Many of you will be interested to know about this s/w. Madhuresh Singhal Aurigene Discovery Technologies Limited, Electronic City, phase II, Hosur Road, Bangalore 560100 Phone 28521314-16 Ext.- 422 Mobile 98861 82822 E-mail: madhureshsinghal@yahoo.com http://nettalk2.tripod.com/     -----Original Message----- From: ELEARN-OPENSOURCE [mailto:ELEARN-OPENSOURCE@LST.IIEP-UNESCO.ORG] On Behalf Of David Glasson Sent: Tuesday, April 19, 2005 5:01 AM To: ELEARN-OPENSOURCE@LST.IIEP-UNESCO.ORG Subject: [IIEP] LAMS now Open Source Dear All,     Please see below the Media Release about LAMS becoming Open Source last Wednesday.     All the best,     David Glasson    Innovative e-learning system launched as open source software April 2005 Following successful trials at Macquarie University and over 40 schools and 35 universities/colleges in UK and Australia during 2004, the revolutionary new e-learning system known as LAMS - the Learning Activity Management System - was officially launched as freely available open source software on Wednesday 13 April. LAMS is an innovative software program that allows teachers to design, manage and deliver online collaborative learning activities while giving students an interactive environment in which to do their work.  It is effective in various modes of delivery (face to face, distance), and while it has obvious applications within the school and university sectors, it can be equally well applied to other educational settings, such as corporate and vocational training. Teachers use LAMS to design a sequence of learning activities for students that includes content and collaborative tasks. It then runs the sequence of tasks for students, allowing teachers to monitor and track student progress. It has impressed many senior educators who have followed its progress in a series of trials around the world prior to its official launch, with the software already being used at two of the world's top universities, Oxford and Cambridge, as well as several Australian universities. LAMS is also being trialled in more than 40 schools and 15 polytechnics in Britain, the US and a number of schools in Australia, including Tara Anglican School for Girls, Normanhurst Boys High School and Glenorie Public School. LAMS has the potential to dramatically increase student engagement and learning: in one K-12 school pilot evaluation, only 16 per cent of students were willing to discuss ideas in front of their peers in the classroom, but over 83 per cent of the same students were willing to discuss their ideas via 'chat' and other collaborative facilities within LAMS. "The decision to make LAMS freely available as open source software will be of significant benefit to education worldwide, in keeping with the founding spirit of the World Wide Web," says Professor of Learning Technology at Macquarie University and inventor of LAMS, James Dalziel. "We know from the many trials that LAMS has a profound impact on both teachers and students and could transform not just e-learning, but education itself," Dalziel adds. The open source launch of the software under the General Public Licence (GPL) means that users will be able to look at, use and modify it freely. Linux and Apache are some of the best-known examples of open source software. Open source GPL software is also characterised by the fact that any user who modifies it and then redistributes it, must make the modified version also 'open source' (GPL). LAMS is managed by the not-for-profit LAMS Foundation, with implementation services provided by LAMS International Pty Ltd. Both organisations are supported by Macquarie University. For more information visit www.lamsinternational.com and www.lamsfoundation.org. LAMS was launched as open source software by Macquarie University Vice-Chancellor Professor Di Yerbury  on Wednesday 13 April 2005 in the Yerbury Room, Macquarie University. Prior the launch a three-hour pre-launch workshop was held to demonstrate how the concepts of learning design and its implementation in the LAMS software can transform education and training. Contact: David Glasson.  dglasson@lamsinternational.com.  Telephone  +61 2 98509793 Jonathan Clare  jclare@lamsinternational.com.  Telephone +61 2 9850 8652 Professor James Dalziel, james@lamsfoundation.com. Telephone +0412 512218