Tuesday 8 February 2011

Version 15 - official announcement!

For all those schools who are waiting to hear when version 15 is being released, we have today agreed that the update will be published towards the end of the half-term on Saturday 26th February. And for all the competitors (...trial users) also following us, here's a list of some of the features we have in store!

New facilities and features:
  • Audio recording now built into the system - allowing voice recording from anywhere
  • Video recording for teachers allows creation of mini-video clips
  • Ability to grab images directly into the VLE from Flickr (single click)
  • Learning spaces/classes can now be co-authored
  • Ability to publish a school website from within the VLE
  • Multi-month calendar views
  • New feature to allow student and teacher blogs
  • More specialised themes for ages 9+ (introduced in v15.1 the following week)
  • Playlist exports and music/podcast sharing
  • We've improved the client-side runtime speed of the system
  • Initial support for Internet Explorer 9
  • A new 'virtual' web browser to allow "safe surfing" inside the VLE itself (CEOP enabled)
  • New handwriting practice tool
  • Image tracing program
Research and ongoing modules:
  • BETA: “Homework Streams” allow teachers to create homework easily
  • BETA: Google Earth explorer allows map scripting and overlay tools for teachers
  • BETA: Turtle/Robot and LOGO programming tool
  • BETA: “My Learning Bridge” is a tool underway to allow multi-school linkup’s to share content and courses.
Of course, there are literally hundreds of minor changes and tweaks which have been applied at the request of schools and 3rd parties. All clients will receive our Spring Newsletter on 15th February detailing all the changes, features and taking a look at how to make use of these new features in your lessons.

Users will be pleased to know that we'll be launching a new "Best practice vlog" which will be a Video Blog of over 50 things you can do on the system in one minute clips. An ideal way of finding out common tricks and tips to aid in using your learning platform to it's maximum potential - and making learning fun too!

Enjoy - The team @ My Learning

Did you know where we get our versions names from? Amazonian Butterflies.... Version 15 is entitled "Adelpha" representing a common, but unusual species found in Central America. Why not learning about them?

Tuesday 1 February 2011

My Learning Free Edition has been launched

On Tuesday February 1st, My Learning (UK) Ltd have officially launched a new FREE version of their Learning Platform specifically aimed to help schools with less than 100 pupils.

Entitled My Learning Free, it is a basic version of their highly successful Primary learning platform "My Learning Junior". The product will be provided freely to any primary school with less than 100 students. Schools then have the option of paying for any additional requirements such as training, support or extra features.

Business Development Director, Alan Sawyers advised "We receive many requests from smaller Primary schools who don't often have the budgets to be able to enjoy the services of their larger counterparts. The release of My Learning Free, allows these schools to join our community and then sculpt their learning platform inline with their budgets as they see fit. We want to help all sizes of schools, and My Learning Free enables us to do just that."

My Learning Free is available immediately, and any school (UK or abroad) with less than 100 pupils can apply directly using the link below:

http://www.mylearningltd.co.uk/view/free-virtual-learning-platform

Hybrid themes

As most users will already know, our system is equipped with two methods of operation:
1) A touch/button theme system allows for single click iconic operation
2) A menu driven system is slightly more verbose with more options

Since our last major release, we've been asked if we can provide some extra themes and designs for users somewhere inbetween the two editions. So, for version 15 - you'll find a new range of themes designed exclusively for users who still want touch/button operation - but with more complex and detailed designs for their age group.

The exact release date for "Adelph" (version 15) will be announced during the coming days.