Matthew Eaves from the team was really pleased to be invited onto the Etholle and John Breakfast Show this morning at 7.30am to talk about the World Wide Web’s 15th birthday. The show focused on the history on the Internet and Matthew explained how the Internet was changing as people needed it to allow them to be more creative.
Have a listen to the show:
Hamish Scott-Brown joined the BBC Blast Truck in Newcastle to be Lead Facilitator in a feast of film, animation and music. The event was highly successful for everyone involved.
Today Neil Boughen and myself headed up the M11 to Cambridge to support the local Anglia Ruskin Summer School 2006 at Cambridge Campus. The one week ‘Introduction to University’ programme demonstrates to 
participants what University life can be like, and is aimed at those who’s parents have not been to University. Neil and I were there for two hours, introducing the young people to the work of Ultralab globally followed by an hour session called ‘An Introduction to Animation’. Due to the time limitations we decided to set the young people our quickest challenge, which is the start with a clay ball and return it to its original state by the end of their work. Each young person received an email copy of their work, those with Bluetooth telephones left with their work on their phone. DVD’s were also made for all the participants.
Ultralab also ran the entire Essex based Summer School on behalf of the Anglia Ruskin University, a week long event, you’ll find information on that project here on the website. Ultralab has been running Anglia Ruskin’s Summer School’s for the past five years, this was the last time we will be working with John Butcher, Director of Summer Schools. John leaves the University at the end of the month to pursue new avenues, we wish him the very best luck for the future.
Here is the work created within the one hour period from the five participating groups within the one hour period:
Movie 1: Play Now | Play in Popup Blobber: Play Now | Play in Popup Baby: Play Now | Play in Popup Cool Ball: Play Now | Play in Popup Smiley: Play Now | Play in Popup
Hamish Scott-Brown headed to his native Glasgow for a couple of days onboard the BBC Blast Truck as facilitator. Hamish’s role as Lead Facilitator is to lead creative workshops while supporting local facilitators as they come onboard the truck to run their own creative classes. Glasgow was a huge success for BBC Blast with film being a particular favorite of the Glasgow young people.
The BBC Blast Truck headed down the M32 Motorway to join Hal MacLean for an exciting two days of film and dance.
Hal represented Ultralab as the lead facilitator at this location. Matthew Eaves, Hamish Scott-Brown and Hal MacLean are on a rotation system throughout the tour, doubling up at some locations to support each other at some of the larger events.
Hal was pleased to work with Gail Taylor, who worked herself on an Ultralab project back in 2002 called ‘The Online Soap’. Hal also spent time working with friend of Ultralab Samantha Beddoes who filmed Hal and myself back in 2004 for BBC Blast’s November TV show, Sam now works for BBC Newsround and worked closely with Hal on Final Cut Pro, Apple’s film editing software.
The Saffron Walden County High School and its partner feeder Primary Schools have begun their Summer School challenge and will be working for one week on their Ultralab set task.
The young people involved in the project all have ‘project blogs’ and have started to document their progress. One of the groups has decided to record activities as a podcast, rather than using text, good on them.
Here is the excellent day 1 podcast:
Matthew Eaves on BBC Essex: 
Day 1 Podcast: