BrainPOP UK

classroom use

Context

For the purposes of this evaluation BrainPOP was used across Years 3-6, with the main focus being a mixed ability Year 6 class over a month. Mostly, it was used with the whole class, as part of the lesson, to support learning or to introduce a topic, but also for groups of children who needed more help with difficult areas of their learning.

Children also accessed it during wet lunch times under supervision. This product was nearly always used on the Interactive Whiteboard.

A colleague used it with her Year 3 class, especially in Science, to consolidate learning and for revision in a whole class context on an Interactive Whiteboard.

The whole school is wirelessly networked, using PCs and laptops, and the product worked successfully on all occasions.

Student Response

It is fair to say that the characters in the animations, Tim and Moby, (a boy and a robot) were loved a lot more by the children than the teachers! The boy does all the talking, and the robot makes an electronic beeping which I found annoying, but the children didn’t! As the same characters are in each of the films, the children get to know them and usually refer back to them when discussing the film afterwards. The familiarity is definitely a plus: the children seem to be far more engaged from this cartoon approach than with other products I have used in the past which use real people. The children remained interested throughout the whole film and did not get distracted easily. Additionally, they were usually eager to watch again, and to do the quiz at the end too.

Particularly useful during the trial was the section on Primary English, where many elements of writing, grammar and punctuation, were really helpful. Pupils were struggling with the correct way to use colons and semi-colons, but understood much better after viewing the film on this. The impact in their writing was immediate and they felt confident to try and use colons and semi-colons afterwards. I was very pleased. They said that the film really helped.

Younger children (Year 3), although they enjoyed the films, did report back that they would have liked more pictures to help them with the quiz, but this wasn’t an issue in any of the other year groups.

Personalisation

One of the main benefits of teaching using BrainPOP is that it embraces many different learning styles. Children have the visual element of the animation (which often shows some writing too – particularly in maths), which is fun and sometimes amusing; the auditory element, of the spoken explanations; and for children who find it difficult to sit still and learn using those elements, the action within the film is very helpful. As each film is very short and concise, it isn’t necessary to sit for long either. This gives greater opportunities for success for pupils with learning difficulties.

It is possible to fast forward or reverse each film, or to pause it. This function is useful as it enables total flexibility for the teacher: to go back over a part of the film, or to pause for discussion. During the trial, the children were always very enthusiastic for Talk Time, during the film. Pausing for Talk Time, also gives more able children the opportunities to discuss their understanding and extend it at their own level – especially useful when they are paired together.

The quiz provided for each animation can be taken at any time, independent of the film. There are three options: do the whole quiz and receive a score at the end; receive feedback after each question, or print off the quiz. Printing off was very useful when time ran out, as it could be given for homework! This was a very popular type of homework!

Assessment and pupil tracking opportunities

This product is not specifically designed to provide assessment, although it does provide opportunities for doing so, through the 10 question quizzes provided for each of the films. In all of the films used during the trial, I considered the questions to be well selected and relevant to the topic. The children in Year 6 found them quite easy, if completed immediately after watching the film, but not so easy if done at a later time. Some Year 3 children found the absence of pictures, to help with the quiz, a drawback.

The quizzes can be done in three different ways:

1. A graded quiz, where the score and answers are given at the end.

2. A review quiz, where each question is reviewed as you proceed.

3. A printed out quiz.

Every option is really catered for here, including the facility for children to email their answers to the teacher for review later. This does mean that the quiz could be used as a short test and therefore used for assessment.

Other than by emailing the answers, no record is stored of the results, and once the page is closed down, the results are lost, but as this isn’t designed as an assessment software facility, I don’t see this as a drawback.