BBC in a fruitless Jam…

Posted on | March 15, 2007 | 10 Comments

Young learners across the UK will, at the very least, have to wait longer now for the superb resources being produced by the BBC under their innovative and exciting Jam project – at worst, they may never get access to them at all. The BBC has reluctantly decided to suspend the programme for the moment.

Why?

Because a few shortsighted software and services companies in the UK have decided that the £150m spent on Jam is damaging their market, and this despite the already large chunk of this budget that was, completely unnecessarily, in my opinion, shunted away from the BBC itself towards private sector suppliers after an earlier court case.

Many of these companies claim that they are in business to support education – their actions over BBC Jam speaks volumes, I’m afraid. I count many of the people working for these companies as friends and colleagues, but I think they are mistaken – badly mistaken – in their actions over this issue.

Unfortunately, the broadcast and print media (apart from the BBC itself) is likely to take some pleasure in the BBC being whacked about the head like this – I just hope that many of those involved in bringing things to this state of affairs will recognize their own part in generating the opprobrium that may now fall on the BBC. I believe that the intentions behind Jam were not just honourable but genuinely forward-thinking, public-spirited and inspirational – it is a pity to see such virtuousness felled by the base instincts of the market.

The BBC’s digital curriculum has the potential to offer UK education a unique asset, one that has many other countries around the world salivating at what was on offer – we lose out on such genuinely useful educational materials at the expense of our own children’s educational experience.

And that includes the children of the people in the companies that have forced this suspension of BBC Jam….!

Postscript – My on-the-ball colleague, Ewan McIntosh, has already highlighted some of the early brickbats being thrown at the BBC – they are being thrown at the wrong target – and those doing the throwing are unlikely to have the best interests of education in the UK at heart. The BBC needs the support, now, of all of those across the country who recognized the virtue and sound ethics of BBC Jam from the start.

Technorati Tags: bbc jam, uk education

Category: business, content, education

Comments

10 Responses to “BBC in a fruitless Jam…”

James Penny
March 16th, 2007 @ 12:07 am

John, as a regular reader of your blog and committed educationalist I whole heartedly concur with your comments. I too count people working for the education companies involved as colleagues and friends. Their companies betray themselves badly in this action. I am deeply saddened on behalf of the youngsters who were using the resources.
BBC Jam suspension drama « Pyson’s blog
March 16th, 2007 @ 2:42 pm

[...] Michael Arrington, Techcrunch Rose Luckin, Futurelab Ewan McIntosh John Connel [...]
Nick Kind
March 16th, 2007 @ 5:52 pm

John, as I’ve said to you in a PM, the media is also only telling half the story about the private sector. The BBC is legally obliged to commission half of BBC Jam’s content from private production companies. Often small organisations, these companies are working at the cutting edge of the new media, creating original and highly worthwhile material for Britain’s children – which will be made available to them for free. In the media, “the private sector” has become shorthand for “one particular set of commercial interests”, missing the vital point that one industry is being built while another stutters.

BBC jam has led to some great material, much of which hasn’t yet been published – the most challenging, intellectually demanding and creative work that I have ever done in ten years of working to create electronic learning materials for children. To lose this – and the chance of creating more – would be unspeakable.

See my other post at: http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/03/14/bbc-may-be-stifling-startups-suspends-bbc-jam-following-complaints/#comment-1232748
John Connell
March 16th, 2007 @ 6:07 pm

Good to hear from you, Nick. One particular set of commercial interests is absolutely right in this case. The Guardian points to some of those who don’t belong to this particular set, and who are very unhappy with the suspension.

If I may, Nick, I’d like to highlight your comment in a post.
John Connell: the blog » Blog Archive » For ‘private sector’ read ‘one particular set of commercial interests’!
March 16th, 2007 @ 6:28 pm

[...] BBC in a fruitless Jam…03/16/2007 06:07 pm5 Comments [...]
Nick Kind
March 16th, 2007 @ 6:28 pm

John: post with my permission. Nick
Laurie O’Donnell: The Blog » Friday again already
March 16th, 2007 @ 10:26 pm

[...] Five mornings and three afternoons in Glasgow as well as afternoons in Edinburgh and Dundee. A lot of time taken up with internal LTS meetings; Glow and Schools ICT programme boards, corporate management team etc. An interesting meeting in Edinburgh Council’s new offices in Waverley Court to discuss personal ICT (The Learning Hubs project) and agree the next steps. Also chaired my first meeting of The Scottish Learning Festival steering group and was delighted to see that programme is just about ready with Stephen Heppell, Michael Fullan and Mick Waters already signed-up and over 150 seminar presenters secured. Out of the office the main news was the BBC Trust decision to suspend BBC Jam. My former colleague John Connell has posted on the subject and there is not much more I can add. The Â£150m of wonderful digital content that was promised appears to have been lost for the moment. It will be interesting to see what happens to resources promised to support Gaelic, modern studies and other aspects of the curriculum in Scotland. [...]
Peter Evans
March 20th, 2007 @ 3:41 am

Not only has the BBC suspended its “BBC Jam” Digital Curriculum service but from the end of March the production of the educational TV programmes that BBC Jam was intended to replace will also cease and the staff associated with them will be made redundant. It was hoped that they would be resettled over in the hitherto expanding BBC Jam service, but not now, so it looks as if these key staff will be lost to the BBC. More serious is that the suspension of BBC Jam and the stopping of school TV production at the same time means that the BBC now actually makes no formal education provision at all for children and schools. I know the BBC Trust has asked for “..fresh proposals for how the BBC meets its public purpose of promoting formal education in the context of school age children”, but by the time this is completed, many key TV production staff will have been sacked. Time to make a fuss, write to MPs, etc.
David Ramsay
March 21st, 2007 @ 12:15 am

Re Peter Evans – Time to make a fuss.

Done, my complint ahs been submitted to my MP
Marie
April 2nd, 2007 @ 12:08 pm

What a shame as it’s the children who are suffering. My son used this site to help support his learning and as a BBC TV licence holders who does not watch the BBC, at last I felt I was getting something from the compulsory Â£130 licence fee. I teach ICT and develop eLearning materials and I have to say that the quality of the site was excellent when is it coming back?