5 July 2005
Futurelab, Bristol

What is Futurelab Open House?

Pioneering ways of using innovation to transform the learning experience, Futurelab acts as a catalyst for productive partnerships between people with creative talent, technical know-how and educational expertise.

This first Open House showcase was a unique opportunity to experience the results of these partnerships. On display were both prototypes and future ideas for innovative technologies to aid learning as well as Futurelab literature reviews - jargon-free reports that summarise key research findings in key areas such as mobile technologies and science education.

Whether you are a software developer, teacher, educational researcher or from the creative industries or education policy sector, we would like to inspire you to get involved in educational innovation.

Some of the experiences that were on offer...

Train as a space explorer at an orbiting academy, overcoming disaster when invaded by aliens wielding poisonous toxins - Astroversity

Set up and drive your own racing car, changing its engineering properties to get the better of your competitors - Racing Academy

Visualise the 'landscape of the future' in both 2D and 3D, deciding how best to develop a wind farm or a shopping development - Future Landscapes

Generate and manipulate sights and sounds to create your very own audiovisual 'soundtrack' - Jungulator

Become involved in a participatory guided tour, exploring usually inaccessible regions - Mudlarking in Deptford

Use a web-based tool to understand and visualise your position in society - World Power League

Become a news photographer, investigating and reporting on a virtual world of politicians, vagabonds and street artists - Snapshot

Learn to communicate in Spanish with people in other parts of the world, using web-based audiovisual chat technology - Iya-Ola

Explore the wonders of the solar system while standing in your own street - Space Signpost (Welcome to the Neighbourhood)

Create drawings that move and interact with each other - Moovl

Design your own 3D puppets, collaborating with others in different locations to create a play set in an online digital puppet theatre - Virtual Puppeteers

Use colours and shapes to bring foreign languages to life for children, using an interactive magic box with animated characters - Skybluepink Interactive Box

Become producer and director of your own animated 3D dramas or documentaries using a virtual television studio with a cast of virtual actors - MediaStage

Become a lion for a day, embarking on a feline adventure in virtual space - Savannah

Be part of an 'emergency response team' in a multimedia adventure role-play in order to rescue astronauts on Jupiter's icy moon of Europa - Space Mission

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