One of these things just doesn’t belong.
Can you tell which one is not like the others
By the time I finish this song?
From earliest childhood, learning objects have been used to teach critical thinking skills. Matching, pairing, discerning similarities and differences: All these activities can utilize the same learning objects but in different contexts. The same can be true for online learning objects.
How nice it would be to have a database of useful objects that was organized in such a manner that an educator could pick and choose objects to teach great lessons without so much background work. Unfortunately, as stated in this same article, “We strongly doubt that the educational content industry has not learned a lesson watching these other[music, video, etc] industries; this will likely prevent this industry from making or marketing digitized versions of its content. Publishers’ fear of file-sharing networks will likely prevent an “educational object economy” from ever materializing. How sad.
Even though it can be overwhelming to gather or create enough learning objects to teach a given idea, I think it is immensely easier now than in any other time in history. The Internet is loaded with such objects and most things are there for the taking. Supplementing the collection with self created objects is necessary at times.
I think the reason the educational content industry has not taken off on making learning objects is two-fold: one, they put much more effort into making them than is profitable; two, the creativity aspect: deciding what to produce and predicting how teachers might use them. I suggest teachers start their own sharing libraries. CreativeCommons.org is a great start.
I agree with you that now is the time to start incorporating digital learning objects. I think it does require some what Koppi referred to as a “change in thinking”.
Recently, I took a class on digital historical documents. I was surprised at the number of teachers who would continue to use non-digital resources. They had used these resources for years and couldn’t see the benefits of using digital resources.
I still worry that without stressing that teachers need to add context to these learning objects they could do more harm than good.
Rachel Palmer
I find it interesting that one of the things (I think – not mentioned in our readings, but still) they are striving for is standardization of learning objects. Why do they need to be the same? As soon as I broadened my definition of “learning objects” in my head – a whole new world opened up for me (in a manner of speaking).
Rebecca Kirstein: I agree, I think it is what makes learning objects interesting is the fact that so many are available and they are different and unique. It is important that the results be monitored and that students are learning to standards but how it is done can be diverse.
OMG! I loved (and STILL love) Sesame Street and was totally singing along with that song as I was reading it.
I agree that it would be nice to have a database of objects available where you can just choose from a variety of learning objects for use in the instructional design process. My worry is about the design of them. Since the information this week didn’t give a lot of detail on that I wonder about the design of these objects. Should it be all electronic or could it vary with hard copy materials?