The most common problem I hear from schools is that they can’t get LAMS to work properly. This is most often due to their settings and reading the installation manual sorts that out pretty quickly. LAMS requires pop-up blockers to be turned off, which is not the normal specification for a school server. Additionally, Chat and Forums are often activities that school systems are not happy to have in operation so they are disabled by default. Why the thought of students discussing a learning activity with each other is threatening to school administrators is still something I cannot understand (and I have written papers trying to demonstrate the advantages of their use in classrooms but it is still a battle in some quarters
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Additionally, LAMS doesn’t have all the features of some learning management systems that are important to schools, eg. a Markbook. But learning management systems can’t sequence activities or branch – two things that teachers really like about LAMS. (However, if you are using LAMS within Moodle, access to the markbook may be possible in the near future, I have been told.)
Once LAMS is actually up and running properly, the major complaint I hear is that students find the LAMS sequence boring. Sitting there, reading long pages of text on the screen, then answering comprehension questions is quite tedious - just as it would be with a textbook. This is more an issue of lesson design. Online learning is really no different to classroom teaching so you have to mix up the activities and if you capitalize on the huge range of learning objects and multimedia resources at their disposal, kids don’t find it boring at all.
Posted by Leanne Cameron
