Forum LAMS Lounge Forum: Re: Using LAMS for a workshop

By: Leanne Cameron

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Hi Caroline

I have done this in a couple of different ways. The first time I brought in 6 laptops that I had checked worked perfectly and spread them around the lecture theatre. It was a brainstorming exercise so the students grouped around the computers and submitted their ideas and they were collated in the LAMS sequence. I had the Monitor screen up on the data projector so we could all watch the picture build. This worked well technically - no hiccups but with only 6 laptops, obviously not everyone had a voice.

The second time was a similar instance to the one you describe - a majority had their own laptops. We had a few technical glitches that some students found very frustrating - some laptops had their pop-up blockers turned on so the LAMS screens wouldn't open, some were using Browsers that didn't operate as expected, and some had other issues, the cause of which was never resolved. We had both PC and Macs in this case and I could not recommend one over the other - the problems were not restricted to one platform.

Having said that, with the right LAMS sequence, it is an incredible learning experience. My suggestion for the best possible outcome would be to give everyone a test sequence to try BEFORE the session. If they can't get that to work, then they have time to explore solutions before wasting your lecture trying to resolve any problems.

The other thing you might like to bear in mind: allow plenty of time for this activity. You might be surprised how engaging this is for your audience. And then they are very likely to want to do it again ...

Let us know how you go.

Regards
Leanne Cameron

Posted by Leanne Cameron