Nineties

In 1990 I stepped back from an academic research focus and returned to creative practice, developing interactive multimedia materials to distribute on CD-ROM, albeit as a senior lecturer in the education faculty of Anglia Higher Education College. The decade saw the rise of Ultralab, of which I was an informal deputy head, growing from half a dozen to over fifty staff. My practice saw a move from software development to medium-scale action research in pilot projects relating to online communities. I also helped develop an online Masters degree and begin supervising doctoral students.

Table 10: Selected items from the 1990s

Portfolio reference	Aim	Contribution	Originality, Impact and Importance
[C7] Senior Lecturer in Ultralab at Anglia Polytechnic University	To develop a collaborative team approach to the design & development of new technology in learning.	I was a designer, developer and technical producer of many projects, a lecturer in ICT in Education and a designer and developer of a Masters level course. My part: 25% (with Stephen Heppell and others)	The Ultralab team was distinctive in its structure, ethos and practice, developed on values and principles of inclusion and participation. It’s ethos was to directly change the world of education with its action-research innovations and thought leadership. Its work influenced national policy in the UK and throughout the world.
[C8] National Archive of Educational Computing	To design & develop a historical archive and narrative for developments in technology enhanced learning.	Since leaving Ultralab I have taken sole responsibility for this work, establishing working methodology, designing a participative web site and convening and attending events to disseminate knowledge. My part: 90% (Initially with Stephen Heppell and Greta Mladenova)	The archive is unique in the UK in its focus on educational computing. Its impact has been on international education conferences and events where it has exhibited and in its support for other projects such as the BBC’s Domesday Reloaded. I believe its importance will be found in the future to satisfy a desire to interpret the historical development of technology enhanced learning and to mine the ideas which have been developed and forgotten, but are ripe for re-invention.
[C9] Learning in the New Millennium	To research the new uses for creative & communicative digital tools in secondary classrooms.	My part was very small in the action of the project, but I acted as a mentor (with Stephen Heppell) to the project and as research supervisor to Carole Chapman who led the project. As such I helped develop the conceptual thinking which then provided a basis for much other research. My part: 10% (with Stephen Heppell and Carole Chapman)	The project was groundbreaking in its online connection between professional scientists and school students to discuss science problems, in its early use of mobile technology and in its development of the concept of online community. The impact of the project was felt in its larger scale successor projects such as Notschool.Net, Schools Online, Think.com, TeacherNetUK, Talking Heads and Ultraversity. Its importance was the establishment of design, practice and conceptual knowledge for Ultralab and beyond.
[C10] Translating software: what it means and what it costs for small cultures and large cultures	To clarify the importance of designing in opportunity for users to localise educational software to suit their own cultural and linguistic environment and thus enhance regional and international uptake	I helped design the software methodology for translation and the implementation of it in the 'Work Rooms' software as well as co-authoring the paper. My part: 20% (with Dai Griffiths, Stephen Heppell, Sam Deane and Greta Mladenova)	The practice and paper was novel in education at that time and the conceptual thinking was only just making impact in the software operating systems world. Its importance is seen in the way modern software is now developed and content management systems such as Plone have been developed to manage translation as a matter of course.
[C11] TeacherNet UK	To develop the design proposition for online communities of practice to support the continuing professional development of teachers.	In TeacherNet UK, I co-designed and developed the organisation itself, designed, developed and maintained the the initial website, made many conference presentations and acted as one of six directors of the company. I exercised national and European thought leadership to establish notions of informal professional development online. My part: 25% (with Marilyn Leask, Norbert Pachler, Darren Leafe, Kryss Durling and Keith Byrom)	TeacherNetUK was inspired by the Australian OZTeacherNet, but proposed original think around continuing professional development for teachers and self-profiling of teachers in order to match content to their interests. Although it did not become a mass-movement, it enjoyed a considerable membership for a time and was in demand by UK government and industry for consultancy, culminating in the government creating its own TeacherNet service with the help of members of the team.
[C12] The Online Learning Network	To research the practice of human facilitation and software design to support online communities.	I was mentor to project leader, contributor to the online community design and provided technical support for the service. 10% (with Stephen Heppell, Leonie Ramondt and others)	This project was Ultralab's first to create a community of practice for adults. It informed the design of the emerging UK University for Industry and also many successor projects at Ultralab. (Ramondt & Heppell, 1998)
[C13] Étui	To research & develop a toy for use by early learners to encourage learning about learning.	I acted as co-developer of the project's ideas about meta-level learning, mentor to the project leader and other personnel, researcher in classrooms and disseminator of the progress and outcomes. My part: 20% (with Andy Simpson, Dai Griffiths, Stephen Heppell and Kris Popat)	The project was unique for its design of a mysterious toy which did not represent existing creatures in order stimulate wonder, inquiry and imagination. As part of the i3 research network, it was shared widely to the European research community and generated much debate about early years learning with technology.

Portfolio reference

Aim

Contribution

Originality, Impact and Importance

[C7] Senior Lecturer in Ultralab at Anglia Polytechnic University

To develop a collaborative team approach to the design & development of new technology in learning.

I was a designer, developer and technical producer of many projects, a lecturer in ICT in Education and a designer and developer of a Masters level course. My part: 25% (with Stephen Heppell and others)

The Ultralab team was distinctive in its structure, ethos and practice, developed on values and principles of inclusion and participation. It’s ethos was to directly change the world of education with its action-research innovations and thought leadership. Its work influenced national policy in the UK and throughout the world.

[C8] National Archive of Educational Computing

To design & develop a historical archive and narrative for developments in technology enhanced learning.

Since leaving Ultralab I have taken sole responsibility for this work, establishing working methodology, designing a participative web site and convening and attending events to disseminate knowledge. My part: 90% (Initially with Stephen Heppell and Greta Mladenova)

The archive is unique in the UK in its focus on educational computing. Its impact has been on international education conferences and events where it has exhibited and in its support for other projects such as the BBC’s Domesday Reloaded. I believe its importance will be found in the future to satisfy a desire to interpret the historical development of technology enhanced learning and to mine the ideas which have been developed and forgotten, but are ripe for re-invention.

[C9] Learning in the New Millennium

To research the new uses for creative & communicative digital tools in secondary classrooms.

My part was very small in the action of the project, but I acted as a mentor (with Stephen Heppell) to the project and as research supervisor to Carole Chapman who led the project. As such I helped develop the conceptual thinking which then provided a basis for much other research. My part: 10% (with Stephen Heppell and Carole Chapman)

The project was groundbreaking in its online connection between professional scientists and school students to discuss science problems, in its early use of mobile technology and in its development of the concept of online community. The impact of the project was felt in its larger scale successor projects such as Notschool.Net, Schools Online, Think.com, TeacherNetUK, Talking Heads and Ultraversity. Its importance was the establishment of design, practice and conceptual knowledge for Ultralab and beyond.

[C10] Translating software: what it means and what it costs for small cultures and large cultures

To clarify the importance of designing in opportunity for users to localise educational software to suit their own cultural and linguistic environment and thus enhance regional and international uptake

I helped design the software methodology for translation and the implementation of it in the 'Work Rooms' software as well as co-authoring the paper. My part: 20% (with Dai Griffiths, Stephen Heppell, Sam Deane and Greta Mladenova)

The practice and paper was novel in education at that time and the conceptual thinking was only just making impact in the software operating systems world. Its importance is seen in the way modern software is now developed and content management systems such as Plone have been developed to manage translation as a matter of course.

[C11] TeacherNet UK

To develop the design proposition for online communities of practice to support the continuing professional development of teachers.

In TeacherNet UK, I co-designed and developed the organisation itself, designed, developed and maintained the the initial website, made many conference presentations and acted as one of six directors of the company. I exercised national and European thought leadership to establish notions of informal professional development online. My part: 25% (with Marilyn Leask, Norbert Pachler, Darren Leafe, Kryss Durling and Keith Byrom)

TeacherNetUK was inspired by the Australian OZTeacherNet, but proposed original think around continuing professional development for teachers and self-profiling of teachers in order to match content to their interests. Although it did not become a mass-movement, it enjoyed a considerable membership for a time and was in demand by UK government and industry for consultancy, culminating in the government creating its own TeacherNet service with the help of members of the team.

[C12] The Online Learning Network

To research the practice of human facilitation and software design to support online communities.

I was mentor to project leader, contributor to the online community design and provided technical support for the service. 10% (with Stephen Heppell, Leonie Ramondt and others)

This project was Ultralab's first to create a community of practice for adults. It informed the design of the emerging UK University for Industry and also many successor projects at Ultralab. (Ramondt & Heppell, 1998)

[C13] Étui

To research & develop a toy for use by early learners to encourage learning about learning.

I acted as co-developer of the project's ideas about meta-level learning, mentor to the project leader and other personnel, researcher in classrooms and disseminator of the progress and outcomes. My part: 20% (with Andy Simpson, Dai Griffiths, Stephen Heppell and Kris Popat)

The project was unique for its design of a mysterious toy which did not represent existing creatures in order stimulate wonder, inquiry and imagination. As part of the i3 research network, it was shared widely to the European research community and generated much debate about early years learning with technology.

In 1990 I joined Professor Stephen Heppell to form a new research centre, ultimately called Ultralab [C7]. Over seventeen years I offered practical, analytical and evaluative guidance to this large and geographically distributed team, offering research leadership and developing collective knowledge, procedures, values and attitudes for the development of delightful learning approaches.

Early in this decade Stephen Heppell and I began collecting materials to form a National Archive of Educational Computing [C8] and we were funded by the National Council for Educational Technology to employ Greta Mladenova to organise the materials

I continued development of new interactive multimedia CD-ROM materials, taking responsibility for production of published learning resources for Teacher Education [C6]. The possibility to distribute globally and the development of new materials using Apple's HyperCard led to a realisation that we could allow for adaptation to local culture and languages by the teacher and this became the subject of a published paper. [C10]

The predominant research approach of Ultralab became applied and action research, creating small and large-scale actions involving education in formal and informal contexts. I helped formulate the conceptual framework, manage development and analyse findings in many projects including the a longitudinal study of online community as a learning tool ‘Learning in the New Millenium’ [C9], the University for Industry pilot ‘Online Learning Network’ [C12], the teachers’ informal continuing professional development online community TeacherNet UK [C11] and the creation of a new toy for pre-school meta-level learning, Étui [C13].

This decade saw a heavy load of conference and workshop presentation, which gave me the opportunity to refine analyses of learning and education and develop them further based on the feedback from audiences and colleagues. [A1, A2, A3, A4]

(Words: 1418 )