Lego to continue supporting RIS until 2009

I don't know if this means January 2009 or December 2009, so for those of you who are still using RIS and RoboLab in your classrooms or after-school programs, that means you've got anywhere from 2-1/2 to 3-1/2 years of continued support.

Yesterday I posted a link to the Education NXT blog's announcement about the new RoboLab, version 2.9 - there was a LOT of information in that posting. One thing I'm very interested in is this new website that is supposed to be available in June 2006.

According to the posting, this website will allow teacher-to-teacher communication - sharing tips, tricks, and possibly curriculum. The stated purpose is a website "dedicated to teaching math, science, and engineering with LEGO bricks... online support and advice... [combining] the existing platform with the new..."

I don't know if those of us NOT in the education field will have access, but I will try to find out. [TO LEGO EDUCATION: It would be nice for those of us who have kids who might not attend schools or programs that focus on Mindstorms to have access to this website.]