Welcome to Bett 2010. This year we want to take the covers off our very secretive R&D team and preview our next generation learning platform, Life.
Over the past 10 years we have gained a considerable amount of experience in the learning platform space. We have seen this space evolve from basic learning platform technology, into connected learning communities and onwards. Through the success of our existing product, the cLc, we have gained a substantial learning community who are using our platform as part of their daily learning and teaching routines. The usage of this platform and its global presence gives us an insight into the world of the learner and from this we have been able to get a view of what next generation learning needs to provide. Our existing product has evolved, people are using it in ways we never thought possible. It’s now time for us to raise the bar and provide an infrastructure that supports our life in the cloud.
Life is a a brand new architecture. It is a cloud based environment that enables users and organisations such as schools to have maximum, choice and flexibility. It provides a platform, environment and ecosystem to deliver choice to your learners. Life is a cloud of resources, learning cells and apps that can be organised and customised around me as a learner or me as a teacher. Life is comes with an SDK that enables you or your partners the ability to create your learning cells and apps.
The life learning cloud is based on the very latest web technology and social networking concepts. It embraces approaches and media types that will become even more important as we progress into 2010 such as video, social networking, digital content, cloud based apps and rich user interfaces for multi device types. Learning cells and apps can be broken down into different flavours allowing the cloud to branch outside the school gates and provide Life@home, life@work, MyLife.
Above all Life is a community of people, both learners and teachers, a collection of next generation learning tools and resources available in the cloud for anyone to access and consume via the web, mobile or other platform such as Microsoft Sharepoint. Watch this space as the conversation around life evolves. Follow @lifeisabout (www.twitter.com/lifeisabout) for more information.
Matt Clarke – Chief Technology Officer, UniServity
