Learning Objects: Theory, Practice, Resistance and Rehabilitation

Brian Lamb, University of British Columbia, Canada

Workshop: Learning Objects

As digital media is used more prominently by educators of all kinds, and as costs continue to escalate, the notion of "learning objects" continues to be invoked as a solution to problems, as a set of interoperability standards, and as a way of describing reusable media.

Feverish activity around the globe has resulted in an imposing body of requirements documentation, some impressive collections of resources, mostly disappointing levels of reuse and never-ending debate on the insoluble question of "what is a learning object?"

This workshop will provide a pragmatically-focused introduction to how educational media is created, collected and shared. The triumphs of the learning object approach will be considered alongside their discontents. Hands-on activities will be interspersed with discussions on organizational implications, policy, online culture and copyright. Finally, the session will explore emergent alternatives to the centralized "mainstream learning object movement", such as distributed online communities that share resources and expertise via weblogs, wikis, RSS, social bookmarking tools and "folksonomies".