A £1.9m government-supported digitale-learning initiativehas been
launched.
The Open University's Knowledge Media Institute, Bridgeman
Education and Lexara have joined forces to deliver the Project
Silver initiative.
Project Silver will deliver next generation
Web 2.0 and
artificial intelligence technologies to schools, universities
and businesses as part of an interactive learning experience.
The project is part-funded by the government's Technology
Strategy Board, and will see online academic resource Bridgeman
Education partner with the Open University's Knowledge Media
Institute and education product provider Lexara, to improve digital
learning at all levels of education and in the corporate
sector.
Together, the organisations will develop a software learning
system that builds on Web 2.0 and artificial intelligence
technologies to allow teachers and trainers to collect, organise,
experiment and interact with multimedia.
The developers said the software will enable learners and
teachers to select multimedia assets related to a theme, visualise
conceptual relationships associated with those assets and assemble
them in different ways reflecting alternative perspectives.
For instance, a history teacher could assemble multimedia assets
related to changing perspectives on the right to vote since the
nineteenth century (these might be photos, written testaments or
modern-day videos). This will allow users to create different
learning routes through the resources, understand interdependencies
between historical events, and create and test hypotheses regarding
the long term impact of particular events or people.
David Evans, technology strategy board chief executive, said,
"We are working with businesses to develop the marketable products
we will need in the future. And we are keen to focus on fast
growing areas such as the services sector and the creative
industries.
"That is why we are supporting this project, which aims to
deliver a new approach to the use of multimedia assets in schools,
Further and Higher Education and in the workplace."