Education Projects for 2008
Bow Street Runner is an episodic online casual game hosted on Channel4.com, which delves into the world of 1750’s Georgian London; allowing you to explore this world through the eyes of one of Henry Fielding’s Bow Street Runners.
This project compliments the Specialist Factual commission ‘City of Vice’, but has taken the historical and educative value in understanding the environment and culture that thrived in Covent Garden in the late 18th Century, and adapted this into a playful, engaging, experience for our 14-19 year old audience.
This game offers the player a historically accurate experience of what life was like in a time before there was any real organized police force, and shines a light on the consequent criminal practices and vice that existed; thus allowing the player to discover why there is a need for a structure of law and order.
By playing the game, teens must try and solve crimes, collecting evidence and using their skills both in terms of game-play, and reasoning, to be able to present their ‘casebook’ of evidence to try and secure convictions.
By playing the game, teens must try and solve crimes, collecting evidence and using their skills both in terms of game-play, and reasoning, to be able to present their ‘casebook’ of evidence to try and secure convictions.
Launch Schedule
Slabovia.tvis a cross-platform project looking at incorporating television with user-generated web content in innovative and unconventional methods.
This project draws on the success of the previous KNTV television series commissioned by Education, which addressed the areas of science and philosophy through using zany archive footage, guided by two animated teenage characters, Kierky and Nietzsche from the fictional state of Slabovia.
This same format will be used in a ten-part TV series, KNTV Sex, covering all the relevant biological, cultural, historical, and practical issues related to sex education and relationships. Further to this, the fictional Slabovia broadcaster will also be moving to the web, in a participatory comedy project encouraging teens to upload their own ‘Slabovian’ content to the internet, to help them discover new ways of approaching various educational topics such as conducting fun science experiments. The teen audience can be drawn into this fictional world by following a calendar of events that will draw comedic parallels with the real world.
Launch Schedule
Now live at
slabovia.tv
Yeardot, Channel 4’s interactive education project following a group of fifteen 16-20 year-olds for a year, launched on TV this autumn.
Since the project began on June 30th 2008, the audience has been following the lives of the teens online via blogs and video diaries and are encouraged to offer help and support to them as they try to achieve their goals for the year. And now, in the first of three ten-part series, they can watch them on TV.
16-year-old Sam from Frome in Somerset is desperate to represent the UK at Eurovision. Will he be able to write a new song to get him past the first selection stage? And will 18-year-old female wrestler Chloe get herself on track for the 2012 Olympics? And will 20-year-old Claire, standing as one of the youngest female Labour Party candidates, be able to convince people in the Tory heartland of Skipton and Ripon that she’s a credible choice and balance her political work with getting a decent degree from York University?
These are just some of the real life stories the public and the Year Dot production team are following online and on TV, testing how far social networking can help achieve ambitions as well as providing an insight into the diverse journeys of fifteen inspirational young people.
Launch Schedule
The Insiders is a careers information project using short-form comedy developed from the real life work blogs of individuals across various professions, ranging from a policeman to an aspiring fashion designer. This project will span both web and TV to help 14-19s understand the ins and outs of working life beyond just the more formal job descriptions normally available.
Launch Schedule
The Insiders is now live at The Insiders
Battlefront
Battlefront is a nine-month interactive project focusing on the endeavors of 20 teens as they do their bit to change the world by campaigning for issues they care deeply about. The diverse mix of campaigns range from fighting knife crime on the streets of London, to promoting random acts of kindness. Battlefront kicked off online during August with teens invited to compete for the chance to be selected as Battlefront’s 20th Campaigner and this autumn will launch on TV.
In the first of two five-part series for broadcast this December viewers will get a chance to see what some of the group have achieved since starting their campaigns.
The Battlefront campaigners will utilise the power of their social networking skills to grow their campaigns. Viewers will be able to immerse themselves in the projects by sharing in the latest news, blogs and video diaries online, as well as reading top tips and advice from the Battlefront Mentors.
Battlefront can be found online at Battlefront and on TV in December.