Forum LAMS Newsletter: Newsletter 63, 21st Dec, 07

By: James Dalziel

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Branching!! LAMS V2.1 demo accounts now available

Here's a great way to end the year! LAMS V2.1 will be a major step forward for LAMS - it includes powerful new features such as branching (teacher choice, group-based or tool output-based), optional sequences, and many more features.

We've recently released a test version of LAMS V2.1 so you can start to explore the new features, and help us test it. As this is a test version, there will be some bugs and we can't guarantee anything about the reliability of this server as we're still working on it. But with those caveats in mind, you're welcome to sign up for an account to explore 2.1, and please post any issues to the technical forums of the LAMS Community.

To sign up for a LAMS V2.1 test account, see
http://stinger.melcoe.mq.edu.au/

For an animated walkthrough of the new branching features, see
http://saturn.melcoe.mq.edu.au/lams2/docs/winks/branch1.htm

We expect the full release of LAMS V2.1 to be in February 2008.


2008 European LAMS Conference - call for papers/presentations & Stephen Downes Keynotes

The 2008 European LAMS Conference will be held in Cadiz, Spain on June 25-27th. We are pleased to announce the call for papers/presentations for the conference (due by February 22nd) - for further details, see
http://lams2008.lamsfoundation.org/index.htm

As a first for LAMS Conferences, there will be both English and Spanish presentations and workshops during this conference - see the website for initial schedule details. We also plan to have one day (27th) devoted to Pedagogic Planners and any related approaches (not just LAMS) - more details in early 2008.

I'm also delighted to announce that Stephen Downes will be joining us as a Keynote Speaker at this conference. Stephen has had important insights into the strengths and weaknesses of Learning Design as a concept, so we look forward to his presentation.


2nd International LAMS Conference - audio and presentations now available

We had a fantastic LAMS conference at Macquarie University a few weeks back - many thanks to all who presented, attended, and helped make it possible! As with past LAMS conferences, we try to provide audio recordings and slides on the conference website after the event for those who couldn't make it - most of these are now available, see
http://lams2007sydney.lamsfoundation.org/program.htm

Australian voted for a change of government the weekend just before the conference, and Senator Stephens from the incoming Rudd Labor Government sent a letter of welcome to all attendees at the conference, including discussion of how LAMS will contribute to future education policy in Australia. The letter is available at
http://lams2007sydney.lamsfoundation.org/pdfs/Ursula%20Stephens%20Letter.doc

Finally, we found organising this conference at the "home" of LAMS was helpful, so we expect that future versions of this conference will be held in Sydney at Macquarie University, and be at the end of each year.


Preview function for LAMS Community sequences

We've recently implemented a "Preview" button on the sequence details page for sequences in the LAMS Community repository - this allows you to immediately see the Learner view of a sequence you have found on the LAMS Community (without having to download it and upload it into your local LAMS account).

NB: You can also jump to any activity within a Preview sequence - just double click on the activity you want to go to in the progress bar on the left of the preview view (this applies not just to the LAMS Community, but to all use of Preview in Authoring). Many thanks to Ernie for this very useful feature!


Cape Town Open Education Declaration

In September I spent two days in Cape Town with a wonderful group of people working on a declaration about the principles of Open Education. The outcome of this process is now public - the "Cape Town Open Education Declaration" - see
http://www.capetowndeclaration.org/

LAMS and the LAMS Community are based on the same ideals as this declaration, so I encourage all interested LAMS Community members to read this, and if they agree, sign on in support. My hope, together with many others, is that this Declaration will help move us towards a world where education resources are freely shared, adapted and improved to the benefit of education and society.

On a related note, I've posted a new article about the role of LAMS in open education, see
http://www.lamscommunity.org/dotlrn/clubs/educationalcommunity/lamsresearchdevelopment/forums/message-view?message%5fid=524228


Merry Christmas and all the best for 2008!

Best wishes to everyone in the LAMS Community. This newsletter will start again in February, and should be (approximately) monthly during 2008.

Posted by James Dalziel