Dear Go-Lab teachers,
I am happy to present to you the third Go-Lab newsletter under the Next-Lab project. The Next-Lab project is the follow-up of the Go-Lab project and currently the main sponsoring project of Go-Lab. As you may have noticed we have now definitely decided to keep using the name Go-Lab and more specifically, Go-Lab sharing platform (www.golabz.eu) and Go-Lab authoring platform (graasp.eu). For both platforms together we will use the term Go-Lab ecosystem. There is again a lot to tell you about the Next-Lab project and our Go-Lab ecosystem.
New labs. The number of labs (now 476) will soon increase further now we will add a large number of labs from the Amrita collection to Golabz. This collection covers labs on biology, chemistry, and physics. If you want to preview an Amrita lab from Golabz you need to subscribe and ask for a password, if you include an Amrita lab in your ILS, students can use it straight away without additional login.
One new remote lab that was added is a lab by Lars-Jochen Thoms from LMU Munich on spectrometers. A very nice remote lab that has won a prize at the exp.at conference last month in Portugal. You can check it out here.
Another new, now virtual lab, that offers something new is the “seesaw” lab from Leo Siiman (from our partner the University of Tartu). With this lab, you can make two different ILSs each of which gives students control over only one side of the seesaw. Students can collaborate over a distance, exchange objects to be placed on the seesaw, and chat (via the SpeakUp app) to discuss the position of the seesaw. Still some additions and changes will be made but you can check out this lab already here.
New app. We will soon add a new, simple, but very useful, app: the Go-Lab Viewer. Suppose a student is creating hypotheses in the hypothesis scratchpad and later likes to consult these hypotheses when doing an experiment. As it currently is the students has to go back to the ILS phase in which the hypothesis scratchpad was situated and then go back and forth between the different phases. With the viewer app you can let the students see what they created in a previous hypothesis scratchpad (or concept map, observation app, etc.) so that they do not have to switch between phases anymore. If you combine the viewer app with the Graasp show/hide option (so that students can minimize and maximize the viewer app) it will not occupy too much space. This app was created after request from our users, so thank you for this!
New brochures and new Golabz interface. We are very proud of the new brochures that were created for Go-Lab and Next-Lab. You can download them here. Also, our sharing platform Golabz will be renewed. We hope to launch the new Golabz after the school holidays. It will show a new, crispy, design, new mascottes, a better search function, and more simplicity in a number of facilities (e.g., publishing ILSs). To the right a sneak preview of how the new Golabz will look like is shown, so stay tuned until after the holidays!
New help facility. If you like support when creating ILSs or using ILSs in your classroom or when just exploring Golabz, our support team is ready to support you. There is a new way to get direct access to support which you can find at the right bottom of Golabz and Graasp. The system is called Intercom and with this system, we try to give you very quick support. Just click on the Intercom symbol at the right bottom of the Golabz or Graasp platform and you can enter into a dialogue with the Go-Lab support team.
Training facilities. As we did in the Go-Lab project we will continue our training workshops. This summer Next-Lab organizes a summer school for expert Go-Lab teachers but many more opportunities will follow, also for Teacher Training Institutes and Primary school teachers, two of our new target groups. We will keep you posted through the (new) Next-Lab website.
Go-Lab community. As an active Go-Lab teacher you may be interested to join the “Meet and Greet Go-Lab teachers” initiative If you register for this activity here we will design your personal poster which will appear on the Go-Lab social media. Other teachers may then find you and be in touch when they see common interests. Apart from the “Meet and Greet” you can also respond to the open Call for Teachers here, and get the opportunity to participate to National trainings and become Go-Lab Expert teacher.
I realize this was a long newsletter but there was much to share! I wish you all a relaxing holiday period (and if you have made a nice ILS you could consider using this period to publish it on Golabz). Our team looks forward to seeing you back after the holidays and hope you join in for new activities in the new school year!
You can download the newsletter here.
Kind regards,
Ton de Jong
Next-Lab coordinator
