Digital Mysteries: Chugley Film Club is a unique app for 11-16 year olds which allows pairs to work simultaneously on one iPad on a task designed to help with media/film/marketing studies.
This resource helps students apply their knowledge of the concept of target audience and demographics. They do this through the scenario of Mr. Spine, who lives in a village called Chugley, running the local film club. Students are asked to help him decide on a suitable film for the other residents.
Users move through an easy-to-follow, three stage process – they must first read all the slips, organise them into groups, then move to the final stage where they lay out the slips in a chain and use sticky tapes and notes to help make sense of everything. It is hoped that this will help students to identify the different factors, such as income, education and age that are taken into account by the marketing industry, and consider how these things could influence a decision-making process such as this.
Before the students are introduced to the material, a homework task could be set to ask them to compile a broad list of films of various genres and types. They could form the basis of their choice as they would then be able to discuss and comment upon these in class. If more research is needed, the class could have online access to resources such as IMDB.
As well as the main question, there are additional sub-questions which help students break down the task or encourage them to think about specific points.
After students have finished, they type in their answer then have two possibilities – they can either print or share a colourful PDF of the session with screenshots or even go through the Reflection Stage, which invites them to play back their activity and discuss it with each other/their teacher.
Who is the app for?
The target age range is 11-16 year olds, it can vary depending on ability level and where they are in their learning progress. The app comes with three levels to make suiting the task even easier:
Easy– students are given a lot of information on the village of Chugley including the age and occupations of some residents. This is so they can assess what demographics there are, then discuss and match up suitable film choices.
Medium - additional slips are included to help students focus on the economic profile of the people of the village, and its appearance as a very up-market place, although with a sizeable number of people on an average income. They could be encouraged to ask what assumptions could be made about the tastes and habits of wealthier people.
Hard - the brightest students may want to extend their consideration to the possible political views of the population, and whether this would suggest a more liberal audience, or a more cautious/conservative (with a small c) one.
What’s different about Digital Mysteries?
• Truly collaborative: It is unique in that more than one student can interact with it at once
• Record of learning: Students can interact and have fun with exciting technology, then generate a printable PDF report of their session which shows what they’ve done
• Reflection: Sessions are automatically recorded so students can playback and discuss what they’ve done, emphasising the importance of the process as well as the outcome
• Engagement: Working in pairs adds to the fun experience of problem-solving
• Research: We’ve done years of academic research on how to make the most of touch screens for learning in general, and collaboration specifically
How can I try other mysteries?
At the bottom of the app details tab, tap ‘Developer Apps’ to view our current range. There are apps for various subjects including computing, mathematics, science, citizenship and Shakespeare plays Romeo and Juliet, A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Macbeth’s Influences.