Imagine the impact on education if educators had global access to repositories of "learning objects"; hundreds of thousands of small pieces of information which could be strung together to meet the needs of an individual student at the time of need. Suppose you are studying Binomial Theorem in your foundational algebra class. You could type in the topic and related objects would appear allowing you, as the teacher, to quickly construct multimedia lessons. Objects may include:
- Pictures of Pascal's Triangle from several of it's cultural iterations
- Historical notes
- Presentation slides demonstrating the process of using Pascal's Triangle in order to perform binomial expansion
- Sample problems including solutions
- Pre-made hand outs for student notes
- Animations showing the construction of Pascal's Triangle
- Worksheets for skill practice
- Audio files reviewing the process of creating Pascal's Triangle or the process of binomial expansion
Now imagine all of these objects available to anyone, world-wide, at any time, at no cost, and that contributions to expand and improve the available body of knowledge could be made globally. Yes, the gain is pervasive beyond the world of education but the benefit to our students may be. Not only would it increase efficiency in teaching but the information contained has the potential be the one piece which sparks interest in a student to become a life long learner. We as educators are no longer islands contained within the bounds of our classroom walls; we must not only reach out to our students but reach out to each other to support learning at a global level.
Brian Harvey's full article on learning objects can be found at http://www.irrodl.org/index.php/irrodl/article/view/227/310
1 comment:
Marvin,
You offer a very thorough description of what is possible in its best form. I have not seen the process to be that easy -though I hope it is in 10 years. In my post I noted that LOs were being developed 10 years ago, with little happening except on the military front. There are many possible reasons; lack of funding, lack of technology, perhaps lack of a dedicated programmer in the education technology field. For whatever reason, it has the potential envisioned years ago, and now there is more content to work with. Now, I think it needs an easy and intuitive interface for gathering the objects into lessons.
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