Learning design: introducing pre-service education students to the concept using LAMS

While pre-service teachers need to be competent and confident users of technology (Cowie & Jones, 2005), universities also need to provide them with knowledge about attitudes, values and pedagogical understanding in respect to Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) (Cameron, 2007). These prospective teachers need to develop a fundamental understanding about the nature of technological change and their own abilities to confront this change(Phelps & Ellis, 2003). ICTs for teaching and learning are continually changing and being replaced by the newest "must have" technologies, so the long-term value of university skills-based technology courses for pre-service teachers must be questioned. It has been determined that ICT-based courses will hold more long-term value 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 course emphasis must shift to create a collaborative, challenging and supportive learning environment within which students are 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).