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Twig World Limited
Company typeCurriculum based websites
IndustryEducation
HeadquartersGlasgow, London
Area served
Worldwide
ProductsTwig World, Tigtag World
Websitewww.twig-world.com

Twig World Limited is an educational company that offers digital content via a subscription service. The majority of its content is film-based, providing thousands of short (three minute) films. These are accompanied by learning materials for students and teachers. The service is targeted at students aged between 7 and 16.[1]

Twig films are created to cover curriculum content using documentary footage from major archives (including the BBC Motion Gallery, NASA, Science Photo Library, and Getty Images among others)[2] as well as self-produced graphics and animations.

History

Twig first launched its digital content at the BETT show in January 2011. Initially 250 films were available, covering aspects of chemistry, biology, physics and earth science. The films were around three minutes long and aimed at students aged between 10 and 16.

There are now thousands of 3-minute films available in science, geography and maths. Each film comes with support learning materials including transcripts, quizzes and downloadable images.

Prior to Twig’s public launch in January 2011, the company was known as LL Online. LL Online worked in conjunction with Learning Teaching Scotland.[3] To date, Twig has continued to work with Learning Teaching Scotland (now renamed Education Scotland), and renewed its contract to supply the resource as part of Glow (Scottish Schools National Intranet) for a further three years in December 2011.[4] Twig is known as GlowScience in Scotland and is available to all Glow users.

Twig has two UK offices, a digital production facility in Glasgow and a commercial office in London.

Products

Twig’s range of resources currently cover maths, science and geography totaling over 2000 films, all of approximately three minutes in length. They are made for teachers and pupils at Key Stage 2, Key Stage 3 and GCSE levels and their curriculum equivalents around the world.

Films are divided into “core” and “context” films. “Core” films are focus on key curriculum learning points, whilst “context” films cover real-life applications and extensions of the core learning points, as well as aspects of science history.

The films are produced in Twig’s production facility in Glasgow, using archive footage from a range of sources, including the BBC Motion Gallery, Getty Images, NASA, CBS, Science Photo Library and the US National Archives. Films are scripted to make them curriculum and age relevant and are produced in conjunction with content-relevant academics and educators. Animations, graphics and text are produced and incorporated into the films during post-production after which, voiceovers are added. Voiceover and graphics, as distinct tracks, are easily re-voiced, allowing for re-versioning into other languages.[5]

All films are accompanied by a set of learning materials. These include transcripts of the films, key learning points, photographic and diagrammatic resources, and handouts for pupils that include detailed notes on the topic, as well as quizzes and extensions questions. Learning materials vary with different products and subject areas.

Twig World

The secondary resources from Twig World are available via the website www.twig-world.com. Through username and password access, schools and pupils can stream film content from the site as well as access and download learning materials.

Twig Science

Twig's original product was a package entitled Twig Science. It is a subscription package that offers access for students and teachers to Twig's range of science films and accompanying learning materials.

Twig Maths

In September 2012 Twig launched an upgraded product Twig World. New content was added to support teaching and learning in Maths and Geography, relating curriculum content to real world events and stories. An additional 500 short 90-second films were also added defining key scientific terms in the Science Glossary.[6]

Twig Science Experiments

In September 2013 an additional 81 sets of films and learning materials were produced and made available on the Twig website.

Tigtag World

The primary resources from Twig World are known under the brand Tigtag. This content is accessible via the website www.tigtagworld.com. These resources are also aimed at school use, with film streaming, lesson plans, activity suggestions and interactive features available online.

Tigtag Science

Tigtag Science was Twig's launch product for primary and elementary schools, designed to support teaching of KS2 science and its global equivalents. This content supports schools through a comprehensive approach to science that contains i. science background for teachers ii. lesson planning ideas and iii. classroom multimedia content.[7]

Studies and reviews

University of Glasgow

An evaluation of GlowScience was carried out by the SCRE Centre and the School of Education at the University of Glasgow, with their final report being released in April 2011. The evaluation was commissioned by Learning Teaching Scotland and was conducted between October 2010 and February 2011, with part of its remit being to ascertain the extent to which GlowScience resources were supporting teachers and helping to engage pupils.

In the report, GlowScience resources “were deemed to be of excellent quality and of a high standard, trustworthy, suitably tailored for children and young people, and highly effective teaching and learning resources”.[8]

University of Lancaster

Research carried by Dr Don Passey, from Lancaster University’s Department of Educational Research in 2013, showed that Twig films make maths and science lessons more memorable in the longer term. Dr Passey’s research set out to explore some of the issues around learning science in relation to shorter and longer term learning. He concluded that there were strong indications that:

Video is particularly good for supporting understanding of concept-based topics (such as maths and science) Video is useful for supporting science concepts with those who have lower levels of interest in the subject Video is useful for supporting science concepts with those who start within a mid-range of test scores[9]

Press and Media

Various reviews of Twig resources have been published by educational press and online media. This includes reviews by practising teachers as well as educational experts, from publications such as the TES[10] and Teach Primary[11]

Awards

2011

2012

  • BETT Awards: Winner, Secondary Digital Content, 2012.[14][15]
  • ERA (Education Resources Awards): Winner, Best Secondary Resource or Equipment involving ICT, 2012. Finalist, Innovation Award category.[16]
  • Learning on Screen Awards: Winner, Courseware and Curriculum Award, 2012.[17]

2013

  • Teachers' Choice Awards: Winner, 2013.[18]
  • BETT Awards: Winner, Digital Collections and Resource Banks, 2013.[19]
  • EdTech Top 20: One of Europe's Top 20 Educational Technology Businesses, 2013.[20]
  • Education Investor Awards: Finalist, Exporting Excellence, 2013.[21]
  • Academics' Choice Award: Winner, Smart Media, 2013.[22]

2014

  • BETT Awards: Finalist, Primary Digital Content, 2014.[23]

Distribution

Scotland

In Scotland, Twig is available for free to all Scottish state schools via the schools' platform Glow. The product is known in Scotland as Twig On Glow (formerly Glow Science). This is possible through a partnership with Education Scotland (formerly Learning Teaching Scotland) as Twig On Glow.[24]

Rest of the UK

Twig provides its digital content to schools in the UK through an online subscription service, offered directly to schools and local authorities.[25]

International

In late 2011, Twig announced a partnership deal with Carolina Biological, making Twig's products available to more than 180,000 teachers and 15,000 schools in the USA.[26] This was followed in early 2012 by the announcement of a partnership deal with Benesse Corporation of Japan, with films in Japanese language being made available to students from April 2012.[26]

In 2012, Twig partnered with Santillana to distribute its products in institutions across Spain and Latin America. Santillana is the largest educational distributor in these areas with over 40,000 educational establishments and a 30% market share in Spain, Peru, Argentina, Chile and Colombia.[27]

Twig also distributes its content directly to schools in Australia and South Africa through its online subscription service. In mid-2012, Twig partnered with Doosan education publishers to distribute Twig in Korea through their home learning.[28]

Since early 2013, Twig has worked with Abril Educacao to distribute materials to schools and sistemas in Brazil.[29]

References

  1. ^ http://www.bettshow.com/page.cfm/Action=exhib/exhibID=261/PageOption=Rapport "BETT Show 2014 Twig World", retrieved 29 Nov 2013
  2. ^ http://twig-it.com/credits "Credits", retrieved 20 April 2012.
  3. ^ http://www.educationscotland.gov.uk/newsandevents/educationnews/2010/pressreleases/april/news_tcm4597240.asp "New education resources bring jobs to Scotland", 19 April 2010.
  4. ^ http://www.mynewsdesk.com/uk/view/pressrelease/award-winning-glasgow-company-renews-contract-with-education-scotland-736828 "Award-winning Glasgow company renews contract with Education Scotland", 28 February 2012.
  5. ^ http://twig-it.com/production "Production", retrieved 24 April 2012.
  6. ^ http://www.twig-world.co.uk/new-on-twig/#all-new-twig-content "New Twig Content", retrieved 29 Nov 2013.
  7. ^ https://education.scholastic.co.uk/content/24855 "Tigtag - Scholastic", retrieved 29 Nov 2013.
  8. ^ Elliot, D.L., Wilson, D., and Boyle, S. (2011) GlowScience Evaluation. Project Report. Learning and Teaching Scotland, Glasgow, UK, [1] p.8-9.
  9. ^ http://uk.prweb.com/releases/2013/3/prweb10470588.htm "University of Lancaster Research Shows That Learning with Twig Films Helps Make Science and Math Lessons More Memorable", Retrieved 29 Nov 2013.
  10. ^ http://www.tes.co.uk/article.aspx?storycode=6295234 "Branch out into Twig films - TESS", retrieved 29 Nov 2013.
  11. ^ http://www.teachprimary.com/tried_and_tested/view/tigtag "Tried and Tested, Tigtag", retrieved 29 Nov 2013.
  12. ^ http://www.medea-awards.com/showcase/twig "Twig: Medea Finalist 2011", retrieved 20 April 2012.
  13. ^ http://www.interactivemediaawards.com/winners/certificate.asp?param=90873&cat=1 "Winners", 19 January 2012.
  14. ^ http://www.bettawards.com/359721 "Winners 2012", retrieved 20 April 2012
  15. ^ http://www.agent4change.net/bett-week/news/1437-2012-bett-awards.html "New-generation ICT steps up for 2012 BETT awards", Maureen McTaggart, 11 January 2012.
  16. ^ http://www.besa.org.uk/documents/education-resources-awards-2012-winners-press-release/ "Education Resources Awards 2012 winners press release", 17 March 2012.
  17. ^ http://bufvc.ac.uk/events/learningonscreen/winners "Learning on Screen 2012 Winners", 27 April 2012.
  18. ^ http://www.theeducationcenter.com/tec/afc/learning/tca-classroom/websites-software/go.do "Teachers' Choice Awards", retrieved 7 Feb 2013
  19. ^ http://www.bettawards.com/2013_winners "BETT Awards 2013 - Winners", retrieved 7 Feb 2013
  20. ^ http://edxusgroup.com/edtech-20-rankings-unveiled/ "EdTech 20 ranking announced", retrieved 29 Nov 2013
  21. ^ http://www.educationinvestor.co.uk/awards/awardsfinalists2013.aspx "EdInv Finalists 2013", retrieved 29 Nov 2013
  22. ^ http://www.academicschoice.com/websites/tigtag.php "Academics' Choice Tigtag", retrieved 29 Nov 2013
  23. ^ http://bee-it.co.uk/blogslink/990-finalists-for-bett-awards-2014-announced "Finalists for BETT Awards 2014 Announced", retrieved 29 Nov 2013
  24. ^ http://www.mynewsdesk.com/uk/view/pressrelease/award-winning-glasgow-company-renews-contract-with-education-scotland-736828 "Glasgow company renews contract with Education Scotland", retrieved 29 Nov 2013.
  25. ^ http://twig-it.com/subscribe "Subsciption Options", retrieved 20 April 2012.
  26. ^ a b http://www.prweb.com/releases/2012/2/prweb9182195.htm "UK Start-Up Education Company Announces US and Japan Deals", 13 February 2012.
  27. ^ //www.besa.org.uk/news/twig-world-distribution-deal-with-spanish-language-publisher/
  28. ^ http://www.douclass.com/
  29. ^ http://www.educationinvestor.co.uk/(A(6q2z3DtIzgEkAAAANDNkMWZkYjgtNDRhYi00OTE2LThmODUtMGIzZmYxMDhjZThi4zqTmM4Zlg8VAJGbzCG08naeiuc1)S(txfcj43pminz5n450wxx5u45))/ShowArticleNews.aspx?ID=3181 "EducationInvestor Twig World moves into Brazil"
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