JANET Collaborate Pilot Project

The JANET Collaborate prototype site is now live at www.janetcollaborate.ac.uk

Enabling an educator or academic to find others that share the same interests is seen by many to be a fundamental service. This applies equally to those in Schools, Further and Higher Education, and Research. Furthermore, schools, colleges and universities are always looking for high quality content, and educational content providers are also looking for ways to reach students and teachers.

The aim of the proposed Collaboration Service is to enable those in education to

1. find others with shared educational interests, thus leading to educational collaboration;
2. find or offer opportunities for collaboration, especially live educational content being delivered by videoconference;
3. find associated educational resources, e.g. best practice, projects, lesson plans.

Prototype Development

The JANET Collaborate prototype is a focus for discussion around the use and introduction of a full collaboration service. If the prototype is successful this could lead to the specification, funding, development and delivery of a fully functional national collaboration service, which may be used by both students and pupils.

Delib Ltd (www.delib.co.uk), an e-democracy company based in Bristol and London, has been appointed to develop the prototype, following a competitive tender exercise.

Scope

The prototype service is available to all teachers, lecturers and educational support staff in schools, colleges and universities throughout the UK and overseas, as well as staff in associated organisations. The prototype is also available to educational content providers including museums.

Functionality

The prototype provides basic collaboration tools and is technology-agnostic. Members’ personal profiles outline interests and contact information, including details of the collaboration services to which they subscribe (e.g. JVCS Venue, Skype Handle, MSN Email Address). Members are able to:

1. search for other members with similar interests
2. send a message to another member, inviting collaboration
3. offer or request, search for and join 'opportunities' for collaboration
4. create and take part in groups and forums.

Timescale of Developments

The Prototype is now available to educators and content providers. An offical launch event was held on 3 October 2007 at the National Maritime Museum. Links below provide access to the JANET Collaborate flyer and footage recorded at the launch event.

• JANET Collaborate Launch Event
  • To play the video in your browser window - Flash Movie
  • To download the file (550Mb) - Windows Media File

• Flyer describing the JANET Collaborate pilot (PDF)

The development of the prototype and pilot is overseen by the JANET Collaborate Project Board.

• JANET Collaborate Project Board

JANET Collaborate is being developed by the Schools Strategy Group within JANET(UK). Project Manager and Schools Content Coordinator, Tim Boundy, can be contacted at tim.boundy@ja.net, 01235 822370 or at the JANET(UK) Offices, Didcot.