LAMS Conference 2006 Podcasts

Martin Weller of the Institute of Educational Technology at the Open University UK defines a Virtual Learning Environment (VLE) as an institutional response to elearning and goes on to talk about where they are today and where they are heading. Using the principles of Web 2.0, which is not only a set of technologies, but a way of thinking, Martin applies this to VLE’s to describe what a version 2.0 will look like. He talks about harnessing collective intelligence and mixing third party applications together in what is called a “mash up” in Web 2.0 terms. The podcast explores the limitations of the current versions of VLE’s and how the software itself can influence how you teach and how some VLE’s promote content-based development, while other environments, like LAMS, promote activity-based development.

Download the Martin Weller Presentation PPT which will help as Martin describes how plant succession theory applies to VLE development. Finally Martin uses a entertaining video clip of Donald Rumsfield talking about knowns and unknowns and how this model can be applied to the future of VLEs. You can access this clip from You Tube here.

Please listen to this podcast, or better still subscribe and receive all the episodes from LAMS 2006 as they are posted.

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Time zones are completely unforgiving and to make this keynote possible Professor Diana Laurillard of the London Knowledge Lab at the University of London, sat in her study late at night, in cold wintry London, while everyone at the LAMS conference was adjusting to the approaching summer and had just started the first day of the conference.

To give as much time as possible for interaction and questions Diana opted for a synchronous start in an Elluminate virtual classroom and then switched to an audio narrated presentation and then back live to answer questions. This blended approach worked well.

What a great start to LAMS2006 and Diana, as usual, left everyone thinking and this keynote was quoted numerous times during the conference

Diana spoke about:

• What does the practitioner or educator/teacher want from learning design
• What is the LD information flow – what do you have to think about
• Analysis of a project at the London Knowledge Lab including module and session planning
• Looking at pedagogical support
• Finally talking about capturing and migrating good pedagogy and the pedagogical planner project

What is an Enhanced Podcast?

This podcast episode is different from the rest, which are just audio mp3s, in that Diana’s presentation is what is called an enhanced podcast. i.e. it has images which are powerpoint slides which are synched to the audio by what is called tags or bookmarks.

It is best viewed in Apple Computers’ Quicktime or iTunes. This is free software available from this Windows download site or the Mac download site

We encourage you to subscribe to the LAMS Podcast which will include this episode. Do it by pressing the text link “Entries (RSS)” under Subscribe in the left hand column of this blog. That will open a new window and you can choose an application to receive the podcasts. If you have iTunes installed and you choose this, from then on new podcast episodes once posted to this site will appear in iTunes when it is opened or refreshed.

When this enhanced podcast format is transferred to a photo or video iPod you will be able to see the slides, as well as listen to the audio. On a computer you can also enlarge them so they can be projected for others to see.

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Skype software and VOiP telephony has made collaboration possible in a new way and podcasting a world without borders. In this the first podcast for LAMS 2006, Allan Carrington from the University of Adelaide recording directly from Skype, talks to Professor James Dalziel director of MELCOE at Macquarie University in Sydney. James is the convenor of LAMS 2006 and he begins the podcast with a great overview of exactly what LAMS is and shows why the conference theme of designing for the future is so applicable

We talk about two exciting things that set LAMS apart:

• How teachers can share and reuse a description of the educational process and not merely educational content
• The collaborative sequence structure with evidence of great educational outcomes

James shares about the keynote speakers and some of the things they will bring to the conference including Professor Diana Laurillard directly from London via a virtual classroom and using LAMS itself before and after the keynote. This is going to be a really hands on interactive keynote and definitely designing a much richer record for the future.

We then discussed hints to maximise the conference experience and how to take the knowledge back to your organisation. Such things as round table discussion and panel sessions demonstrating extremely imaginative applications of LAMS.

James talks about the LAMS community and how the conference will integrate and seed this community of practice and the hope for more LAMS conferences globally.

Please share your thoughts about this podcast in the comments to this blog

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Podcasting is one of the ‘hottest’ subjects in Learning and Teaching at the moment. However there is not a lot of research and information yet on how to design and produce educational podcasts i.e. podcasts that teach. Allan Carrington of the University of Adelaide has developed an interactive learning module called “From Podcasting to Learncasting” and it does just that. It also introduces a creative “Podagogical Framework”. If you are interested in educational podcasting then please experience this Learning Module and post your comments here.

Allan Carrington of the Centre for Learning and Professional Development (CLPD) at the University of Adelaide has developed a model for podcasting educational conferences based on experience gained pioneering podcasting at the EDUCAUSE 2005 conference in the USA. This model is being applied to the podcasting of the ASCILITE 2006 conference. For those interested in the subject of Podcasting Educational Conferences it is worth a read. Comments to help develop this further would be welcome.