Jam runs out on Tuesday

I learn that the BBC Trust has bowed to pressure from the UK's "educational software industry, and 'suspended' the Jam digital learning service. Lewis Bronze; CEO, Espresso Education, is quoted in the Register;

"The opportunity provided by broadband technology should allow a torrent of educational content to flow - instead, the BBC's current proposals will give us a desert. The BBC's current proposals for their free to air digital curriculum will massively curtail the choice available for schools. Using £170 million of the public's licence fees destroys a competitive market, deprives children and teachers of choice
and diversity, and kills off the UK educational software industry."

My view has always been that Jam is/was a good attempt to make personalised, learning centered resources, freely available for independent use at home and school. Ian Usher E-Learning Co-ordinator, Buckinghamshire County Council gets straight to the point;

"I'd say that BESA has inadvertently kicked the learner in the teeth here. It would have been great to put things in the hands of learners (as part of our ePortfolio developments) which let them control their learning,"

Perhaps we should ask Mr Bronze, if he is at all concerned about the implications for pupils and teachers, of the statement posted on the the Jam site, (below). I wonder how he feels about people who 'delete/lose my work'?

The argument put forward by Lewis Bronze and BESA (British Educational Suppliers Association) is of course, choice.  Choice, as we all know from the school places debacle, can mean many things to many people.

Perhaps, as a result of this, schools will begin to realise they have other (and possibly better) choices available. These include; the choice to use  free online, creative, social and collaborative tools, the choice to use open source software including learning platforms. Schools also have the choice to access the wealth of digital assets available under a Creative Commons license. I suspect you won't find  much CC licensed 'content'  in the offerings from BESA members.

In contrast the UK " education software industry" is happy to accept revenue from the public purse in the guise of eLCs (eLearning Credits), for software apparently not always wanted or needed by schools. Thanks to Ian Delaney for this link.

It is probably far to early to predict how all this will turn out, but with a bit of luck those who brought about the suspension of Jam may have shot themselves in the foot.

Comments

[Timothy]

Now this really is sad! I'm sure all these free marketeers are happy with the death of BBC Jam but what of our children.

Jam was free. My kids used it.

It catered for all needs and abilities and even those whose first language was not english. It had already built up a loyal following.

Go to www.bbc.co.uk/jam and see what the country's commercial interests have done to our childrens educational needs.

Hope you are all proud!

[John Connell]

The characters involved in bringing about this state of affairs should be ashamed of themselves. Unfortunately, one or two of them have never known shame in their lives - market opportunity is their only ethic!

[Ian Delaney]

Bronze was one of the primary profiteers from - and I don't use that word lightly - and instigators of eLCs.

[John Davitt]

I get the feeling I'm out of kilter with the general view here but I thought that Jam ran in the wrong direction from its earliest days. For an organisation like the BBC with such a unique set of resources and archive to start making content afresh a la mode was always going to be the disappointment it proved – whatever happened to the digital curriculum of rich open resource we had dreamed of- summat you could copy and paste in a homework? I'm not even sure our children will be much poorer at its demise and that is very worrying given the amount spent. I know the BBC were hamstrung by the technocrats but even more worrying that they went for that ground.

I agree that the last thing we want is the likes of the commercial offerings to gain any market ascendancy as a result ..creative commons and open source need proactive recommendation from the likes of BECTA now and schools need regular updater content banks and links perhaps shock horror even on CD-ROM or DVD. eLCs what a disaster.. are they scrapped yet? Scrap them now if not. A bit like NOF and Whiteboards really in education the centre keeps making mistakes and ignoring the wisdom of the chalkface

Afraid I didn't find the article by Lord Puttnam in yesterday's Guardian so wonderful either it smacked a little of a media coterie protecting its own – Isn’t 173,000 users a tiny figure given the spend. The BBC content should have been chunked, tagged media rich and downloadable and it should have been able to have been used in ways the BBC (even in their infinite wisdom) never imagined for that is the true test of good resource . Instead they went after the middle ground of fatuous flash "interactive learning" in imagined zany so 1990s formats and in part as a result paid the price.

I think the BBC should use this experience to really engage with teachers, learners parents and others about the unique work they could do. That's enough from me I've not blogged in ages - sure it will get me into trouble J

[John Davitt]

Just couldn't resist the maths on Jam.. 150 million for 173,000 registered users = 867 pounds each - they could each have had a Playstation 3 & a PDA instead! That's it I'm done J

[John Davitt]

Morning Theo
just noticed my comment on your blog above turned into a bit of a longer story than I had intended ..apologies
feel free to delete it (and this can't find an email for you and I'll write a shorter more appropriate comment to what you had already written
I'll start me own blog up again for the diatribes in the future ...honest
Keep up the good work
Yours
John

[Theok]

Hi John
Thanks for your comments,(always appreciated). I understand the viewpoint you take, and put in that way the numbers do ask questions. As far as I am aware the BBC has spent about half, but when undertaking a project the true value may or may not be apparent at the half way point in time or money, (what is/was still under wraps? development?. Therefore I am still internalising the 'real' value/cost of the suspension of jam. It would also be interesting to have a guess at the number of registered/unregistered users.

I also agree with your points on 'fatuous' use of Flash for learning and that the BBC needs to interact with teachers, (and possibly even more so, learners).