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

Scibd

I found this: Scribd http://discoverymail.com/a/hBF-lEgAJcM3mBBJMt1A$odB1OH/ks301...a very useful Web 2.0 online application which allows you to upload a file in common formats (i.e. PPT, DOC, TXT, XLS, etc.) and an Adobe Flash Paper version is created in a player. You can easily embed the player and the content on your own Web page or blog, you can have the item viewed and even read-aloud right from Scribd's site, or you can download the uploaded file in PDF, TXT, and even the read-aloud file in MP3 format for putting on an audio device.
What do people think about using this site?
Are some of the posts from others a turn off from using the site?
Andrew

SEOmoz's Web 2.0 Awards

SEOmoz's Web 2.0 Awards

The Boss is interested in.....

I've been discussing the various platforms we've been using for our on-line seminars with my school principal. She's the co-ordinator of an international educational leaders group. when they want to get together to discuss issues/ share knowledge etc. they have to fly half way across the world. We see that software such as skype & elluminate offering the oppt for people internationally located to regularly meet in a real time discussion ( and face to face of sorts) of educational matters whilst keeping the cost down.

Web 2.0 is really mainstream now!!

Web 2.0 is really mainstream now.... South Park on Monday parodied 2nd life.
It was interesting that it portrayed those that want to spend their waking hours in this virtual reality (what is reality anyway?) as junk food, pus & sore ridden slovenly losers. The graphics for the virtual world were quite good by the way.
Andrew

Response to Comments on Web 2.0

Thanx for your comments. The Web 2.0 certainly allows us to engage in more of a 2 way i/action across the web. As a result I agree that it provides exciting opportunities to engage students of all ages in learning. It is also noticeable that this concept of web2.0 is now entering the vernacular of the mainstream... interesting article in the insight section of Saturday's edition of 'The Age' (more about that later). However I don't resile from the point that as educators we also need to carefully and attentively ensure the safety of our students. An example of this was brought home to me this week in one of the educational on-line resources that I subscribe to that was presented as a web2.0 initiative. It was for a site that "...a very useful Web 2.0 online application which allows you ...embed the player and the content on your own Web page or blog,.." Unfortunately it had in it numerous risque articles unsuitable for listing with primary educators/students. So lets use the wonderful opportunities with our students that web 2.0 offers but not take our eyes off the ball in regards to their safety.

Defintion of Web 2.0

After reading through numerous and varied discourses on the Defintion of Web 2.0. It seems to me that Web 2.0 incorporates existing and new innovations that allow people to interactively connect with one another! what do you think?