Lizzie Jackson

I’d like to tell you about joint BBC Children’s/University of Westminster research  on virtual worlds for children. Over the last two years the BBC Children’s production department has been working with the Belgian Public Service Broadcaster, VRT, on an immersive online 3D space which includes games and creative studios, for children. In January this year Richard Deverell, (Controller, BBC Children’s) had this to say about what was then called ‘CBBC World’:

“CBBC World is a good example of the way we need to go. The thing that interests me is that children are at the vanguard. And that is where we are taking Children’s BBC.”

Adventure Rock, as the service is now called, will launch in February 2008 and it is presently being trialled by children in a closed Beta Test. The children are sending through their comments to the CBBC message boards.

This is a year-long joint research project funded by BBC Future Media and Technology and the Arts and Humanities Research Council which began in July 2007, looking at how children engage with virtual worlds and studying  Adventure Rock from both an audience and producer’s point of view. The research will find out…

• How children create imaginary places and spaces in the real world
• How children want Adventure Rock to develop
• How producers should adapt the way they engage with children around the Adventure Rock ‘brand’ (service, website, message board, and so on)
• What parents think of Adventure Rock and whether the service changes their perception of Adventure Rock and/or virtual worlds

This ‘two-sided’ approach (audience/producers) has not been applied to research on virtual worlds before, and it is also the first time the BBC has run a structured commissioning round calling for research in partnership with academia. 

CONFERENCE ON VIRTUAL WORLDS FOR CHILDREN, MAY 2008: I will be presenting the findings from that research alongside presentations from producers and academics working in this area. The conference will be on Friday 23rd May, 2008, at the University of Westminster’s Regent Street campus in Central London. If you would like to find out more, email me at: Lizzie.jackson@bbc.co.uk As dissemination of the findings is a condition of the research grant, entry to the conference is likely to be either low or no cost. As immersive envronments/virtual worlds for children is a specialised area of interest the quality of speakers indicating they would like to attend is high.