Forum LAMS Newsletter: Newsletter 36, 30th Jul, 06

By: James Dalziel

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LAMS Conference update & new presentation option

Registration is now open for the LAMS Conference in December, 2006 - see http://lamsfoundation.org/lams2006/registration.htm
You can register and pay online.

The due date for proposals has been extended to Wednesday, 9 August, 2006.

We've added a new proposal option - if you don't want to write a full/concise paper, but would like to present your work on LAMS, you can now submit just an abstract (100-200 words) for a presentation. This will suit presenters who don't require the formal acknowledgement of a paper, but nonetheless have something interesting they'd like to present.

For further details on presentation submissions, see - http://lamsfoundation.org/lams2006/papers.htm

**Remember - the deadline for proposals is Wednesday 9th of August.


Using LAMS with Learning Objects - A great example

A sequence of LAMS activities can be the ideal complement to a Learning Object such as an interactive website, multimedia, simulation, etc. A well designed sequence can act as a "wrapper" around the Learning Object - with the combined outcome of structured collaborative activities and individualised content being better than either on their own.

Another benefit of using LAMS with Learning Objects comes from using the Instructions feature in the "Share Resources" tool to provide directions to students about what to do within a Learning Object. This can foster greater re-use of Learning Objects by separating student instructions from the object itself. This separation makes it much easier for teachers to leave a generic object "as is" and simply change the text directions about how to use it (rather than expecting teachers to learn how to edit Learning Objects via HTML or Flash coding; or worse still, assuming that teachers would not want to adapt and localise Learning Objects to suit their unique context).

I recently saw an excellent example of the combination of Learning Objects and LAMS activities that I'd like to highlight. Mark Burgess has designed a sequence to teach the concept of "Waves" within upper secondary science. The sequence combines collaboration with a structured sequence of tasks, including an excellent waves simulation Learning Object (found on the internet) and other interactive websites on waves.

In particular, the use of instructions to help focus the students' use of the waves simulator is, to my mind, a perfect example of how to use a generic Learning Object with directions that apply to a particular topic. The separation of simulator and instruction text allows the Waves simulator Learning Object to be easily re-used in many other contexts without the problems of trying to change text that has been "hardcoded" into the Learning Object for one particular topic.

Mark's sequence is available at:
http://www.lamscommunity.org/dotlrn/clubs/educationalcommunity/k12schools/lams-seq//sequence?seq%5fid=239266

I recommend this sequence not only for the specific content it teaches, but also as a great example of how to use Learning Objects like a generic simulation together with LAMS activities (this approach can apply to many areas, not just science). Many thanks for sharing this with us Mark!

Given the hundreds of millions of dollars that have been spent on Learning Object projects around the world, and their modest outcomes to date, I think work of this kind has much to teach us.

Posted by James Dalziel