An overview of LAMS trials in schools in Australia and New Zealand James Dalziel Professor of Learni

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An overview of LAMS trials in schools in
Australia and New ZealandJames
DalzielProfessor of Learning Technology, and
Director, Macquarie E-Learning Centre Of
Excellence (MELCOE)Macquarie University
james_at_melcoe.mq.edu.auwww.melcoe.mq.edu.auPre
sentation for the 2007 European LAMS Conference,
University of Greenwich, July 5th, 2007
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Overview

• Nature of the trials
• Key student themes
• Key teacher themes
• Reflections

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Nature of the Trials

• Range of trials during 2005 and 2006
• 4 major trials with 5-25 schools and 15-40
  teachers
• Many individual school trials
• Trials involved running LAMS with students, not
  just teacher exploration of the system
• Mixture of both primary and secondary schools
• All LAMS V1 based
• Some included use of LAMS with Moodle
• Several trials produced internal reports that
  have not been made public
• New trials/rollout in 2007 with V2 not covered
  here

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Key Student Themes (1)

• Positive to very positive general reaction to
  LAMS
• Students appreciated ability to work at own pace
• Support for individual learning preferences/style
• Collaboration was highly valued and enjoyable
• Surprisingly little off task use the context
  of activities seemed to help focus the use of
  tools like Chat and Forum
• Support for diversity in the classroom

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Key Student Themes (2)

• Much initial use was in computer labs for
  synchronous activities, but over time many
  students also completed online tasks from home
  (asynchronously)
• LAMS could support gifted/talent students through
  extension activities
• The range and flexibility of LAMS tools enhanced
  engagement and motivation

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Key Student Themes (3)

• Students appreciated being stepped through the
  relevant tasks didnt get lost (in terms of
  what they were meant to be doing)
• Students appreciated activity tools like QA that
  give every student an equal voice
• Students were positive about the look and feel,
  colours, interface, etc

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Key Student Themes (4)

• Less positive/negative aspects included
• Some technical problems due to LAMS bugs or
  network configuration problems
• Initially, some students would race through a
  sequence to see what all the tasks were, without
  doing each task properly
• Some students found the linear approach too rigid
  at times
• Students noted that some teachers who were new to
  LAMS would often start by building very large,
  impractical sequences, and only with experience
  would they limit the scope of a sequence or break
  it into several sequences

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Key Teacher Themes (1)

• Many teachers report that using LAMS has led them
  to reflect on their general ideas and approaches
  to pedagogy
• Seeing the teaching and learning process has a
  significant impact on self-reflection about
  teaching
• Some commented that despite having used a range
  of technology tools, LAMS was the first system to
  provoke this kind of reflection
• Teachers noted that LAMS supported Guidelines for
  good pedagogy/quality learning/student-centred
  approaches, etc

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Key Teacher Themes (2)

• Some teachers reported that using LAMS allowed
  them to focus on individual mentoring for those
  who needed it as the system was managing the
  flow of tasks for the rest of the class
• Most teachers found LAMS easy to use, although a
  few found it challenging
• While some teachers found it quick to use, more
  reported that it took some time to understand
  initially, but once the basics were understood,
  it was then quick to use

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Key Teacher Themes (3)

• Many teachers were attracted to the idea of
  sharing and re-using sequences, and in many
  trials, sequence adaptation and re-use was seen
• Much of this was done within projects, not
  openly through sites like the LAMS Community
• LAMS was seen as a good complement to existing
  content such as documents, slides, websites, etc
• Seen as a safe and focused way to use the web

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Key Teacher Themes (4)

• LAMS helped teachers to expand the range of
  pedagogical approaches they would consider
• Once teachers understood the technology, it
  encouraged them to take (modest) risks on new
  teaching ideas
• Teachers appreciated the monitoring functions
• Both for seeing live class progress, as well as
  for seeing a record of past student activities
• Well designed sequences supported high order
  thinking skills

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Key Teacher Themes (5)

• Some less positive/negative aspects were
• Some teachers found LAMS initially difficult to
  use, or required considerable time to understand
• Technical problems were a major challenge for
  teachers who were not confident with technology
  could undermine willingness to try new approaches
• Some teachers found LAMS useful as a planning
  tool, but were not confident to use it in the
  classroom

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Reflections

• Many positive aspects for both students and
  teachers
• Technical problems and learning curve were the
  main negatives
• Re-use and adaptation was seen in some cases
• Several trials did not move ahead to rollout due
  to local political problems, despite positive
  outcomes
• If trials were stopped, many teachers were unable
  to continue using the technology without central
  support