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A Generic Learn<strong>in</strong>g Platform: From the Learn<strong>in</strong>g Framework it is clear that there are common elements to<br />

teach<strong>in</strong>g and learn<strong>in</strong>g. Any technological solution should reflect these common elements by specify<strong>in</strong>g generic<br />

build<strong>in</strong>g blocks which can be configured to meet the needs of specific education and tra<strong>in</strong><strong>in</strong>g products and<br />

services.<br />

The education and tra<strong>in</strong><strong>in</strong>g systems of the near-future will exploit a telematics learn<strong>in</strong>g framework, utilis<strong>in</strong>g<br />

state of the art developments <strong>in</strong> video-conferenc<strong>in</strong>g, groupware, Internet, World Wide Web and distributed<br />

multimedia technologies.<br />

The Project Exemplars<br />

Our work <strong>in</strong>volves a number of pilot projects with<strong>in</strong> the community, some of which are described below.<br />

The Televersity Concept<br />

Close to BTL is University College Suffolk. The college aspires to become a 'Televersity' by the turn of the<br />

century. The vision is to provide a community based university which delivers pre-packaged material over the<br />

Internet, and electronic tutorial support us<strong>in</strong>g video-conferenc<strong>in</strong>g technology. As part of a feasibility study, we<br />

have set up some pilot studies. One study <strong>in</strong>volves nurse education where problems of teach<strong>in</strong>g dispersed and<br />

small groups is be<strong>in</strong>g studied. Another pilot, be<strong>in</strong>g run between the college and schools, considers School<br />

Centred Initial Teacher Tra<strong>in</strong><strong>in</strong>g, where the focus is on us<strong>in</strong>g networked video-conferenc<strong>in</strong>g tutorial sessions.<br />

Tomorrow's Customers<br />

Tomorrow's Customers is aimed at schools (both primary and secondary). The overall aim of the proposed<br />

work is to 'visualise, show benefits for and evaluate with customers a range of medium and long-term<br />

educational solutions based on advanced video-conferenc<strong>in</strong>g services and the Internet'. Two of the ma<strong>in</strong> tasks<br />

are:<br />

HomeLearn<br />

The home is a key focal po<strong>in</strong>t for many education and tra<strong>in</strong><strong>in</strong>g applications. The various <strong>in</strong>terfaces that allow<br />

work to be carried out <strong>in</strong> the home are be<strong>in</strong>g explored, and a detailed scenario describ<strong>in</strong>g how education and<br />

tra<strong>in</strong><strong>in</strong>g home services are used <strong>in</strong> a typical family is be<strong>in</strong>g developed.<br />

CampusPlus<br />

CampusPlus is explor<strong>in</strong>g the key issues that need to be addressed by the next generation of BT's exist<strong>in</strong>g<br />

education sector product - CampusWorld. New technologies are be<strong>in</strong>g evaluated on the test-bed, us<strong>in</strong>g a story,<br />

"1000 years on the Orwell" (a river near to BTL) as a metaphor for communications. The example is chosen to<br />

maximise collaboration between schools, and to study them as they become content providers.<br />

iCampus (Industry Campus)<br />

This task explores network, service and tra<strong>in</strong><strong>in</strong>g issues result<strong>in</strong>g from service delivery over high speed<br />

networks (Intranets). The tra<strong>in</strong><strong>in</strong>g exemplars are <strong>in</strong>itially be<strong>in</strong>g piloted with<strong>in</strong> BT as a model of a typical<br />

corporate user. We use an Object Oriented (OO) approach, and are focus<strong>in</strong>g on captur<strong>in</strong>g and utilis<strong>in</strong>g<br />

personal preferences to produce more customised user <strong>in</strong>terfaces. The OO f<strong>in</strong>d<strong>in</strong>gs are be<strong>in</strong>g fed <strong>in</strong>to the other<br />

activities.<br />

Acknowledgements<br />

I am <strong>in</strong>debted to all of my colleagues <strong>in</strong> the BTL Education & Research Programme whose collective ideas are<br />

summarised <strong>in</strong> this short paper.

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