our biggest shows – we have so many much-loved programmes and characters that can play a role introducing people to coding and digital technology. There will be new commissions, too, including dramas and documentaries. We want to do what we do best – tell stories that inspire and move people.

We will celebrate the UK's digital heritage, raise awareness, and help some people to take their first steps into the world of digital.

All our activity will link to online resources that will help our audiences play, learn and share, with a digital hub bringing all of this activity together. There will be off-air activity too, particularly focused on children and young people. We want to help people to find the fantastic resources which already exist, including learning opportunities across the UK and online. And in some cases, the very best of what they create will find its way back on to the BBC.

There’s much, much more to come in the months ahead – including what we hope will be some life changing opportunities for school leavers so what we’re announcing today is just the start. With our partners we want to have a lasting impact and ensure we work with them to make a difference.

I hope this gives a flavour of how important this project is to us at the BBC and explains how we, and the industry, believe we can inspire people. I was asked to lead this project and pull it together so we, the BBC, can bring all of what we have to help highlight what is the future, to and inspire all our audiences to create the future.

Please do let us know what you think. We will update you as we build up to 2015 when we will have much more to share.

Jessica Cecil is Controller, BBC Make it Digital.

Read more about the new BBC computing resources.
Visit the BBC Bitesize website.
Read John Millner's blog 'Why Bitesize has changed'.

Why has Bitesize changed?

2014-09-03T10:51:00+00:00

The new Bitesize site brings together in one place all the BBC’s formal education content - not just the familiar Bitesize learner guides covering all the main secondary subjects, but also new primary guides and thousands of curriculum-mapped video clips for both secondary and primary classrooms.

Built on the latest technology, the new site is better designed, easier to use and easier to update. It will also work as well, if not better, on mobiles and tablets than it does on desktop and laptop computers, so you’ll be able to take Bitesize with you wherever you go and learn on the move.

The new Bitesize is now up and running with around 7,000 classroom clips in place – re-encoded at considerably higher quality. Also in place are most of the Secondary guides covering Key Stages 3 and 4 of the National Curriculum, and National 4, 5 and Highers in the Scottish Curriculum for Excellence.

You’ll also find the first of our new primary guides, supporting the new Computing curriculum at KS1 and KS2, as well as Computer Science content across all secondary levels.

All the content has been updated to bring it into line with recent curriculum changes, and you can now navigate much more easily - by Nation, by level (Key stage 3, National 4 etc) or by subject - to the topic you need. You’ll also find a much greater range of links to other online study support resources.

Migrating and transforming all our existing education content has been a huge undertaking, but we’re now racing to finish the job. Expect to see many more primary and secondary guides, plus new rich media, interactives and ‘personalisation’ features added to the site over the next 12 months.

In the meantime, if you’re looking for KS3 or GCSE content that we’ve not yet migrated to the new site, don't worry. It will still be available in its old location until we move it, and putting the level and subject you're looking for into a search engine should take you straight to it. If you have subjects from the old Bitesize site bookmarked in your browser, these bookmarks will still work, redirecting you to the new content if it’s already been moved.

We know that while we’re still in transition from old to new Bitesize there’ll be some rough edges and imperfections in the new product, but we will continually improve it. I hope you will tell us what you think using the feedback button on the new site’s banner, so that we can fix any problems. Once all BBC education content has settled into its new home, we’re certain our offer to school-based learners will be massively improved.

John Millner is Executive Producer, BBC Knowledge and Learning.

Read more about the new BBC Computing resources
Visit the BBC Bitesize website
Read more blogs about BBC Learning from John Millner

Our World War gets interactive

2014-08-14T08:00:00+00:00

Today we see the launch of a very exciting innovation, commissioned by BBC Learning, an experiment in immersive drama which is a world first – I want to use this blog to tell you more.

We have just passed the 100th anniversary of the start of World War One - a series of powerful commemoration events have reminded us of the sacrifices of those who went to fight and those who stayed behind, contributing to the war effort on the home front.

As you look at the photos of the soldiers who signed up, you can’t help but be struck by how young those involved were. As we look into their faces 100 years on we often ask ourselves one question; "What would it have felt like to have fought in WW1?" Answering that question was the challenge BBC Learning set itself when thinking about how we could use our new digital platform iWonder to support the major new BBC Three drama Our World War.

Working closely with the team who produced the main television drama, BBC Learning commissioned an entirely new format, an interactive fourth episode that puts audiences right at the heart of the action.

Set in High Wood, a particularly bloody battle of the Somme in 1916, the story follows a young corporal leading a small group of soldiers struggling to survive. Split over three acts, the interactive episode gives control of the corporal’s decisions over to the audience, challenging them to make choices that affect the lives of the men around them. These choices will change the course of the story, but they also carry hidden value as each decision is being measured as a series of scores that define how well each viewer performs as a leader.

Taking inspiration from the gaming and interactive media industry, including the now iconic Walking Dead and Operation Ajax, we wanted to experiment with creating a new format that could bring audiences even closer to the story. Audiences will have to make difficult decisions against the clock… and every second counts. We hope this mechanic will fully engage them in the story of these young men and also let them move seamlessly from viewer to participant, giving them an active role in the storytelling.

To create the interactive episode we have merged broadcast quality film footage with the visual grammar of gaming and animation in the form of digital “motion-comics”. By using techniques found in modern gaming experiences we have set out to create something very new, a hybrid between a TV programme and a game experience – an interactive drama.

This hugely innovative project is a BBC North based partnership between BBC Learning and Open Games teams working with MI, an interactive games agency based in Salford – you can read more about how that team developed this from my colleague Will Storer in the Open Games team who is writing a blog post tomorrow (Friday 15 August) for the BBC Internet Blog.

This is a real first for the BBC and we hope this pilot will inspire creative communities inside and outside the BBC to think up new ways of delivering drama to an audience who demand higher and higher levels of interactivity. I’d love to know what you think, check out the episode and please do leave me a comment below.

Tim Plyming is an Executive Producer for Science and History in BBC Learning

Play the interactive fourth episode of Our World War
Visit the BBC's World War One portal
Read Tim's blog A new BBC iPlayer collection: WW1 UNCUT
Read Marco Crivellari's blog about writing the interactive episode on the Writersroom website
Read how the interactive episode was designed and built

20 years and stronger than ever, how the internet changed the BBC

2014-04-09T11:41:05+00:00

Lucy Hooberman, Professor, Digital Media and Innovation at the University of Warwick, has been documenting the history of the BBC's online presence through a series of oral history interviews. Here Professor Hooberman explores just what being on the internet has meant for the BBC.

This week the BBC is marking the 20th anniversary of its publicly facing beginnings on the World Wide Web. From the launch of the BBC Networking Club in April 1994 and the appearances of the first publicly available websites this last 20 years has seen the BBC move from an age of scarcity - two channels only, to an age of abundance. Whilst the main push of the BBC’s technological challenge in the early years of this period was for digital television this post is all about what was achieved “online”.

But it’s hard enough remembering what the UK was like in 1994 let alone the world we lived in (Rwanda, Kurt Cobain). Try asking people what they did at work 20 years ago!

I’m lucky enough to be working with the BBC on bringing its oral history archive, started by Frank Gillard, into this era recording interviews with former and current BBC staff to chart this journey.

Recent though it feels it’s not that easy to reconstruct. It’s been eye-opening how many assumptions of mine have been challenged. First the assumption that in this digital age everything has been kept or is available for the public or for researchers of the future has been well and truly squashed.

Even paperwork I thought the ‘archive’ must have kept may or may not be there. I joined the BBC in 1993 and when I joined it was an organisation that thrived on memos. I’d never seen so much paperwork coming down from on high, 'cascading' commandments, directives leading to much filing and the assumption created in me that such an organised system of internal communications would have its mirror in complete and organised archiving. When I started this project it took a long time to find out that much or most of this period is not yet fully archived and whilst everyone was very helpful the only files I could see were about the Networking Club at the beginning of this period.

At least that was a very good start. When it came to looking for some of the early websites too that was a challenge, whilst some sites and designs have been archived and kept findable. This is a priceless clip of a web address being read out on TV.

The third area of challenge is, of course, memory. I’ve now had a taste of my own medicine as I’m being interviewed about a couple of films I produced in the mid 1980s which seem to have found some extremely late fanbase nearly 30 years on having been widely ignored at the time. My own archiving as an early Independent Producer sorely tested by moving job, moving house, pre-web days.

I’m hoping other material may be stored away in personal archives, hard drives, paper prototypes kept lovingly at home like the dusty photo albums of yesteryear. Anybody? And if you do have it where should it be kept?

The world of post-tape archive is complex not only for digitisation but choosing. What do you keep personally? Where do you keep it and how do you keep your memory as an organisation alive?

I started to think about this when I moved from television to "new media" in 2000. I came from participatory and access television and missed the contact with audiences of the television of the 1990s. The www brought it all back and I started to follow some writers. Bloggers - first military bloggers and Salam Pax then Dan Gillmor. Not forgetting the BBC’s own Euan "supernode" Semple and found again what I had missed in television since the early 1980s - discussion about the media and how our world was changing by connecting. I loved the phrase “writing ourselves into existence” and it gave me the push I needed to start working out why the BBC was not blogging. It took me a few years to get the BBC’s Journalism board to agree with a little help from a few friends. But that’s another story for another day...

Lucy Hooberman is Professor, Digital Media & Innovation, WMG University of Warwick.

Why there are no pictures of my daughter online

2014-02-11T15:23:55+00:00

I’m an avid Radio 4 listener so I’m thrilled that this week sees the return of Craven, writer Amelia Bullmore’s (who you’d recognise as Alan Partridge’s Eastern European girlfriend) crime drama. It’s a regular returning drama on Woman’s Hour and centres around DCI Craven, played by Maxine Peake, and her team.

Yesterday’s gruesome first episode of the series centred on the death of a young girl: “When two boys find the body of teenager Florence Henderson hanging from a tree in a wood, they post a photo of her suspended body to Facebook - alerting police and family.” But that’s not the only link the internet has to the case, as today’s episode reveals.

It’s no accident that the series has been programmed for this week – today is Internet Safety Day – and there are a series of spin off shorts to supplement the radio drama on the WebWise site to further highlight issues around internet safety.

It’s a theme close to my own heart – I’m lucky enough never to have experienced any cyber bullying – but apparently 1 in 3 internet users do. As the mother of a two-year-old however I’m highly aware that the physical and virtual world will be intrinsically linked for her in a way I can’t yet fully comprehend.

Like most of my friends and family I have an online presence on Twitter and Facebook – but I remain cautious about what I post, and have a rule that no pictures of my daughter appear on social media, much to some of my friends’ and family’s confusion. When I try to explain that it makes me uncomfortable and that we all need to think carefully about issues of safety around our ‘online existence’ they often roll their eyes like I’m being overcautious. I’ll certainly be directing them to this week’s Craven and our blog from Andrew Tomlinson about Staying Safe Online – it’s something that we all need to be thinking about in this day and age.

Hannah Khalil is Digital Producer, About the BBC Website and Blog.

Listen to Craven this week on BBC Radio 4
Read Staying Safe Online: Selling the Message