|
Intelligent tutor system-style interests look to overcome the teacher
bandwidth
problem by replacing the teacher with an intelligent computer program that
automatically selects and sequences learning objects for students. You can
find
research that supports this type of work in the
Instructional Use of Learning Objects or
Learning Object
Design
and Sequencing Theory.
Most commercial work in learning objects, as well as the work of
specifications
bodies like ADL/SCORM and the
IMS, is focusing in this area.
|
About two years ago we
started a project
to legitimize the efforts of human beings who put learning objects
together.
Computers aren't the only ones who can assemble and reuse existing
resources in the
service of teaching and learning: teachers can do it, too! Our
Instructional Architect project provides
tools for
teachers to find and use learning objects in their instruction. We talk
about some
of the issues facing human learning object assemblers in terms of
metadata
and
granularity. There is
also
a general purpose defense
of
by-hand assembly.
|
John Seely Brown and others continue to point to the value of the informal
learning
that takes place in social groups without a formal teacher. The Internet
provides hitherto unknown access to large, diverse social groups.
Unsurprisingly,
these groups collaborate to reuse existing resources in extremely
interesting ways. The
"by-community" research area is a strange nexus of self-organization,
activity
theory, and economics. Our current understanding of
Online Self-Organizing
Social
Systems is limited, but we're just beginning some
interesting research
with more help from the National Science Foundation.
|