Teaching and Learning

Report on ’Sharing Learning Designs: Lessons from the LAMS Community’, presented by James Dalziel, Macquarie University, Australia

I'll begin by noting that James’s presentation was not designed for an audience of ‘specialists’ or LAMS practitioners - many attendees were totally new to LAMS, or else use ED-MEDIA as their annual opportunity to glean news on the latest updates. James began by introducing LAMS, explaining that it is a toolset for adding structure / scaffolding to the learning process, and in particular, building a framework for educational activities "that a simple list of course resources on a [web] page [or LMS site] doesn’t have".

Second Life is a virtual world with tens of millions of square meters of virtual lands, more than 13 million "residents," and a thriving economy. The ease in which users can build and modify virtual spaces has made it an attractive choice for experiments in learning space design and educational experiences such as virtual field trips or the creation of galleries to display student-created media. The 7 Things You Should Know About Second Life, EDUCAUSE Learning Initiative’s (ELI) latest brief in the monthly series, examines how Second Life lets educators easily build and modify learning spaces to test how different strategies for a physical space affect learning and how a similar approach can be taken toward educational activities in those spaces.

This hour and thirteen minute podcast features a panel discussion from the EDUCAUSE 2008 Southeast Regional Conference. The participants of this general session, "Supporting Faculty Adoption of Emerging Technologies: Wanderlust or Creating a Campus Roadmap?," include:

EDUCAUSE Now is a monthly podcast, focusing on the intelligent use of information technology in higher education. Each episode features a variety of stories, interviews, and views that relate to IT in higher education.  Let us know what you would like to hear at podcast@educause.edu.

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This episode of EDUCAUSE Now features:

Web 2.0 tools have the power to transform education. Such a transformation requires that faculty, students, and institutions take risks. With those risks comes fear, which is often unarticulated. How do you tackle this fear and make real change?

In this 43 minute podcast we feature a conversation from the ELI 2008 Annual Meeting. Our particpants consist of a group of five higher ed professionals who co-presented the session, "Who's Afraid of Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts, and the Big Bad CMS? A Digi-Drama About Fear 2.0."

They include:

Check out this innovative series of multi-site symposia, organised by the Australian Council for Educational Research and education.au, which runs until 12 June. Mark Pesce's key note, 'Those Whacky Kids', will raise your eyebrows and make you think.

The symposia theme is "to explore and illuminate the possibilities and the realities of the implementation of the Digital Education revolution (DER)." Now, I think I get it with regards to the digital revolution, but I have to say, "DER" strikes me as a somewhat pointless acronym, and an unintentionally humorous one at that. More creative thinking hats, and more collaborative events like this one, please -- and less acronyms.