Michael Jackson Tribute Show at The Bromfords School – Creative Radio Production

I (Max) was very lucky to be invited by the digitalcreativity.org team to work with them as part of my ‘Work Experience’ within my Year 10 school curriculm – and what a week to be working with them on!

From the 5th through to the 12th July, Hal and Matt have both been working incredibly hard with students of various ages at the Bromfords School – Wickford, Essex on Creative Radio Production. This was in preparation of leading a cross-media production based entirely on the rather topical entertainment superstar ‘Michael Jackson’ as a tribute to his life and work. The workshops the students took part in during the week, led up to a final showcase which was performed to various Year 6 induction groups from accompanying local primary schools.

The final production consisted of a wide variety of highly-talented performances incorporating modern and contemporary dance and vocal engagement which was led in a ‘radio-style’ format by student DJs with a helping hand from Matt and Hal.

The project was two weeks long, and involved Bromfords School, Creative Partnerships and Wickford CLC (Community Learning Centre). Over the two weeks Matt and Hal worked with the learners to master radio production and they are superb when working with young people.

Some images from the event:

City Academy Norwich Sand Pit

The digitalcreativity.org team have been working at City Academy Norwich to turn an old school hall into a creative learning space incorporating creative use of technology into teaching and learning.

The space was part of Earlham High School, which is due for demolition and will be replaced by new buildings. Until then, our role has been to help formulate the new vision for the new school by taking over and repurposing an old room. Our team have lots of experience of designing new and revisioning old buildings and have previously worked on may Building Schools for the Future projects, and projects for the BBC and NHS.

Here is the space before:

Here is the space after:

Creative Week 2008 at Wanstead High School

The digital creativity team at digitalcreativity.org were delighted to be invited along to Wanstead High School in Wanstead East London to undertake a session with 20 students inducting them into animation and music generation for the annual Creative Week.

As part of the process students were introduced to iStopMotion and GarageBand in the morning, and set a tough challenge in the afternoon to action their new found skills to create a scene from Doctor Who.

Here are the completed projects, all finished within the two hour deadline.

Group 1

Group 2

Group 3

Group 4

Group 5

The groups of four students per project worked well together to complete the task.

Thanks to Ms Murray and her team for organising a fantastic event.

Representing digitalcreativity.org were Hal MacLean and myself (Matthew Eaves). We were also pleased to welcome Varun Footring and Elliot MacLean, our latest work experience students who were exceptionally great at supporting the event.

RUGroom Launch for students with ASD at City College Norwich with Charles Clarke MP

I’ve worked on some pretty special projects around the world with digitalcreativity.org and my previous employer, but it is hard to compare with the fun, excitement, and innovation surrounding ‘RUGroom’ at City College…

City College Norwich (CCN) caters for 18,000 students from all over Norfolk and the surrounding counties, it has 1,200 staff. It is one of the largest colleges in England. The college also has approximatly 80 students with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD); find out more about the Autistic Spectrum here on Wikipedia, but in a nut shell people with autism say that the world is made up of people and events that they struggle to make sense of.

CCN recognises the importance of providing learning opportunities and support for students with various needs and learning styles. For ASD students it has created what they proudly refer to as the ‘RUG’ (Really Useful Group).

The RUG (group) and RUGroom (the physical space) work had started prior to our arrival at the college. Danusia Latosinski, head of the Regional Centre for Learners with Autistic Learning Disorders (based at the college) and her team had created a social space comprising of a couple of sofas, and some activities in a small room on the college campus. At the heart of the project Danusia and team provide learning, teaching and support for the ASD students, and have made a lot of progress. The evolving RUGroom model quickly became unsustainable due its rapid and increasing success. Rapid growth resulted in the original RUGroom space (which also incorporated offices) becoming far too small for purpose; a move into a larger space was desperately needed.

In May 2007 City College won funding from the Learning and Skills Council to develop a new physical space and work on RUGroom Mark II began.

The digitalcreativity.org team were already familiar with CCN having made presentations of its work to the college board. Richard Burley from the board recommended Danusia Latosinski telephone and invite digitalcreativity.org to Norwich. We arrived and talked about how our team could help them to develop RUGroom Mark II into a student centred, useful and engaging space that encouraged learning and socialising for RUG students. The big challenge was that it was then May, and RUGroom Mark II had to be operational by September.

Dick Palmer, the college principal, who has already had major successes in demonstrating City College as a leading UK higher education institution, gave over the old (underused) college staff room space to the project. It looked like this:

To see more images of the space prior to development click here (Photographer: Hal MacLean).

digitalcreativity.org understand both learning and technology and are experts in working collaboratively on educational technology projects nationwide. Project partners including the BBC, MacMillan Cancer Support, Edison Schools, and London Business School. We recognised the potential for this development and wanted the very best design team involved. It was no surprise that we called on the skills of
Team a g0-go and together we engaged with students who would be using RUGroom physically and virtually and involved them in the design and decision making. digitalcreativity.org helped primarily in the specification of technology which could be used within RUGroom and the associated teaching and learning spaces the students use.

Here is a photograph of the installation in progress, taken during a trip to the college to answer questions about power and networking for the technology we had specified:

Progress happened fast; the RUGroom had to be operational by September term start date 2007.

Here are the pictures of the space after completion of the bulk of the building work was finished:

Click here to see more images taken in November 2007

The young people with ASD who use the room were involved in all aspects of the design team from the layout of the space, the design of the pods and the colour scheme. The very popular pods allow students to retreat to quiet havens where they can control the lighting depending on their mood. Other areas include a small kitchen space to encourage domestic skills and co-operation, a ‘den’, wider open spaces and semi enclosed computer areas.

digitalcreativity.org specified a mix of Apple Macs and PCs for the space, and began a programme of training to engage students and staff in the potential of new technologies for learning opportunities. Our team; Hal MacLean, and myself, have been working every Tuesday with students on projects including:

• Animation
• Film Making
• Music Production
• 3D Interactive Programming
• Collaborative Writing
• Photography
• 3D Design

Here are some images from the Animation classes:

Click here to watch ‘Boulderdash Animation’ by Aaron and Jamie which has been uploaded onto Youtube.

Spending every Tuesday with the students to embed technology into RUGroom has been a great opportunity. We were told that people with ASD typically have an attention span of around eight minutes, so to see learners engrossed and engaged in activities for hours at a time has been a positive experience. The students are incredibly creative with unique talents and abilities; so far we’ve found the students can:

• design gardens online using 3D planning software;
• animate scenes and stories in clay;
• collaborate together in the same document for creative writing;
• build virtual buildings and spaces using design software;
• create and manipulate images; and
• programme movements for game design.

What has become evident is the students’ abilities to learn quickly and apply new skills for the challenges we put to them. Two particular successes include the impressive 3D design work. Alex created an amazing 3D model of a house and surrounding grounds in some design software. The detail incorporated into his design was so impressive that it even included the items on the shelf in the property’s garage. Staff in the college were so impressed with Alex’s work that he is now re-creating campus buildings for official use by the college for virtual tour guides. Another student, Sam, has shown his awesome skills with music; spending hours composing from scratch using ‘Garageband’.

We’ve also been working to upskill the RUGroom staff in technology use; to find out more about one of the workshops click here.

Danusia commented on our work with digitalcreativity.org so far for our marketing brochure:

“We particularly like the creative way in which digitalcreativity.org work, picking up on learner and staff ideas and showing how technology can be used to involve learners and put them at the centre.”

In January 2007 the staff and students presented RUGroom to an audience in the ‘Schools of the Future’ zone at the BETT Show in Olympia. digitalcreativity.org joined Team-a-go-go and the students to present the successes so far, and celebrate the achievements. BETT is attended each year by around 27,000 visitors and over 600 education companies exhibit. Here is a view from the balcony of about 1% of BETT (its a big show!):

Here are some of the students prior to their presentation:

The students captivated the audience for half an hour, talking about their experiences and why RUGroom was so successful.

Also speaking on behalf of the City College was Robyn Steward, a specialist asbergers trainer and former student at the college. Robyn grabbed the attention of passers by with her unique and engaging presentation style, she was remarkable to watch and professional in her presentation of AS.

On completion of their presentation the students retreated to the digitalcreativity.org stand for drinks and an early look at the evolving ‘rugroom.net’ software being built for them by our company. Here is the digitalcreativity.org 2008 BETT stand:

With so much creative work being produced by the students the challenge had become to provide them with a virtual space to share their work and continue the positive experience of RUGroom, online. Rugroom.net was born.
This stage of our involvment with City College was the development of rugroom.net; the space the students are encouraged to upload, collaborate, share and celebrate their work. As well as being a learning space Rugroom.net also acts as a safe retreat for the ASD students providing a social environment for use when not in RUGroom (although some students assume and engage with their online identity while physically in the RUGroom space).

digitalcreativity.org’s team of designers worked with RUG students over a four week period at the Chelmsford offices to design, plan and begin construction of rugroom.net specifically for use with students with ASD. After an initial meeting with a group, RUG students undertook the long journey each week from Norwich to Chelmsford to begin work on the development.

Katie (pictured above left) did a lot of research into avatars, and the look and feel for the site; Rob (pictured above right) explored programming languages. The students were involved throughout the process.

Rugroom.net phase 1 has now been rolled out for use by the students. Each student has their own page within the site and is able to upload and show work, thoughts and ideas to other students. Here is my page:

In the next version of the software I’ll be able to join groups, comment on other people stuff and enter debates. Each student is in control of the look, feel and identity in this closed community. The reason why rugroom.net and RUGroom have so far been well received by their users is primarily because the users have been involved in the entire process of design; both the physical and virtual spaces are fit for purpose. Hal from our team is involved in lots of Building Schools for the Future teams across the UK and he’ll be the first to tell you that if you don’t involve the users of learning spaces in their design then the challenge of designing a learning space suitable for purpose is much harder.

The Regional Centre for Students with Autistic Learning Disorders is planning to reach students with ASD beyond the walls of City College Norwich. We hope that Rugroom.net will make that virtually possible and is part of the strategy for outreach. We’re looking forward to being involved in the process of rollout.

Nick Platts and Alex from our team continue the development work of rugroom.net with Hais Deakin, our latest recruit, working on SMS integration for the site.

With technology so well received by the students an opportunity arose to bid for some additional funding to improve the RUGroom experience further. Challenged by Danusia, I sat up one night and drew up a vision for rugroom.tv and the next day Hal applied his budgeting skills to the proposal and we cost what we believed would be a realistic proposal for TV/Radio/Broadcasting studio specifically for the use of students with ASD.

The rugroom.tv proposal was successful and we’re now in the process of now making it happen, creating a space for experimentation and learning whilst not trying to create a high level broadcast studio. Much of our time working with BBC Blast to specify and implement the use of technology on their national BBC Blast Truck Tour has helped us to define what was possible and desirable. We’ve been involved in lots of learning space design projects all over the country, helping design schools to engage learners, we’ve also visited schools and other learning spaces across the world and learned about the successes and failures. Here is the BBC Blast Truck which some of our team helped specify suitable technolgy for learning:

Like the BBC Blast Truck, rugroom.tv will be a state of the art audio and visual studio and media casting unit that is intended to form part of the innovative RUGroom development at City College Norwich. The newly developed space will be built directly opposite the existing RUGroom facility within the college site.

The new multi-purpose studio and editing suite will contain enviable cutting-edge technologies which will enable collaboration and creativity through media capture, visual editing and sharing.

A typical day in rugroom.tv will see a radio production take place, some filming, editing, webcasting, scheduling, podcasts and recordings for the wider student community. Norwich, Norfolk, and the worldwide community will benefit from improved visibility and exposure of the RUGroom project; pioneering experimental work for young people with ASD. The most exciting thing about rugroom.tv is that its use and operations will be manned, and managed, by the talented AS students based in the college.

Rugroom.tv will be located directly opposite the existing Rugroom space. The following diagram (not to scale) demonstrates the location of the two rooms:

Running between the two spaces is a corridor. Rugroom has been designed with glass doors allowing passers by to look in and see what is taking place in the space. The intention for the rugroom.tv wall along the main corridor is that it will be made entirely of glass from wall to ceiling allowing visitors and passers-by to look in and see the creative work being undertaken.

Rugroom.tv will be filled with cutting edge technology, a stimulating and engaging place to work. There are two separate rooms; one playing home to an editing suite, and the other a small studio. Students will be able communicate through the speaker system to record programmes and broadcast live images.

Using the same equipment featured in the photograph above connected to the dual screen/keyboard editing suite equipment imaged below (located in the editing suite) the rugroom.tv studio will be able to deliver high quality visual imagery both live and on-demand.

The latest chroma key technology developed for the BBC by Reflecmedia will allow rugroom.tv to adapt to become any location in the world. The Reflecmedia material will be hung from the roof as a curtain and can be pulled across the glass front of the studio to allow privacy for filming if desired. This glass reflector material technology is used by broadcasters to present the national weather news for programmes and will allow both still and video images to be streamed live behind a presenter. Using cutting edge software by it is possible to feed the live images straight to the internet.

The soundproof studio will also be rigged with high quality microphones allowing students to produce audio programmes for podcast and radio.

When the studio space is not being used for radio or television productions, conference kit for video conferencing will be made available for the Rugroom students and staff, and the wider college, to interact with others globally. It is intended that the RUGroom will begin a programme of using this technology to link up with other AS academic communities from around the world to collaborate, share ideas and celebrate success.

The editing suite will have two benches running along each wall, the TV editing desk will look straight into the studio and allow editors to interact with students working the cameras and those presenting. On the opposite wall space will be dedicated to editing audio material for use on podcast and radio mediums. Headphones will be provided for this work. Anyone passing in the outside corridor will be able to see through the glass wall at what is happening in rugroom.tv.

The editing suite will also be home to the rugroom.tv website which will be an archive of work created by RUGroom students as well as the place internet visitors go to watch live webcasts produced by the RUGroom. The booking out of the recording equipment, space and editing facilities will all be managed through the rugroom.tv website online.

Rugroom.tv will offer filming and DVD production and replications services for the college, students from Rugroom.tv will be able to film off-site and build DVD’s for internal clients at a charge.

RUGroom is certainly the talk of City College at the moment, and it was great to be at the official launch to celebrate with the team the successes so far. Charles Clarke, MP for Norwich South and former Education Secretary (2002 – 2004) officially opened the RUGroom commenting on how well the room and its technology had come together to maximise students potential. The centre was officially opened on 8 February 2008. Charles Clarke commented on how the technology in the RUGroom is cutting edge and went on to say:

“What this room does, and all the facilities, and all the staff, and the college is to help people deliver their potential.”

And delivering the potential from students with ADS is exactly what RUGroom is all about.
Dick Palmer, Principal of the college commended staff and students on their achievement and thanked Danusia and her team for all the hard work and effort involved. As ever, the ASD students were central to the launch, welcoming guests, introducing the speakers, demonstrating creativity, engaging with the visitors, and being interviewed by the press.

In the official City College Press Release Dick Palmer states:

“I am incredibly proud that we have been able to help establish this incredibly innovative Regional Centre for Learners with Autistic Spectrum Disorders. It will play a vital role in ensuring that these learners can have equal access to courses at the College while having a safe space dedicated to their needs. The RUG Room has been so successful because learners were involved in from the beginning, working with the designers to create an exciting and innovative space which meets the very specific needs of young people with Asperger Syndrome.” Read the CCN RUGroom Press Release

When interviewed by BBC Look East’s Louise Holmes RUG student Kirsty said:

“I’m lot more confident now because I get to speak to people who are in the same boat as I am, so it has been really nice.”

Louise then interviewed Emi-Jo who stated:

“I’ve got a safe environment where I can go if I’m angry or I’m upset, I’m away from everyone, but in the middle of college …no one can come and get me”. The Look East report is available at the end of this article, here on youtube and also here on the BBC website.

Danusia Latosinski, Head of the Regional Centre for Learners with Autistic Spectrum Disorders stated:

“The students were involved in the first meeting with the designers and then involved at every stage of this rooms development and thats why it is such a unique space, quite different from other spaces, because there are elements in here that the students have particularly asked for.”

Kim Briscoe from Norwich Evening News was also as the launch and enlisted Sam, one of the students, to present a film introducing the new space.

Watch it here (and below)….

Well done Sam, very nicely done!

Here are the photographs I took at the launch.

Click here to read what Hal MacLean wrote about the launch.

Watch the BBC Look East news item:

At the heart of the RUGroom success sits Danusia and her dedicated team of professionals who work tirelessly are more than 100% committed to provide the very best opportunities and bring out the potential of every student they work with. This project has been the most amazing journey because the people involved are willing to try new things and break the mould.

The team at digitalcreativity.org are delighted to be involved.

Some images from the event:

King Harold School Primary Summer School 2006 Completes!

The past two days have been a huge success for the young people from King Harold School who have been working with their partner feeder Primary School’s to engage some of the younger pupils in a fun filled Animation fest. The Summer School was run entirely by year 9, 10 and 11 pupils. All equipment was loaned by Ultralab (1990 - 2006).

Ultralab (1990 - 2006) are proud to work with King Harold School who continue to pioneer in the field of Digital Creativity, investing heavily in the power of creative technology to engage and enhance the learning journeys of its pupils.

Click to see the pictures taken during the Summer School.

Here is the completed work:

King Harold School Pupils prepare

Ultralab (1990 - 2006) has a long working history with the pupils and staff at King Harold School of Waltham Abbey, Essex. For the past four years pupils of King Harold School have been involved in Ultralab (1990 - 2006)’s Summer School programme. However, this summer the pupils will instead run a Summer School of their own Summer School for pupils of the Primary Partners Schools who feed King Harold each year with new students. King Harold’s pupils will run the entire event themselves.

A team of students from King Harold arrived at Ultralab (1990 - 2006) to spend the afternoon with Ultralab (1990 - 2006)’s Hal MacLean to plan and discuss the activities which would be running on the Primary Summer School. Hal is a former Primary Head Teacher and assisted the young people with experience working with the younger age groups. Malcolm Burnett from King Harold School is overseeing the project, pictures and completed animation work will be posted on this site soon.

Chessington Community College Korean TV Project

We’re used to working globally with people of all ages, religions and races. Here we are challenged to undertake a digital creativity project for a London suburbs school with a high intake of Korean young people, Jo Fletcher reports:

It is common knowledge that the schools in and around London are ever increasing their intake of children from foreign backgrounds. The assumption (if somewhat stereotypical) has always been that these students stick with their own kind and excel in subjects such as science, maths and music because they boast a somewhat ‘universal’ language. Schools see them as an opportunity to raise and improve exam results and to give their school a cultural diversity. But seemingly not much consideration goes on into the emotional effects on a child going into a foreign school in a foreign country. What goes through the mind of a child that has moved to Britain, sometimes on their own, who speaks little English, knows nothing of the culture and is expected to integrate into our education system?

Chessington Community College (based in Kingston, London) contacted Ultralab (1990 - 2006), knowing that they specialise in improving and developing education through technology. The college wanted to develop a project through which the school’s Korean community could express their feelings and experiences of coming to Britain and learning at Chessington Community College (CCC). Ultralab (1990 - 2006) suggested a project through which the students could make a film and the students would be allowed to take control of what goes on in the film as well as the technical side of film making.

On 13 th of July, Matthew Eaves and Neil of Ultralab (1990 - 2006) went to CCC to get the film making process underway. They bought with them the computers, camera’s and programme’s the students would need to create their film and set about teaching the kids how to use it. Matthew and Neil were adamant that the contents of the film and how it was created was the students responsibility as opposed to Neil and Matthew arriving at the school and making all these decisions for them. With a typical Korean education being book based, this gave the students the opportunity to work on a practical project devised by themselves while learning along the way.

The film would be for new Korean students starting at the school showing them how other members of the Korean community at the school felt when they first started, what they did to make friends and what their British friends thought when they started. It was structured around a series of interviews with their friends and some of their teachers. The video is structured through a series of interviews with the teachers and what they think of the Korean students in the school, interviews with fellow Korean students and what their experiences of the school were and interviews with some of their other friends on what they think of the Korean students. From the interviews conducted during the project and from film footage, an opinion seemed to be forming among the students’ friends and that was that they were very jealous of their friends. Maybe it was because the Korean students had three days out of lessons which, to be frank, any student at school would be jealous of. But some of CCC’s students who came into the project area during break and lunchtimes, genuinely seemed impressed by the work their peers were doing and were somewhat jealous. The opportunity to learn and teach in new and innovative ways is not only what Ultralab (1990 - 2006) does best but it seems it could be the way forward in nationwide education.

The main application that was used to create the video was a programme called iMovie. iMovie was used to edit and subtitle the pre recorded footage that was used in the live broadcast. Wirecast was the software used to stream the live broadcast. This software (from Vara Software) allows for multi shots and screens to be used to give the effect of a live broadcast, much like a news broadcast. Wirecast allows you to cut together live and pre-recorded material. It uses Quicktime Streaming so that the film can be watched live over the internet or put into a webpage where the film can be accessed. The students used the idea of a live broadcast for their film, and nominated a student to introduce and sign off the film.

The feedback from Matt and Neil at the end of the project was positive and both commented on how it was one of the best school-based projects they had been involved in. The film will be submitted into the BAFTA Interactive Festival as an example of a project where Ultralab (1990 - 2006) offer school children a new way of learning. The film will be put on a BAFTA Interactive Festival DVD and will be seen by people all over the world. The project was not only a success in the quality of the film and the worldwide recognition the College will receive but also convinced the College to invest in a new Apple Macintosh computer and digital cameras so the school can expand its IT department and have similar projects running with students from other foreign nationalities. As some of the interviews with the Korean students suggest, most of them would like to do these kinds of activities again, and just from being around these students it is easy to pick up that what Matt and Neil have taught them will stay with them and will hopefully come back to them at a later time and inspire them all over again.

View the event pictures.

Profile.

What is your name?
Yerin

How old are you?
14

What part of Korea are you from?
Cheong ju

When did you come to England?
Christmas time (6 months)

Do you live here with your parents?
Yes

How many brothers and sisters do you have?
2 brothers

What are your hobbies?
Listening to music

What was the most fun part of this project?
Recording and filming

What was the most boring?
Nothing, it was all fun

What do your other friends in the school think about the project?
They think its interesting and fun, they want to do it.

What was it like when you first started at the college?
Scary, I was nervous

Did each of you have different role or was it a joint project?
We did it all together

Have you used equipment like this before or is it a new thing that you are learning?
No, this was the first time

Would you like to do something like this in the future?
Yes

Now the school has a computer to help you make more films, would you be able to do this again and teach other people?
With the others I could show my friends what to do.

Profile.

What is your name?
Si-hyung Seong

How old are you?
15

What part of Korea are you from?
Seoul

When did you come to England?
2 year half month

Do you live here with your parents?
Yep

How many brothers and sisters do you have?
2 brothers

What are your hobbies?
Drawing play games

What was the most fun part of this project?
Recording

What was the most boring?
Waiting around

What do your other friends in the school think about the project?
Jealous because I’m not in classes, interesting

What was it like when you first started at the college?
Stressed, exciting

Did each of you have different role or was it a joint project?
Did recording

Have you used equipment like this before or is it a new thing that you are learning?
No

Would you like to do something like this in the future?
Yes

Now the school has a computer to help you make more films, would you be able to do this again and teach other people?
Yes

Profile.

What is your name?
Eunju

How old are you?
14

What part of Korea are you from?
Musan

When did you come to England?
One year ago

Do you live here with your parents?
Yes

How many brothers and sisters do you have?
One brother

What are your hobbies?
Listen to music

What was the most fun part of this project?
Recording

What was the most boring
No

What do your other friends in the school think about the project?
Envy us

What was it like when you first started at the college?
Enjoys it

Did each of you have different role or was it a joint project?
Joint project

Have you used equipment like this before or is it a new thing that you are learning?
I have done this before

Would you like to do something like this in the future?
No

Now the school has a computer to help you make more films, would you be able to do this again and teach other people?
No

Report by Jo Fletcher, event journalist.

Some images from the event:

King Harold School young people come to Ultralab for Final Cut Pro video editing masterclass

On the 26th of January 2006 eight creative learners from King Harold School worked in Ultralab (1990 - 2006) at Anglia Ruskin University with researchers Hal MacLean and Matthew Eaves to further their skills with Final Cut Pro, a computer application to create and edit visual material.

The young people at King Harold School work closely with the Ultralab (1990 - 2006) on projects using technology for creative purpose, recently supporting Ultralab (1990 - 2006) at the BETT education show in London this January providing the young people to work on the stand and demonstrate new technologies and how they could be applied in classroom teaching.

The objective of the training day was to begin the process of learning how to manipulate the footage to create visually appealing programmes suitable for television. King Harold School is an innovative school which is always looking for new ways to broaden learning opportunities for it students to enable, include and encourage work on real world projects and innovations prior to employment.

Ultralab (1990 - 2006) works with many schools nationwide, promoting how technology can be used to creative purpose in the classroom, Ultralab (1990 - 2006) is working closely with the school to develop new ways of working together in a pilot which will see young people move involved in project based learning while exploring the potential of a future at University.

Some images from the event:

CREATE AT BETT 2005 – Creative Norfolk & Essex Schools rule the show!

I’ve been so busy since returning from the 2005 BETT Show that I’ve not had a chance to write a full review of Ultralab (1990 - 2006)‘s involvement in the show.

2005′s BETT show took place on Tuesday 11 January to Saturday 15 January 2004.

Each year learning, technology & research centre Ultralab (1990 - 2006) work on the ‘creativity stand’ at the show, demonstrating new and emerging technologies and how young people are using them. Each year Ultralab (1990 - 2006) bring a group of young people from Ultralab (1990 - 2006) projects who demonstrate creative use of technology within their organisation, institution, school or learning centre.

The ‘Create at BETT’ stand is a collaborative project between Apple Computer, Ultralab (1990 - 2006), Media Education Wales, Solutions Inc, Film Education, Emap Education, South Street Studios, Canon and DV in Ed. The stand is the only stand at the show which is not selling any products, and becomes a form of light relief for visitors looking for creative ideas without being sales pitched products!
For the 2002′s BETT show the theme was ‘Internet Broadcast’ and pupils from schools taking part on Ultralab (1990 - 2006)’s 2001 Summer School programme in conjunction with SEEVEAZ (South East of England Virtual Education Action Zone) came together with young people from sixth form centre within Colbayns High School of Clacton Essex. The objective of ‘BETT Goes to the Movies’ was to demonstrate the potential of iMovie, the free video editing software from Apple along with the broadcasting software from Channel Storm called Live Channel Pro. BETT 2002 was a tremendous success, read our review of BETT Goes to the Movies 2002 by Richard and Matthew Eaves.2003 was a year of change, building on the success of 2002. Attending for Ultralab (1990 - 2006) were young people from Sir Charles Lucas Arts College, part of Ultralab (1990 - 2006)’s Summer School project with SEEVEAZ. Also attending were young people from a digital creativity project with the Hedley Walter High School, who stayed for the duration of the event pioneering forward ‘broadcasting’ and its capabilities. Young people from Greensward College were included into the event via an internet broadcast link from Ultralab (1990 - 2006). Sadly I can’t find the link to the pictures for ‘Bett goes to the Movies II’, but I do have the pictures from Ultralab (1990 - 2006)’s BETT Stand 2003.

In 2004 Ultralab (1990 - 2006) brought young people from our groundbreaking International Certificate in Digital Creativity project from the Andrew Marvell School in Hull who have been pioneering the project with Ultralab (1990 - 2006). Attending also were the young people from Ultralab (1990 - 2006)’s Summer School project, the group of children were famous for their creative piece ‘Out of Step’. Here are the pictures from BETT goes to the Movies 2004. Watch David Baugh’s BETT 2004 Showreel

2005 had to be even more special than ever before. The ‘BETT goes to the Movies’ brand had served its time and ‘Create at BETT’ was born. The project brought together young people at Ultralab (1990 - 2006) for a pre-event briefing, delivered by Oscar Stringer of South Street Studios, and Robbie of Solutions-Inc.

The 8 young people working on the stand for 2005 (Friday & Saturday) were from King Harold School, Wednesday & Thurdsday’s young people were brough by The Rural Norfolk Federation. The 8 young people from Norfolk represented the following schools: Fakenham High School & College, Reepham High School, Aylsham High School and Alderman Peel High School. All the Norfolk schools are situated in rural areas, the collaboration with the schools and Ultralab (1990 - 2006) has been a big project for 2004.

Create at BETT 2005 was a tremendous success. The young people demonstrated their ability with animation, visual and sound technologies to the visitors.

In the evenings, the young people went out with the staffing team on the stand for meals, before returning to hotel accomodation.

The Norfolk and Essex young people and staff did us, their schools and all the project partners proud. Thanks loads guys!

Some images from the event:

ICDC Project – Hull

I have spent the Wednesday, Thursday and Friday in Hull with Ultralab (1990 - 2006)’s Kris Popat to work at the Andrew Marvel School on Ultralab (1990 - 2006)’s ICDC (International Certificate in Digital Creativity) project. The project is being undertaken in conjunction with Creative Partnerships and exists to explore the assessment of Creativity.

The young people spent the week making animations, and then on the Friday we went to the Odeon cinema to present work.

The event was a huge success, and I’d like to thank Diane Bateman and her team at the Odeon Hull for all they did after I made inital contact with her a couple of months ago to host the event.