Research contents
Learning objects and learning design
Learning interaction and networked communities
Informal eLearning
Funded projects

Extranet Education Project (EXE)

The Extranet Education Project started in 1998 with European funding, and was completed in February 2000. Its aim was to help teachers and educators introduce multimedia and information and communication technologies (ICT) into their daily teaching practice.

The project was implemented through a consortium of ten European partners from three cities - Bologna, Barcelona and London Borough of Islington - each with a longstanding commitment to new technologies and citizen access.

To meet its aim, the project implemented the following phases of research and development:

• User needs analysis – to establish the existing uses of technology in education and to find out what the intended users required
• The development of a multimedia toolkit:
  Extranet system – an integrated online environment, which delivers the toolkit, and enables a community of users to develop and share experiences and resources
  Educational wizards to help users easily create multimedia materials
• A training programme – to help users use the tools
• Pedagogic research – to identify examples of good practice and assess the impact of the project.

A number of educational wizards were developed, enabling the development of customised multimedia tutorials; lesson materials which can output as html web pages; tours of web pages with recorded audio commentaries; school journals which can be output for print or in web pages; multiple-choice quizzes.

The set of tools helps the teachers and educators to prepare learning materials and didactic activities using new technologies within a pedagogic framework. Within the virtual environment, teachers can not only find these tools and see the results of other teachers' work with them, they can also find multimedia material in a database tailored to their needs, or communicate with other teachers and share experiences.

The university worked closely with a number of local schools, FE colleges and university staff, and also in close collaboration with Artec (The Arts Technology Centre), the main project partner in London. Our main focus in the project, was working with local users, in carrying out a local user needs analysis, training programme, and conducting the project-wide pedagogic research. This research provided pedagogic underpinning to the use of the toolkit, sector-specific analysis of the use of ICT, and a usability study of the educational wizards. We were also involved in the local piloting and evaluation of the toolkit with local users.

The project was co-financed by the European Commission through the Joint Call for Projects in the field of Educational Multimedia.

The front page of the Extranet Education (EXE) web site

More information about the project and the tools developed can be found on the EXE project web site.

EXE web site: http://www.comune.bologna.it/iperbole/exe/

Contact details

Claire Bradley
Learning Technology Research Institute
London Metropolitan University
35 Kingsland Road, London, E2 8AA
Email: c.bradley@londonmet.ac.uk
Tel : +44 (0)207 749 3756
Fax: +44 (0)207 749 3781
WWW: http://www.londonmet.ac.uk/ltri

Last updated 21 December, 2010