An overview of LAMS trials in schools in Australia and New

Zealand

James DalzielProfessor of Learning Technology, and Director,

Macquarie E-Learning Centre Of Excellence (MELCOE)Macquarie University

james@melcoe.mq.edu.auwww.melcoe.mq.edu.au

Presentation for the 2007 European LAMS Conference, University of Greenwich, July 5th, 2007

Overview

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

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

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

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

Key Student Themes (3)

• Students appreciated being stepped through the relevant tasks – didn’t get lost (in terms of what they were meant to be doing)

• Students appreciated activity tools like Q&A that give every student an equal voice

• Students were positive about the look and feel, colours, interface, etc

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

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

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

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

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

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

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