Ultralab: summary

by Richard Millwood — published Nov 10, 2007 11:40 PM, last modified Apr 05, 2011 10:56 PM

Ultralab was the learning technology research centre at Anglia Ruskin University in Chelmsford, Essex from 1992 through to 2006.

The logo of Ultralab Ultralab was the name adopted in 1993 by a unit led by Professor Stephen Heppell after a short period as 'Learning Technology Research Centre', 'Xploratorium' and prior to that as 'New Learning Environments'. Ultralab developed a reputation over the next thirteen years for innovation and delight in learning with technology. It created some of the first multimedia CD-ROM materials in 1992, predicted the Web 2.0 era with online communities and participative web-sites in 1996, embarked on large-scale action research developments to create Notschool.net (1998 - 2005), Talking Heads (1999 - 2003) and Ultraversity (2003 - present) amongst its many achievements. Over this period it grew to employ over fifty personnel. In May 2003 Ultralab helped create Ultralab South in New Zealand which is now named Core Education NZ.

More details of Ultralab can be found at its 2005-2006 web site and particularly on the projects page.

Ultralab closed in December 2006.

News: New premises needed to store the archive Jun 09, 2015; Computers in the Curriculum Project - 30 years on Sep 01, 2014; A Celebration of the UK's Computing Heritage Jul 01, 2013; The Legacy of the BBC Microcomputer: effecting change in the UK’s cultures of computing May 24, 2012; Cataloguing the videodiscs Jun 15, 2011; Domesday Reloaded May 16, 2011; CAL 2011 conference special feature Apr 12, 2011; A Short History Offline Sep 24, 2009; BBC's Tomorrow's World presents Nellie - a computer set to revolutionise the classroom Sep 20, 2009; The BBC Domesday Book Project and its Legacy May 14, 2009; Voices Project book published Mar 10, 2009; More news…

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The archive is directed and maintained by Richard Millwood of Core Education UK supported by Sandra Crapper, Maureen Gurr, Margaret Cox, Nick Rushby and Joy Hooper. The British Educational Suppliers Association (BESA) were archive sponsors in 2008 and Becta were sponsors in 2009. Much of the archive was gathered in the years 1990 - 2006 by Prof Stephen Heppell with Richard Millwood and stored at Ultralab at Anglia Ruskin University in Chelmsford. In its early days it was catalogued by Greta Mladenova and in 2006 Rex Wingate helped to organise the items in store. More recently, since 2011, Doreen Wright, Nick Rushby, Chris Monk and Joy Hooper have been helping catalogue the materials and develop policies.

http://www.naec.org.uk/organisations/ultralab/ultralab-summary