During the last decade various digital educational platforms have been developed and put into place
and operation. Besides communication platforms, user and content management systems have been
created and used widely. These systems have often been called Learning Management Systems (LMS)
to focus on the processes of teaching and learning. At about the same time Immersive Virtual Learning
Environments (Immersive VLE) have been built and used to bring teachers and learners into virtual
digital contexts of artificial worlds and avatars. The contribution will discuss why all these and similar
approaches are highly technology-centered, creating a basically wrong understanding of learning in a
world of highly interactive technologies. To liberate from such approaches we will start with the concepts
of “ubiquitous computing” and “disappearing computers” merging them with basic learning theories, like
“collaborative self-directed learning” and “post-constructivism”, into a system architecture we call
Ambient Learning Environments (ALE) connecting to relevant real-world contexts (“Lebenswelt”). With
Ambient Learning Spaces (ALS) we developed a prototype of an ALE that meanwhile has been used
and studied in schools and museums for more than ten years. Initial ideas, the evolution of the system,
and experiences from case studies will be discussed to illustrate the concepts. The ALS system
architecture will be shown and proposed as a blueprint for future ALEs.