Introducing learning design and LAMS to pre-serviceeducation students

Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) for teaching and learning are continually changing and being replaced by the newest “must have” technologies, so how valuable are skillsbased technology courses in the long-term to pre-service teachers? While pre-service teachers need to be competent and confident users of technology (Cowie & Jones 2005), the universities also need to provide them with knowledge about attitudes, values and pedagogical understanding in respect to ICTs (Cameron 2007). These pre-service teachers need to develop a fundamental understanding about the nature of technological change and their own abilities to confront this change (Phelps & Ellis 2003). It has also been determined that ICT-based courses will hold more long-term value for the pre-service teachers if they promote generic technology skills involving authentic, reflective activities that assist them in their continued learning throughout their careers (Herrington, Oliver & Herrington 1999). Therefore, rather than simply provide and deliver specific skills-based information, the lecturer’s principal function has shifted to create a collaborative, challenging and supportive learning environment within which students were introduced to a broad range of philosophical and pedagogical issues that arise from the integration of a variety of technologies in today’s classrooms (Herrington & Oliver 2002).