Sharing your class now becomes easier

Even though the My Learning Suite is one of the easiest and most intuitive systems to use, we constantly improve the product according to user feedback. As part of the final set of updates to v14.4, teachers are now able to share their Classrooms or Learning Spaces with "co-authors".

This means that Teacher (A) can create a space, and then arrange that Teacher (B) has the same priveleges to author and maintain work. An ideal solution for split classes, or job sharing roles. The update has been applied to all users, as have the following changes:

1).  Renaming a file checks for an existing file of the same name first.
2).  Uploading a file will report errors if file name already exists in same location.
3).  Folders now show in yellow when inside a class instead of inheriting the folder icon.
4).  An occasional bug when deleting files has now been resolved.


This is the last major update before the release of "Adelph", our version 15 edition.

Audio happiness

We are pleased to announce that our current edition has been updated this morning to allow the instant embedding of audio into any document or resource. With a few clicks, users can now insert their own MP3's, podcasts and clips - or resources from the shared areas. You can also instantly download the resources and... because we like cool features, you'll also get a real-time waveform display too.

So, no need to 'attach' MP3's, now you can embed them into your documents!

Version 15 is under final testing

Inline with our corporate strategy to release 4 major updates per year for the community, version 15 of our platform will be released for mid-March. All of our releases use the names of Amazonian butterflies, and the next release is entitled "Adelpha". It will bring with it, the following new features:

• Teachers will be able to co-own Classgroups and Learning spaces - very useful for part-time teachers or split class sharing with teaching assistants.
• Our new Google Earth integration is nearing completion, which will allow teachers to embed all manner of mapping technologies.
• A re-write is underway for our MP3 and podcasting engine to allow users to easily embed music, sound and narration on the platform.
• We're working on a built-in LOGO emulator to help teachers discover this fascinating programming language to bring ICT lessons to life. (We're looking for test sites - so please get in touch!).
• Further additional themes and graphical tweaks for the system
• Enhancement to our SCORM player engine to work with mobile phones.
• We're als releasing our "Video Guru" video recording tool.

Plus, the usual minor releases and updates - so stay tuned!

Editor updates

As part of our ongoing promise to continually provide new features and friendly tools, we've enhanced our editor with two great new features:
1) You can now fix the position of your toolbar so that it locks to the screen, not the editor.
2) We've also provided a full-screen editing option.
Our users will also soon have access to a powerful templating tool which is still in beta-testing. Watch this blog, or find out details from "The lab"

New bandwidth limiting for v14.4

As part of our micro-update to the My Learning Suite (v14.4) we will be including a new option to help schools with lower internet speeds. The system will now let the school specify the bandwidth for their entire school; choosing from 1,2,4,8,16,32 and 100mb.


It then automatically determines the active users on the VLE and will distribute a shared speed to all the current users of the platform. This is extremely beneficial if a school has 30 students clicking to access a large video; as the bandwidth will automatically be controlled. It has enormous benefits when downloading at once too.

In version 14.5, to follow in late February, administrators will be able to produce reports of detailed internet use of the VLE as part of our new reporting engine. Details for v14.5 will begin to appear in our Labratory blog.

New features at BETT

We just thought we'd let all our users know some of the great new features we have this year at BETT for our suite of Learning Platforms. Things have moved on quite a bit since last year!

We will be showcasing how you can grab videos from popular video sites and pull them directly into your VLE - and now we've made the service twice as fast.

• Our new graphical drag and drop file manager (which works in all common browsers, no flash!)
• "Drift", our ongoing drag and drift technology for younger learners - amazing on whiteboards!
• Mobile learning is on display, all editions now come with mobile learning at no extra cost.
• We now support Sherston, Birchfield and Learnalot content directly within the platform. that's over 18,000 items of content (insane!)
• Fantastic new Special Educational Needs support, symbols, audio and large text reading.

In fact, there are far too many other new things to list here - so pop over to W51 and just see it!

Two new video importer sites activated

As most teachers are aware, our VLE is the only product to allow you to DIRECTLY import a YouTube video and make it part of the learning platform. If you didn't know this, then you do now!

During the Christmas break we've now added support for two further popular video websites:

www.dailymotion.com and www.metacafe.com

You can now directly copy the URL for any video on these sites, and our VLE will import the video (with thumbnails) straight into your system. Best of all, the entire process is now twice as fast! We're adding support for more video sites over the next 3 weeks as part of our update for v14.4.

Support for these two sites will be released on Wednesday 5th January.

Our new 2011 website just went live!

Let us know what you think... good or bad!

YouTube importer updated

Some users may have noticed that the YouTube importer service was offline for a few days. We've now completed an urgent upgrade on the system which will now download videos much more quickly.
Over the next few months we'll be introducing a 'queue' service which will allow you to do other things whilst the video is added to your VLE (much like FaceBook).

We have also enhanced the range of support for video downloads at YouTube and will soon be able to support the following websites too!

www.metacafe.com
video.google.com
www.photobucket.com (videos)
video.yahoo.com
www.dailymotion.com