Today our new site has been launched, which contains the latest information and films about Life.

Please join us there; www.uniservity.com

We’re also now on Facebook! Like us at Facebook.Com/LifeIsAbout

Join the conversation on Twitter! Twitter.Com/LifeIsAbout   #LifeIsAboutLearning

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Leading the way in next generation learning technologies, the Life learning cloud is the mostly hotly anticipated launch of BETT 2011.

Bringing together the latest in cloud based thinking, this is an online learning solution that has been shaped by learners and teachers, and driven by innovation.

Read on to find out more about Life, by UniServity.

UniServity have been working in partnership with schools using the UniServity cLc learning platform for 10 years. During this time we have learned a great deal about the nature, style, stages and aspirations of users; ranging from children, through to teachers, leaders, parents and the wider school community.

This learning curve has enabled UniServity to understand how best to support schools in beginning their learning journey towards learning platform adoption, progressing through to embedded practice of using the learning platform to support and extend learning.

There are some schools who find this experience an easy one, and who see the opportunities for creativity and innovation easily. These schools tend to begin their learning platform usage quickly, focusing on the students, and who extend gradually to involve the rest of the school and the school community over time.  This is where our ‘mantra’ of “Start Small, Think Big” comes from.

For other schools, the experience is a more challenging one, and many schools find the thought of changing pedagogical practice a scary one, and the thought of using ICT often equally (if not more) scary. All of these fears can sometimes prevent teachers and leaders from even wanting to try using the learning platform.

So, to make the learning platform simpler to use, easier to understand and more exciting to experience, we have made some very significant changes to the technology behind it. This, hopefully, will inspire and encourage those that are fearful of beginning to explore the benefits available to them. These new developments will also certainly ensure that teachers, leaders and learners are all able to benefit from the latest technological innovations, and are able to bring the benefits of the global technology sector into every classroom and to every learner.

Because of this evolution, the morphing of the cLc learning platform into something more exciting, something more reflective of how we live our wider lives, is what we’re calling this “Life”. This means that all learners will be able to benefit from Life@School, on handheld devices, laptops, interactive whiteboards – in fact anywhere, and on anything, that you can get an internet connection on! It also means that teachers-as-learners will be able to benefit form Life@Work, and that the families supporting learners will be able to benefit from Life@Home. Most importantly of all, the learner at the centre, benefits from MyLife.

Life, reflects the learning that takes place every day, wherever you are; and importantly, whomever you are with. Life’s unique technology combines a vast range of Learning Cells (Webparts) which make up the range of different iterations of Life; Life@School, Life@Home, and MyLife.

“Why should……. where I live, which school I attend, where I work,

who I know, where I am, or what I can afford,

define the boundaries of my learning,

and therefore my chances in life?”

Life, is about Learning.

The Life Teacher Design Group came together for an exciting day shaping features for Life. There’s been a buzz ever since; mainly on Twitter, so have a look by visiting #LifeIsAboutLearning

You can also use Twitter to keep up to date with some exciting announcements and join us in celebrating the Fabulous learning achievements taking place in schools around the world who learn in partnership with  #UniServity

Our favourite quote of the day from one of our fabulous Teacher Design Group members; “I’m so excited about everything to do with Life, because Life really IS about Learning”.

In Life, everyone is a Learner.

“Why should where I live, which school I attend, where I work, who I know, where I am, or what I can afford,

define the boundaries of my learning, and therefore my chances in life?”

Whether you’re a child learning in school, a teacher learning through CPD, a parent learning through a community, or an employee learning through the workplace, Life makes learning possible. Here’s an advance sneak-preview of a couple of the features we’re most excited about…

Life Learning Exchange: enables all those using the Life learning cloud to freely share resources, connect together to form learning relationships, and join collaborative learning projects. Building on the best ideas from App Stores, Social Networking and eCommerce, this provides a quick and easy way to share, borrow, recycle or acquire resources, projects, courses, learning spaces and connections with other people or materials & content for learning.

Semantic Learning Engine: encouraging all those using the Life learning cloud to explore specific resources, content, activities, people, spaces, places and projects. Intelligently identified, Life suggests what is most suitable and relevant for the user’s specific needs and interests. The Semantic Learning Engine presents the intelligent search results simply as ‘You might like…’ in any (or every!) learning space.

Life Learning Analytics: enabling all those using the Life learning cloud to use resources more purposefully, in line with existing learning targets, goals, objectives, curriculum, levels and syllabuses. Life learning analytics provides intelligent reporting to inform and extend formative and summative Assessment for Learning principles.

Our Global Life Community already has millions of learners and millions of people who facilitate and support learning within it. This is what really makes Life special; wherever you are, wherever you live, whoever you go to school with or work with, Life provides opportunities for learning. Life opens the doors, you choose which you go through. If you’d like to find out more about the extensive Global Community that will be part of Life, have a look at our Innovative Teacher Network.

Watch this space for more sneak-previews from Life Labs!

One of the most exciting benefits of the Life Cloud is the opportunities that it brings to support children’s independent learning and empower children of all ages; from nursery to adulthood, to take responsibility for the logistics of their learning, and the reflection (assesssment) for learning.

For example, an exciting bit of development that has been happening this week is to combine Microsoft Tags with the resources within the Life Cloud.

If you have a Mobile Device, and 5 minutes to spare, you might like to explore this…  (I don’t want to spoil the surprise, but it’s worth doing…)

 or this 

Now imagine this being on a Visual Timetable in a Special School, going to a Film about what’s happening next, or next to the Sandpit in a Nursery class going to a soundclip of key questions to explore, or on a display board in the Science Lab for KS3 students to use for their experiment guidance, or on PE equipment that KS2 children are taking out of the cupboard showing how to move/use it, or around a KS4 History class leading off to knowledge sources.

This automation of  the ‘organisation’ of learning empowers the children to access and understand the ‘logistics’ of their learning activities, freeing up the teacher to focus on the important things; challenging children’s thinking, extending children’s understanding, supporting children’s specific needs.

This enables teachers and children to use the technology to help achieve things that are not currently possible; saving time and repetition. This, in turn leads to more time being spent learning, which makes for a more effective learning experience, and better quality learning outcomes.

As Jessica gets ready for school in the morning she checks MyLife on her handheld device. Having recently moved to the area Jessica is new to her school but is able to quickly see which lessons she has that day through her timetable, what materials she needs to bring with her to each lesson through her updates, which pieces of homework she should have submitted, and which assignments have now been marked and are available for her to see through her assessment space. Jessica is delighted that she has achieved high marks in both her effort and attainment in her recent science investigation and enjoys listening to the podcast feedback that her teacher has provided on areas for her to develop in future.

Yesterday during tutor-time, Jessica updated her profile to show that she is particularly interested in the forthcoming Olympic Games, and today when logging into Life again is delighted to see invitations for her to join Olympic Learning Spaces on Life, suggested Olympic films to watch, and activities to participate in, and suggested Olympic athletes who she can follow on Twitter, or engage with through Ask-the-Expert learning spaces. Jessica can also see that Life is specifically recommending an activity and support group for her to join based upon her Maths target for an area that she is struggling with as part of her functional skills maths development.

Given that she is struggling to find her way around her new school Jessica uses her handheld device to access Life so that she can see the virtual map created by the school council which has labels, films and annotations identifying which subjects are housed where on the school campus. She is also able to see the latest whole-school news bulletin for the morning on her My Life overview page, so that she is aware of the fire-practice due later that day.

Jessica arrives at her first lesson, which is part of her Society, Health & Development diploma line of learning. This lesson, Jessica’s group are video-conferencing with a nutritionist from Royal Hospital about some of the challenges surrounding healthy eating, as they have been exploring the impact of diet on the lives of young children from different socio-economic backgrounds. Prior to the video-conferencing session with the nutritionist Jessica’s group have been asked to take part in a discussion forum with each other to identify the questions that they already have, and to respond where possible to each other to filter down the questions upon which the nutritionist session will focus.

After her Society, Health & Development lesson, Jessica moves on to her English class where she is able to enjoy Shakespeare’s works by downloading the podcasts of the A Midsummer’s Night Dream scenes that the class are currently analysing to her iPod, from Life. Jessica notes that in A Midsummer’s Night Dream there are many elements of ‘fairy story’, a genre that she has been exploring in her Society, Health & Development work placement at a local infant school. As she is particularly enthusiastic about this genre, Jessica takes part in the themed debates in the forums within Life which look at themes within the play; specifically contributing to the fairy-tale debate! S Jessica is able to develop both creative writing and reflective learning through these themes, and so she also uses this opportunity to create a fairy story version of A Midsummer’s Night Dream using media-rich wiki pages in Life for the children in her work placement at a nearby infant school. Jessica takes advantage of the opportunities to embed graphic illustration and sound recording for young children alongside presentational text.

As a result of these activities developing a wide range of cross-curricular skills, Jessica is able to evidence and reflect upon her achievements in her MyLife portfolio, referring specifically to aspects of the PLTS framework, which can then be viewed and annotated also by her teachers and parents. In this way, Jessica is able to connect her learning in subjects such as GCSE English, with applied and work based learning in her diploma line of learning, and also her PLTS and functional skills, in one central place, for her own self-assessment, as well as for teacher assessment and parental engagement.