OpenEd week 11 - Open Education and Learning Objects
Learning ObjectsThe Learning Objects Literature (Wiley, 12 pages)
RIP-ping on learning objects (Wiley, 3 pages)
Openness, Localization, and the Future of Learning Objects (Wiley, 36 minutes)
QUESTIONS: Some people believe that open educational resources “fix” many of the problems experienced by those who work with learning objects. Why do you think they would say this? Do you agree? Why or why not?
I’d like to start from the definition of OERs as it appears in the report which first introduced the term (UNESCO, 2002):
Open Educational Resources are defined as “technology- enabled, open provision of educational resources for consultation, use and adaptation by a community of users for non-commercial purposes.” They are typically made freely available over the Web or the Internet. ¼ Open Educational Resources include learning objects such as lecture material, references and readings, simulations, experiments and demonstrations, as well as syllabi, curricula and teacher’s guide.
So, Open Educational Resources include learning objects.
…and the Elephant?
I feel like being the seventh wo-man of Hindostan in the story of ”The Blind Men and the Elephant”.
And here is a quadrant of LO definitions:
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Shall we ever have LOs which activate our students learning process to reach volcanic explosions? A sort of Lava of imagination which prevents an earthquake? I don’t think this will happen until the term ‘reuse’ is interpreted as ‘technical interoperability only’ without any implication with pedagogy or contextual dimensions.
On December 10th and 11th there will be an important
OER Int
eroperability Meeting whose outcomes are:
- A checklist of recommended practices for resources
- A checklist of recommended practices for sites
- Commitments from meeting participants to review and implement the recommended practices
Looking forward for the Meeting, I’d like to present some of the problems I’m facing in re-design ScribaLAB:
PROBLEMS in ScribaLAB re-design Is it an OER SOLUTION?? Decontextualization The answer has been provided by the editing tools (personal advance organizers and collaborative tools) in the LAB section, which may increase the value of localization for learners and educators. Engagement I think that highly advanced OER may increase learner engagement. ScribaLAB is still a BETA version. Social aspect of learning Just trying to acknowledge the benefits of Web 2.0 and intertwine the functionalities offered by online tools and technologies while maintaining writing skills development as a foundation module. Reusing The intrinsic openness will enable reuse. HTML/JPG/etc. sufficient for rendering in webpages VS Content Packaging/ SCORM (for LO systems) Producing LO for writing skills in ScribaLAB Teacher can easily add a new LO choosing between two modalities: - Publicly shared: every teacher can modify the LO
- Shared with consent: every teacher can modify the LO only with the password given by the main creator
Example of the first type of collaborative editing:
http://www.funteaching.it/ScribaLab/repository_view.asp
(sorry it is written in Italian for the beta TEST, but the pictures on the pages are worth a thousand words, I hope)
Educational Objects Models Other Educational Models can be thought of, more suitable for the web, ScribaLAB is focused on developing Writing Skills the easiest way: