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Read spanish draft.
Blog de Andrés Chiappe - Objetos de Aprendizaje - Learning Objects.
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Hello, I was invited this week to participate in a conference about learning objects and came up from the audience the question…well… ¿what is really a learning object?
The answer to this question is quite different and depends of the point where you were “grounded”.
You can find several definitions about learning objects and some of them have a few relevant points in common.
In Universidad de La Sabana, in Colombia, our research group have develop a definition that pretends not to “re-invent the wheel” about learning objects but to find some conceptual elements to describe properly their nature and to identify them in a wide and integral way.
In that way we define a learning object as a “…digital, self-contained, reusable entity with a clear learning aim that contains at least three internal changing and editable components: content, instructional activities (learning activities), and context elements. As a complement, the learning object should have an external component of information which helps its identification, storage, and recovery: the metadata.”(Chiappe, Segovia, & Rincon, 2007).
Source:Chiappe, A., Segovia, Y., & Rincon, H. Y. (2007). Toward an instructional design model based on learning objects. Educational Technology Research and Development , 55, 671-681.
This conceptualization was taken as a base for the definition of learning objects presented by the Ministry of National Education of Colombia. (you can see it in the portal “Colombia aprende”)
This definition could be consulted in a draft document (it is actually the spanish version) that was the base for writing the article "Toward an instructional design model based on learning objects", recently published by the Educational Technology Research and Development Journal.
Finally it is important to say that learning objects are considered as “open educational resources”, like an important aspect that facilitates its reuse.
Hello, I was reading moments ago the document “Colombia Vision 2019”. In the chapter “Education, proposal for discussion” there is a section specifically destined to the importance of ICT for the scene of development of the Education in Colombia. People that work on this matter, know deep from the heart, the importance of ICT incorporation in education at all level and celebrate, (at least I am doing it) that this is written within a document that would try to lead the educational efforts for the next years. This must give a breath compass that let to jump the changes of policies and interests that entail the changes in the administration of the State.
I want to emphasize a phrase:
“The diversity of resources that are now within reach of the educational communities and the multiple combinations among them generates an infinite repertoire of strategies that suitably used can transform the learning process taking it beyond the classrooms. In order to obtain this, it is necessary to surpass the simple use of the ICT like a mechanism in order to improve productivity and to look for information, and take control of the tools for collaborative work and exploration of learning objects. “
It seems that we go well, right?
Hello, today in the morning I was reading an article of a close friend who leads by far success and commitment the commercial and technology areas of UNIVERSIA - Colombia. Luis Fernando Correa talked about learning objects. A detail of the article called my attention and it seems to me that on this matter it is necessary to emphasize. Luis Fernando talks about that, true potential of learning objects stays in its possibility of reuse. I believe there is no discussion about it. But in which I do not agree is that one of the factors so that this can be given, is the call “Independence of the educational context”. I am going to mention the article textually:” the resource does not have to be designed to make references to specific educational contexts (to do it, their possibilities of reuse it will be reduced of significant manner). “
There is an element in this affirmation that worries to me a lot: I am convinced that the context is a determining factor for effective learning. It is more probable that a student finds a proper sense to a particular content or a learning activity, if these are properly contextualized.
A learning object as a “generic” and “neutral” component, sounds like a good idea from a technical point of view but the sacrifice of elements that contribute to effective learning is too high.
A learning object as an open resource seems to me a better alternative.
The reusability of learning objects does not depend of how much “neutral” they are, but how much you can modify them, to adjust them, to particular necessities of users.
In this sense, context can be changed when it have to.