Ultralab's first projects involved developing new multimedia CD-ROM
based materials to support learning. Ultralab coorodinated and produced
the CD-ROMS for the Renaissance higher education project sponsored by Apple in the late
1980's and early 1990s. These were amongst the very first multimedia
CD-ROMs developed by higher education to support courses and degree
programmes.
In the mid 1990s, Ultralab turned its attention to the
internet and developed online community projects which explored the
success factors for building learning online in schools, higher education,
industry and in the home. These projects ranged from
longitudinal studies with few partners to substantial projects
involving hundreds of schools.
As the internet matured, this
experience and know-how allowed Ultralab to help organise the Tesco
SchoolNet 2000 project which empowered hundreds of thousands of young
learners to publish on the web, winning a Guiness Book of Records award. Many other explorations discovered how
these lessons may be applied in health education, language learning and
other fields. Meanwhile Ultralab worked with Oracle to develop the
Think.com free online community service for schools worldwide.
When the
call came in 1999 to build an online college for head teachers (school principals), Ultralab
responded rapidly, creating the Talking Heads online community for 1,200 newly appointed heads. This
was augmented by Virtual Heads - an online community for aspiring
head teachers and grew to support all head teachers in England.
Subsequently these projects were novated to the newly established
National College for School Leadership at which time there were 30,000 head teachers involved.
Throughout this period,
Ultralab was busy developing multimedia online resources for
learning, continuing the early ventures to create delightful learning.
A major project with the Royal National Lifeboats Institution resulted
in a web site with audio-visual stories from many of the people who
rescue sea-farers as volunteers, designed to make an impact on young
learners who don't know about these everyday heroes. In 2003, Ultralab
worked with Childrens' BBC to explore the notion of young children as
tv producers. This work was based on the massively successful
international Summer School work which developed DVD disks to
demonstrate the emerging capability amongst young people to make film.
Assessement innovation has also been a more recent development, with
the QCA and Orange sponsored eVIVA project developing online portfolio
and formative dialogue between pupil and teacher culminating in
examination conducted over the telephone. Ultralab has developed new,
graphical and web-based judgement tools to support reflective thinking
about learning behaviours for young people.
Much of this work has been applied in our inclusion projects, of which
Notschool.net has made the greatest impact. Designed for teenage
learners for whom school does not fit, Notschool.net has created an
environment which has successfully transformed young lives and rebuilt
confidence in learning. The vast majority emerge with certificates due
to the project's 'post-hoc' assessment process.
Re-examination of learning in an online context has also led to a close
look at the physical environment - Ultralab has completed research into
the new opportunities to include ICT in new build projects, sponsored
by the UK's Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment.
Ultralab's current (2006) major project is Ultraversity - a new
undergraduate degree delivered through community online, action
enquiry, negotiated learning in the workplace and exhibition. Developed
in early 2003, Ultraversity has successfully recruited 400 students and
so far 140 have graduated with honours degrees. Ultralab's research
findings have been communicated directly to stakeholders by involving
them in the projects as co-researchers - in addition, personnel from
Ultralab have been international key-note speakers at conferences and
are published in diverse media, including television, radio and
academic journal.
