Educational Broadcasting 2020

With a background in production I can assure you that good programmes are completely wasted if they are shown on the wrong channel or in a poor or inconvenient timeslot.

IMO if the BBC was genuinely serious they would have created a brand new channel then heavily promoted it on BBC1. Second choice BBC2.

I asked the question whether anybody here has children and I assume that the answer is no as there haven't been any replies to it.

As I have previously stated, the BBC has a longstanding heritage in producing educational programmes relating to the school curriculum but is venturing into uncharted territory by offering them directly to children rather than to teachers on a linear TV channel as it is something that they have never done before.

It could be argued that attempting to offer educational programmes relating to the school curriculum directly to children on a linear TV channel is primarily designed to cater to a small (but not insignificant) fraction that do not have the internet at home.

I would prefer to have reviews of the service by families with children who are using it.

If I had my way then I would have dug into the archives and broadcast wildlife programmes, history documentaries, etc. on BBC2 rather than programmes specifically connected with the National Curriculum. Some of these would have been BBC Schools programmes but others just general programmes.

Children of key workers who are still going to schools aren't being taught National Curriculum subjects but are just playing on computers and reading books and watching videos of THEIR liking - or even just lounging around!

Some schools have set homework for the lock down period but children are under no obligation to do it.

If children want to study National Curriculum subjects at home during the lock down then they should be at liberty to do so, but if others just want to watch videos about the Amazon Rainforest or play Minecraft all day then there should be no problem with it.

Now you want a whole new channel? What a joke. Anyhow, the red button channel is effectively what that is anyway, but more important here is it's delivery as an iPlayer channel where you can choose the content based on your childs age.



And that would have been absolutely useless.

Children are under no obligation to study National Curriculum subjects during the lock down.

Why not offer them casual and fun education instead to pass the time?

France Télévisions are also providing schools programming, broadcast on France 4, which for most of the day is now providing output based on age groups, along with an educational entertainment show, La Maison Lumni for 8-12 year olds on France 2, 3 and 5.

I don't see the actual subjects being dumbed down being taught to children, but more akin to what they're used to in school, while La Masion Lumni is more light hearted, but with education at the core of the output.

What I've seen of the Bitesize output, which was a Year 8 show with Katie Thistleton was fully supported by teachers as guests, mixing the fun side of CBBC, with accessible teachers who are really providing the educational aspect.

Interesting finding. I have wondered how other countries are handling the lock down when it comes to education. Does France Télévisions usually provide educational programmes relating to the school curriculum directly to children on linear TV channels?

Lumni, formerly France TV Education provides online tutorials for teachers and students. The tv output during lockdown is in addition.

You can watch some of the lessons shown on France 4 at https://www.lumni.fr/serie/la-maison-lumni-primaire

To be fair - it's an awful situation for Teachers. As with school still open for key workers + lord knows how much of your class not obligated to come to school, how do you keep everyone on the level? You could use email or online to deliver content, and potentially test the learning using online platforms - but there's a fair chance those not coming to school will be behind whenever they do return. You teach the current kids too much and the non-essential working families will feel their kids have essentially been robbed of education time ect. Which then creates a new issue for after this all ends. But that's out of the beebs remit and a whole other issue.

I am surprised the BBC isn't showing more of their nature docs tho. BBC America uses edited and redubbed versions of their nature archives all the time. I remember I always liked the nature docs when they were a regular part of BBC 1 during the holidays in the 90's - they are not structured like lessons sure, but it's still good for kids to see how different one species lives to another.

Heck even outside the Educational blocks - you used to have great shows like Art Attack, How2, It'll Never Work, Tomorrows World and SMart - which were more entertaining but def had educational value. Does modern ITV or CBBC really have anything like these shows anymore?

Art Ninja on CBBC.

CBBC has quite a few factual shows with educational value like Absolute Genius, A Week to Beat the World, All Over the Place, Operation Ouch, Art Ninja, Craft Party, Deadly 60... and of course they have the excellent Horrible Histories.

On CBeebies there are too many to mention and they're pretty much all really good.

Yes. We're watching the Bitesize Daily stuff on iPlayer on the telly at a time that suits us, and then using the website to go further into the bits that are of more interest.

I don't think interrupting the schedules of any of the main linear channels would benefit us.