Learning Objects defintion & r they passe?

Many people define a learning object as a piece of information that is uploaded onto some sort of site. I do not agree with this. The salient word is learning. A piece of information in itself is not necessarily a learning object. For a piece to be a learning object there must be an intention to assist learning- what is the purpose to assist the student's understanding/learning. As a teacher or facilitator one needs to have an aim and objective for the learning object and have thought through how its effectiveness as a learning object is to be evaluated. Also how is one to assess the student's learning is also an important facet. If no learning objects are to be assessed or evaluated what's the point of them in the first place? Learning objects therefore do not need to be reuseable to be classified as such as long as they meet my aforementioned critieria (however once developed it is obviously useful if they can be reapplied).
Again it is offered that learning objects are past their use by date. I do not think so necessarily. It almost smacks of digital snobbery- that LOs are old hat. If they are well designed with a specific purpose trhen they can be more than useful to assist student's learning.
AndrewLL