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1: Newsletter 43, 24th Sep, 06
09/24/06 05:05 AM
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A busy week in China

I've just arrived home from a busy week in Wuhan, Central China. I was attending the biannual meeting of the ISO e-learning technical standards committee (SC36), and also had the opportunity to catch up with LAMS colleagues at Huazhong Normal University (HNU - who were co-hosting the ISO SC36 meeting). The three items for this week's newsletter all arise from this trip - especially the exciting announcement in the final item.

(By the way, the "Normal" in the English name of Chinese universities like HNU is an odd translation - the Chinese word means "teacher model", ie, a university for teacher education.)

Learning More About LAMS

This short presentation (given at Huazhong Normal University on 21st Sep, 2006) assumes you have basic familiarity with LAMS, and that you want to teach yourself more about it via the key education and technical resources on the web. This presentation would be useful for anyone who is determined to teach themselves, but is not sure where to start - it contains brief background information and 18 key URLs.

http://www.lamscommunity.org/dotlrn/clubs/educationalcommunity/lamsresearchdevelopment/forums/attach/go-to-attachment?object_id=306302&attachment_id=306304

ISO SC36 Working Group 2 - Collaborative Technologies

E-learning technical standards have been mostly about content-centric approaches to e-learning. I'm pleased to say one important exception to this trend is Wording Group 2 of ISO SC36. While still at a fairly early stage, the group clearly recognises the importance of collaboration to the education process, and hence the need for appropriate technical standards. One of the main areas of current work is on standards for describing and storing collaborative data (eg, postings to forums, chat records, etc) - in the future this may be relevant to the new "portfolio export" feature of LAMS V2.

For an overview of current WG2 work, see http://isotc.iso.org/livelink/livelink/5687095/36N1396_Second_Draft_Agenda_for_the_2006-09_ISO_IEC_JTC1_SC36_WG2_Meeting__Normal_University__Wuhan__China.pdf?func=doc.Fetch&nodeid=5687095

Media Release: LAMS International signs China e-learning partnership

22 September 2006, Wuhan, China

LAMS International Pty Ltd and the Engineering Research Centre of Education Information Technology (EITEC), Huazhong Normal University (HNU) today signed a partnership agreement for the promotion and implementation of LAMS in Chinese universities and schools.

LAMS is the world’s leading “digital lesson planning” system that is used by thousands of educators across the globe. LAMS provides an innovative “drag and drop” authoring system that empowers educators to create and run digital lesson plans in under 10 minutes. LAMS is freely available as open source software, with support services provided by LAMS International.

Huazhong Normal University is one of China’s leading teacher education universities. The HNU Engineering Research Centre of Education Information Technology is a National Centre of the Chinese Ministry of Education. Professor Yang Zongkai (Vice-President of HNU and director of EITEC) is one of China’s leading e-learning experts, and is Co-Chair of an ISO e-learning standards working group.

“We’re delighted to be collaborating with EITEC, Huazhong Normal University for the rollout of LAMS within China”, said Professor Dalziel. “Ever since the Chinese translation of LAMS V2 was announced, we’ve had enormous interest from China. This partnership with some of China’s leading e-learning experts will ensure expert training and support for LAMS in China,” he said.

“We are very pleased to lead the promotion and development of LAMS in China,” said Professor Yang. “LAMS will have a special benefit for China through its support for ‘bi-directional’ education – education in which not only the teacher speaks to the students, but also the students speak to the teacher and with each other. We look forward to supporting LAMS in China, and contributing to the development of the software,” he said.

Professor James Dalziel is Managing Director of LAMS International and Professor of Learning Technology at Macquarie University, Sydney Australia. LAMS development is led by the Macquarie E-Learning Centre Of Excellence (MELCOE) in Sydney, Australia. LAMS is managed by the non-profit LAMS Foundation, with support services provided by LAMS International Pty Ltd. Both LAMS organisations are supported by Macquarie University.

Posted by James Dalziel

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