Learning through New Media Objects
Karen Woo
University of New South Wales
Learning objects sneaked into educational technology vernacular
in the latter half of the 1990s. [1]
Its
origin can be traced back to military training, where the Sharable
Content Object Reference Model was invented (ADL 2003). Through
workplace training and learning/ content management systems, these
obscure objects have recently made their way into higher and K-12
education. At the time of writing, various Australian projects have
started involving educational institutions in higher education (COLIS),
K-12 (Learning Federation, EduNet) as well as vocational education
and training (OTEN-DE).
Despite their popularity in e-learning, no one has a definitive
answer to the question of what learning objects are, though a range
of opinions have been expressed. Some answers are intuitive while
others are more technically sophisticated. In the introductory chapter
of The Instructional Use of Learning Objects, David Wiley
gives an exemplary introduction to these objects:
Learning objects are elements of a new type of computer-based
instruction grounded in the object-oriented paradigm of computer
science. Object-orientation highly values the creation of components
(called "objects") that can be reused... in multiple contexts.
This is the fundamental idea behind learning objects: instructional
designers can build small (relative to the size of an entire course)
instructional components that can be reused a number of times
in different learning contexts. (Wiley, 2000b, my emphasis)
This quote represents the general view of an instructional designer,
for whom a learning object approach implies designing learning materials
in bite-size chunks that learners can take "just-in-time, just-in-place"
and in an amount that is "just enough" (Hodgins, 2001). These chunks
of learning materials have the additional benefits of reduced production
cost and effort through sharing or reusing between producers (Downes,
2000; Wiley, 2000a).
Different concerns are raised by university educators. Stephen
Downes, an academic at the University of Alberta, stresses the potential
benefits of applying the learning object concept to sharing university
teaching resources. As these resources often reside in Learning
Management Systems, he thus defines learning objects as 'online
course components that are sharable and interoperable between Learning
Management Systems' (Downes, 2000).
On the technical end, renowned standards bodies like the ISO (International
Organisation of Standards) and IEEE's (Institute of Electrical and
Electronic Engineers) Learning Technology Standard Committee have
committed to developing standards for learning objects' associated
technologies (Hodgins and Conner, 2000). For example, the IEEE Learning
Technology Standards Committee (LTSC) launched a Learning Object
Metadata working group in 1997 to define a minimal set of metadata
attributes that can adequately manage, locate and evaluate learning
objects (LOM, 2001). For the purposes of developing technical standards
for metadata, a definition of learning objects is needed. The IEEE
thus defined the learning object as follows:
Learning Objects are defined here as any entity, digital or non-digital,
which can be used, re-used or referenced during technology supported
learning... Examples of Learning Objects include multimedia content,
instructional content, learning objectives, instructional software
and software tools, and persons, organizations, or events referenced
during technology supported learning. (LOM, 2001)
The IEEE technical definition for learning objects is deemed to
be too broad for educators. David Wiley condemns it for its failure
to exclude anything under the sun. In reaction to the all inclusive
definition posed by the IEEE, Wiley proposed a restricted definition
of learning objects as 'any digital resource that can be reused
to support learning' (Wiley, 2000b). In addition, as an instructional
designer, he emphasises the importance of thoughtful use of these
objects to support learning (rather than have them simply
referenced during learning).
The definition Wiley proposes happily marries education and computer
science. The definition reinforces the associations the term itself
arouses – learning in education, and objects in
object-oriented programming. [2]
Consider again the quote at the beginning
of this paper. By substituting "instructional designers" and "instructional
components" with "programmers" and "program codes", Wiley has channelled
the concept of programming objects into education discourse. [3]
Three benefits of using learning objects are
highlighted – reuse, simultaneous access by multiple users,
and immediate updates of new versions – all relating to their
technical nature. While the latter two benefits directly relate
to using the Internet as the delivery medium, reuse is the well-known
quality of object-oriented programming.
Reuse appeals to both software companies and educational institutions
for the same reasons: minimisation of labour and ease of management
for the ever-present desire of cost reduction. While some have attempted
to argue that learning objects result in better learning experiences
for students, most of the debates surround the return of investment
in such objects. A brief survey of such arguments will reveal a
computer science logic in them that can be roughly summarised as:
because software reuse is economical, if we design learning objects
like software objects, then education design can also be economical.
What has been missing in the learning object debate is the recognition
of these digital resources as new media objects. By comparing learning
objects with Manovich's new media objects, I will first show that
learning objects are culturally translated from programming objects
through the use of new media in education, and some characteristics
of programming objects simply do not apply to them. Second, I will
show how one of the grandest promises for learning objects –
reuse – fails both in programming objects and in learning objects.
Third, I will discuss some common issues that are faced by new media
producers and learning object producers. Using the work of new media
theorist Lev Manovich, this paper will find a way to sort through
the haze of great learning objects promises.
New Media Objects vs. Programming Objects
Round 1: Rapid Application Design and Selection
Advocating the benefits of learning objects, Canadian researcher
Stephen Downes argues that traditional learning material production
has always been an artisan work (2002). University lecturers often
create new course materials for each semester from scratch. As a
solution, Downes offers two processes borrowed from computer science:
Rapid Application Design (RAD) and Object-Oriented Design. Rapid
Application Design refers to the way 'a designer can select and
apply a set of pre-defined subroutines from a menu or selection
within a programming environment' (2002). Object-oriented design,
as defined by Downes, is the idea that 'prototypical entities are
defined, which are then cloned and used by a piece of software as
needed' (2002). Downes concludes:
Online course developers, pressed for time and unable to sustain
$24,000 development costs, will begin to employ similar methodologies.
An online course, viewed as a piece of software, may be seen as
a collection of re-usable subroutines and applications. An online
course, viewed as a collection of learning objects, may be seen
as a collection of re-usable learning materials. The heart – and
essence – of a learning object economy is the merging of these
concepts, of viewing re-usable learning materials as re-usable
subroutines and applications. (Downes, 2002)
Lev Manovich discusses the operations of selecting and applying
pre-defined operations associated with RAD in a wider cultural context.
In discussing how art has changed over the last few centuries, he
notes the painstakingly slow process of art-making in pre-industrial
artisan culture. With the move into mass production and automation
in the twentieth century, some artists began to assemble collages
and montages from already existing cultural parts. There comes a
turning point where 'the industrial method of production entered
the realm of art' (2001b: 121). Manovich writes:
In contrast, electronic art from its very beginning was based
on a new principle: modification of an already existing signal...
The artist was no longer a romantic genius generating a new world
purely out of his imagination; he became a technician turning
a knob here, pressing switch there - an accessory to the machine.
(Manovich, 2001b: 121-2)
Manovich shows how this new principle is applied to various software
programs:
Adobe Photoshop 5.0 comes with more than 100 filters which allow
the user to modify an image in numerous ways; After Effects 4.0,
the standard for compositing moving images, is shipped with 80
effects plug-ins; thousands more are available from third parties.
Macromedia Director 7 comes with an extensive library of "behaviors"
– ready-to-use pieces of computer code. (Manovich, 2001b: 120)
What is noteworthy for our discussion is that these software programs
are commonly used in new media course material design. The same
tools that construct new media objects are used to construct learning
objects. From the point of view of those producing these objects
– including teachers and instructional designers – the current process
is more like that of an artist than that of a programmer. Nonetheless,
just as art production is now facilitated by software, learning
object productions are also benefiting from RAD.
The benefits discussed above are different to those originally
proposed by Downes. There is a crucial difference between saving
cost through using software that supports designers in the new media/
learning object production process, and software that replaces the
human designer. What is at stake here is that while the teacher/
instructional designer, like Manovich's artist, becomes 'an accessory
to the machine', their activity is not dictated by an algorithm.
To view an online course as a "collection" of course materials (or
learning objects) is problematic because the assembling of the collection
is still the most costly part of the construction. The convolution
of the two has led many to jump into a "learning object solution"
which promised to save cost in the long run, but they found that
their initiative investment never remunerated.
Round 2: Metadata and Automation
The initial investment in learning object projects are usually
put into producing large numbers of learning objects that are supposed
to be usable in multiple contexts. To be used by different people
who do not know about their existence poses a demand on learning
objects to be "discoverable" or "accessible".
To accomplish this goal, most learning object projects involve metadata
tagging.
Metadata literally means data about data. Anyone who has used a
library catalogue would not find them too unfamiliar. The catalog
record of a library book is the metadata for that book. Librarians
have long been "meta-tagging" library books and resources.
The process is laborious and requires professional training, but
results in the sort of efficient discoverability that we have enjoyed
in our libraries.
In the case of learning objects, a metadata record means information
(data) about a particular learning object. It would consist of a
number of fields, including a description, its author, date of creation
and other information that would help people find the learning object
efficiently.
In new media contexts, the World Wide Web was made usable when
it was opened for searching. Early methods of free-text search resulted
in dumps of unrelated pages. Later search engines, such as Google,
improved search results by methods such as tracking the popularity
of individual pages, rather than by indexing the words and the levels
assigned by tags present. The technology is constantly improving,
and in 2001, the World Wide Web Consortium has also taken an initiative
in moving towards a "semantic web". Using technologies like RDF
(Resource Description Framework), robots can crawl through web pages
and pull out semantically relevant pages, not simple matches by
surface meanings (W3C 2001).
In a similar way, "discoverability" or "accessibility"
is a pressing problem for learning objects. The problem is most
commonly approached using the traditional library method – the metadata
tag. In fact, metadata standards occupy a vital position in learning
object discussions. In addition to the IEEE Learning Object Metadata
working group mentioned earlier, a wide range of learning object
metadata standards have been defined, including names like the Dublin
Core (2002), IMS (2002), and CanCore (2002). The choice of library
methods for this learning object problem should not be surprising
when one considers the ongoing intimate relationship between education
and libraries. Nonetheless, a number of research projects on using
semantic web technologies for searching learning objects are also
in progress. [4]
Whether it is metadata or methods borrowed from the semantic web,
the short-term goal of the research is to enable reliable searching.
A long-term goal, exemplified by the statement of purpose of the
IEEE project, is 'to enable computer agents to automatically and
dynamically compose personalized lessons for an individual learner'
(LOM 2001). Here we meet another of Manovich's principles of new
media, the principle of automation.
The relationship between metadata and automation is two-fold. Low-level
forms of automation in the digital age include automation in generating
presentations from templates, applying filters on images, and dynamic
web pages. Low-level automation makes object creation much easier
than traditional forms of media. The ease of object-creation also
means a proliferation of the number of objects created. 'By the
end of the twentieth century, the problem was no longer how to create
a new media object such as an image; the new problem was how to
find an object that already exists somewhere' (Manovich, 2001a:
35). Here we find the motivation in meta-tagging every learning
object and the desire for "high-level" automation, where computer
agents understand the deep meaning of these objects, and eventually,
are able to compose lessons without human intervention.
The presence of metadata makes learning objects awkward in comparing
them to programming objects. There is not an equivalent need for
searching for objects in programming. The closest to them are documentations,
which are designed specifically to be not machine-readable,
but human-readable.
New media objects do not usually have equivalents of metadata.
The sheer mass of new media objects available on the Internet makes
it impractical to meta-tag them. Meta-tagging only occurs in closed
resource libraries, where collections are acquired with specific
guidelines and usually for specific purposes. Examples include audio
and video libraries in a production house. In light of this, learning
object repositories are not radically different to other new media
object libraries.
In employing metadata, learning objects are made equal to books.
Yet the analogy is problematic because unlike books, being digital
means learning objects are likely to be variable. Variability is
another of Manovich's principles of new media objects, which blatantly
challenges one dichotomy often used in learning object discourse
- reusability and repurposability.
Round 3: Reusability, Repurposability and Variability
As a computer scientist, Wiley emphasises the importance of distinguishing
between the two:
By reusability, I mean the ability to take a learning object
as is and reuse it wholesale. By repurposability, I mean the ability
to extract portions of a learning object and adapt them to new
learning contexts. (Wiley, 1999: 2)
In short, reusability differs from repurposability in that the
former leaves the object unmodified. His view is that reusability
is what is important for learning objects because the value of object-oriented
code is that it requires no modifications. That is, no extra work
will be needed to use the same code in a different program. Programming
codes are notorious for their illegibility, and having programmers
"opening the black-box" to repurpose the code is extremely undesirable.
According to Wiley, reusability is inversely proportional to repurposability.
In other words, the more reusable an object, the less repurposable
it is, and vice versa. The relationship is mediated by another concept
that he names granularity (Wiley, 1999: 6). [5]
Granularity roughly maps to the size of an object, though no one
in the field has come to a precise definition. Nonetheless, the
consensus is that the more granular (simpler, smaller) an object
is, the more reusable it becomes. Wiley illustrates this point by
comparing two objects: one photograph with no captions, and the
same photograph with captions:
[The image with caption] has more meaning than [the one without].
Could [the captioned image] be used in a matching exercise on
an assessment instrument? No. Would it be useful to an art student
creating a collage? Probably not. Adding the label, box (to make
the relationship between the caption and the image clear), and
the caption increases the context of the photo, and therefore
the meaning of the object, but it also decreases the number of
ways the object could be recontextualized. (Wiley, 1999: 5)
If we apply this general principle to text and multimedia productions,
when an object is large and contains more contextual information,
it is usually not suitable to another situation. Smaller objects
can "fit" into more contexts and hence are more reusable.
The same desire for reusability is shared by media producers for
its appeal in minimising cost and effort. However, new media objects
demand a fuzzier divide between reusability and repurposability.
Manovich identifies variability and modularity as two of his principles
of new media. Variability denotes how a new media object 'is not
something fixed once and for all, but something that can exist in
different, potentially infinite versions' (2001a: 36). Being variable,
new media objects are expected to adapt to different contexts. Both
the image, and the image with caption, will be subjected to repurposing
if the need arises. Thanks to the ease of image manipulation with
digital technology, the captioned image is just as useful for an
art student creating a collage as the one without a caption. Today,
most operating systems come with image manipulation programs. Even
the most basic Paint program that comes with all Windows operating
systems can perform cropping as a simple two-step operation (selecting,
then cropping).
Like new media objects, learning objects yearn for adaptation or
"contextualisation". In addition to the stigma associated with plagiarism
and possible infringement of copyright, academic practice is hardly
ever a matter of copy and paste. In a study that compares the issues
in the reuse of resources in schools and colleges, Littlejohn, Jung
and Broumley (2003) note that 'commonality of curricula does not
necessarily mean that staff will reuse externally produced materials,
unless the materials can be contextualized by the teacher' (Littlejohn,
Jung and Broumley, 2003: 219).
In summary, the problem with Wiley's arguments is that they show
ignorance towards the medium. The reuse/repurpose divide is a false
dichotomy in the face of the medium and teaching culture.
The Truth about Reuse
My discussion thus far has argued for a distinction between what
reusability means for programming objects and new media objects,
but in the following pages, I will suggest that reusability is really
an ideal that is never actualised even in computer programming.
A digression into the origin of object-oriented programming will
clarify my point.
The first object-oriented programming language, SIMULA (SIMUlation
LAnguage), was developed between 1962 and 1967. The language's main
development goal was to provide means to conceptualise a complex
system (Holmevik, 1995). It was intended to be both a system description
and a programming language, and 'its construction would thus require
both systems reasoning and programming skills' (Holmevik, 1995).
This gave birth to the concept of objects and classes, and systems
conceptualised as made up of objects that perform actions at run
time. Objects are particular instances of classes, or prototypes.
A real world example for a class may be cars, and an example
of an object from the class car is my Camry. As a
member of the class car, you would expect my Camry
to have properties of a car, with a few variations. My Camry
can also perform actions, such as drive, reverse, and
stop.
To deepen this discussion, let us look at a common programming
class, String. An instance of a String can be any
particular string of alphanumeric characters, for instance, "hello
world" or "one two three 456". A property of a String (a
letter string) class may be the number of characters it
contains. A String can also perform actions (or methods
in computer science jargon) such as concatenate with
another string, or return the number of characters it contains.
Object-oriented design is said to be reusable when classes are
imported from other programs into a new program. For example, if
I am modeling a system that asks a string to do something, I can
write my own class, or I can simply borrow a String class
that you wrote. In other words, reuse your code.
While this seems to be an attractive idea, code reuse rarely happens
in practice. In an extract from the USENIX proceedings, Johnson
(1994) explains the problem:
So, I want to use your string package, but I want your string
package to use my arena-based allocator. But, almost certainly,
you have encapsulated knowledge of storage allocation so that
I can't have any contact with it (that is a feature of OOP, after
all), so I can't use your package with my storage allocator. Actually,
I would probably have more luck reusing your package had it been
in C [which is not an object-oriented language, KW], since I could
supply my own malloc and free routines [to control memory allocation,
KW] (although that has its own set of problems). (Johnson, 1994)
In short, reusing classes has not been particularly successful
in OOP. If reuse is said to exist in OOP, it is the sort of reuse
that was already present in structured programming - the reuse of
code libraries and modules.
It should now be clear that it is unfruitful to talk about learning
objects as reusable by drawing parallels with computer science,
since there is a lack of empirical support for reuse in OOP in the
first place. Yet, this does not refute the link between OOP and
learning objects. Instead, by using Manovich's understanding of
new media objects, it becomes clearer that the linkage works culturally
through the work practices of learning object producers. Manovich
conceives of new media as constituted by a 'cultural layer' and
a 'computer layer'. These layers influence each other and result
in a new computer culture – 'a blend of human and computer meanings,
of traditional ways in which human culture modeled the world and
the computer's own means of representing it' (2001a: 46). In the
case of learning objects, it signals a new computer education culture.
This new culture has two overarching themes that flow naturally
from an object culture – mass production and commodification.
Mass Production
Manovich chooses to use the term new media object over new
media product, artwork or interactive media for three
reasons. First, the term is generic enough so that it does not limit
the scope of his principles. Second, object makes a connection
with computing science and the computing industry. We have already
seen the term used in object-oriented programming. Third, it points
toward the factory and industrial mass production rather than the
traditional artist's studio, and it implies 'the ideals of rational
organization of labor and engineering efficiency that artists wanted
to bring into their own work' (Manovich, 2001a:14).
The third reason is important in learning object discourse. Stephen
Downes criticises the traditional method of course development precisely
because it was "artisan work" (2000). Adopting an object-oriented
approach to course development means more than establishing technical
standards, it involves implementing new policies and reorganising
workflow in production houses. One excellent example of this is
the OTEN-DE's TAFE Online project.
In this project, content writers were challenged to write pieces
of text that could stand alone, which students could study independently
of other components of the course. OTEN-DE's instructional designers
worked hard to keep their Sharable Learning Objects (SLOs) unmodified
from module to module while maintaining the flow of argument within
a module. Initially, instructional designers analyse the content
of each module and list its learning objectives. Basically, for
each objective a Sharable Learning Object (SLO) is created to teach
that objective. These SLOs are the basic building blocks of modules.
The modules are then compared and where two modules share the same
learning objective, a single SLO, rather than two, is created. In
other words, this approach saves production work by taking advantage
of the overlapping components of the curriculum across modules in
the TAFE courses.
For example, one of OTEN-DE's SLO teaches the skill 'Determine
and analyse client requirements'. This SLO is shared across 6 modules:
1. Connect Internal Hardware Components;
2. Install and Optimise System Software;
3. Provide Advice to Clients;
4. Develop Macros and Templates for Clients;
5. Customise Packages Software Applications; and
6. Provide Basic System Administration.
Each of these modules contain several SLOs. A SLO is a plain text
document that contains instructional content for the stated objective.
This approach defines clearly the boundaries of each role, and
in eliminating ambiguity, it achieves what Manovich terms 'rational
organization of labor and engineering efficiency' (Manovich, 2001a:
14). In enforcing the learning object approach, OTEN-DE redefined
and clarified the roles of the instructional designers and the content
writers. Though Manovich is referring to artists, the same principle
applies to the process of learning object development in this instance.
It is yet to be seen how this mindset of rational organisation plays
out in university and school education, where the culture values
creativity, critical thinking, and "people" elements highly.
Commodification
Learning objects do not only promise economic savings through mass
production. As discreet pieces with metadata ready to act as price
tags, they are only one step removed from becoming commodified assets.
However, one characteristic of new media objects has caused hiccups
within the commodification process. The problem is caused by modularity.
Modularity refers to the fractal-like nature of new media objects.
'Media elements, be they images, sounds, shapes, or behaviors, are
represented as collections of discrete samples (pixels, polygons,
voxels, characters, scripts). These elements are assembled into
larger-scale objects but continue to maintain their separate identities'
(Manovich, 2001a: 30). For example, an HTML document is modular
because it can reference images, video and audio files. These components
can be easily substituted and deleted, but together they form a
web page, a coherent object.
In the context of Wiley's captioned image example, new media objects
typically would store the text (HTML) as separate from the image
(JPEG or GIF file). Modularity means that both the text and the
image, as well as the whole web page (which encompasses the former
two) are all in the order of an "object". Manovich uses the term
"object" to emphasise that his 'general principles of new media
[are] true across all media types, all forms of organization, and
all scales' (Manovich, 2001a: 14).
When applied to learning objects, producers have had problems defining
the optimal granularity of an object. There is a dilemma in maintaining
the balance between having objects too big so they do not get "reused"
often, and too small so they are too petty to handle. Plus, assets
too "raw" are incapable of achieving learning objectives. Lacking
in a clear purpose can inhibit use, let alone re-use.
One of the factors that is supposed to help determine the optimal
size of a learning object is what yields the maximum return of investment.
Under this light, granularity still causes more problems than it
solves. While smaller objects are theoretically more reusable, they
can cause company losses in other ways. Consider the common watermarks
found on online image libraries. Companies URLs are embedded into
their images to decrease illegitimate use, or repurposing without
the producers' consent. Here, the notions of repurposability/ reusability
are deemed too simplistic for business returns. The lack of conceptual
clarity of granularity has proved to be useless in determining the
commercial value of learning objects.
The breadth of the term "object" – which Manovich deems a virtue
– has backfired in learning objects when it comes to assigning
intellectual property rights. It is tempting to revert back to distinguishing
between reusability and repurposability to make things simpler.
In light of the intellectual property issues, it is not surprising
that David Wiley, the advocate of the reuse/ repurpose distinction,
is also the creator of the Open Content licence.
The ideology behind the Open Content licence is that content should
be made available to all people who are interested, and open content
will be continually improved as different people work on it. Wiley
borrowed the concept of Open Content from the Open Source software
movement :
In plain English, the [Open Content] licence relieves the author
of any liability or implication of warranty, grants others permission
to use the Content in whole or in part, and insures that the original
author will be properly credited when Content is used. It also
grants others permission to modify and redistribute the Content
if they clearly mark what changes have been made, when they were
made, and who made them. Finally, the license insures that if
someone else bases a work on Open Content, that the resultant
work will be made available as Open Content as well. (Open Content,
2002) [6]
The licence is designed to complement the work done in the Open
Source software movement. 'Open Content is freely available for
modification, use, and redistribution under a license similar to
those used by the Open Source / Free Software community.' The content
in Open Content 'is just about anything that isn't executable' (Open
Content, 2002).
The motivation to create the Open Content Licence stemmed from
Wiley's enthusiasm to share his course materials with others while
retaining some rights over how the content is modified (Grossman,
1998). The Instructional Use of Learning Objects, whose editor
is David Wiley himself, is published under the Open Content Licence
and made both available free online and purchasable in print. Such
is Wiley's conception of a new economic model for educational content.
Wiley rejects the one-teacher-to-many-students-under-one-institution
model of content creation. Learning objects with the Open Content
licence embody the belief that many-teachers-to-many-students will
significantly reduce the cost for the lone teacher to create learning
resources and that students will benefit from higher quality content.
This view favours the lone teacher and student, whom Wiley views
as somewhat similar to isolated programmers participating in the
Open Source software movement.
Once the ratio of production cost to number of uses nears zero,
access to learning objects can be made available for free. Better
yet, Open Source development models can be adopted to drive the
cost of learning object creation toward zero (the ratio of development
work to volunteer developers), making learning objects freely
available from their genesis... Each of these scenarios can provide
teachers and learners with access to high quality educational
materials they could never afford to produce individually.
(Wiley, Gibbons and Recker, 2000; emphasis in original)
The integration of the Open Source concept into learning objects
is evident when one compares open, web-based learning object repositories
(e.g., AEShareNet, 2002; CAREO, 2002; MERLOT, 2002) with repositories
of Open Source software (e.g., Freshmeat, 2002).
[7] Both types of repositories usually
consist of records of the object's description, author, version
number, and licence type. Users are able to download and use the
objects according to the licensing agreement. The process of participating
in instructional design with learning objects, using content from
these repositories, is not very different from that of programmers
participating in Open Source software development.
Furthermore, the fact that the Open Content licence demands every
modification be marked is in tension with the variability afforded
in new media. Wiley's promotion of reusability over repurposability
can be seen as an attempt to limit variability through simplifying
and regularising the reuse of these new media/ learning objects.
The principle of modularity also leaves the question of intellectual
property rights uncomfortably open: When someone modifies an image
within a web page, should he or she refer to the changes they made
in regard to the image or the whole web page?
While Open Content is only a minor initiative in the wider field
of learning objects digital rights management (DRM), it illustrates
how the extra layer of copyright complicates the relationship between
new media and learning objects. Other initiatives like ODRL from
the W3C are gaining popularity, but the question of embracing the
modularity and the variability of new media/ learning objects remains
unresolved. The same problem haunts new media producers, and one
solution was through the Creative Commons project, where media producers
are offered a range of user licences to assign to their new media
objects (Creative Commons, 2003).
In the field of learning objects, Higgs, Meredith and Hand (2002)
have suggested a distinction be made between "Enforced DRM" and
"Attributed DRM". Enforced DRM is the current model for the recording
and movie industries, and Attributed DRM, like the approach taken
in Creative Commons, allows the creators of the content decide what
rights they allocate to the user.
Conclusion
In highlighting the relationship between new media objects and
learning objects over that of programming objects and learning objects,
I have shown how new media principles are applicable to learning
object designs. The problem with an object-oriented programming
view of learning objects is that it takes digital resources out
from their educational technology context and places them with computer
software. The latter categorisation does nothing to help teachers
decide how these learning objects can contribute to their teaching.
The hyped learning object discourse appeals to managers as it implies
a reduction in production costs. However, in questioning the relationship
between learning objects and programming objects, it is clear that
the claim of reusability is ill-founded.
More importantly, the object-oriented view to education skews teachers
to consider a content-oriented form of teaching, rather than a student-centred
approach. It presents a risk of regressing into a behavioural model
of education which was prevalent in the 1960s. As the human teachers/
designers are being black-boxed, and learning is seen as an algorithm
that can be run, the student is subjugated to the content.
Learning object debates resonate with new media debates because
of the common medium. Learning objects have cultural issues specific
to education. This article has concerned itself with the task of
separating issues that belong to the medium from those belonging
to management and education, and a team-based approach to learning
object production with experts in new media, management and education
is necessary for all learning object productions.
Author's Biography
Karen Woo is a PhD candidate at the Media and Communications school
at UNSW researching film piracy. Currently, she is working on a
COLIS project based at Macquarie University that looks at the users'
perspective of learning objects. Previously, Karen has worked with
OTEN-DE on the development of learning objects in the VET sector,
and has written her Honours thesis on the cultural roots of learning
objects.
Notes
[1] Though this paper is dedicated to thinking
about the object part of learning objects, I was told a number of
times by others working in the field that "learning resources" or
"learning aids" instead of "learning objects" should be used when
we talk to teachers. The term is simply deemed "too techy" by many.
How the terminology slips from one context to another is interesting
but is beyond the scope of this paper.
[back]
[2] I am only contending for a weak link between
computer science and learning objects. Historically, the link may
be stronger than that suggested here.
[back]
Perhaps the first to make the conceptual link between computer
objects and education was John Spohrer, the founder of the Education
Object Economy. His project began in 1994. Its goal was to create
Java applets to be shared by educators around the world. As all
EOE objects were all Java applets, they were real programming objects.
Some themes of learning objects were already present in this early
project, including sharing and reusability (EOE, 2002b). The relationship
between computer science and the present learning objects are obviously
less closely related.
[back]
[3] I am using the Foucauldian definition of the
word. Discourse is not limited to language and organising rational
thought. Rather, it assumes a political approach, and sees discourse
as a way of doing (Love, 2002).
[back]
[4] For example, at the 2002 World Wide Web Conference,
a paper was presented to address the link between semantic web and
e-learning (Nilsson, Palmer and Naeve 2002).
[back]
[5] Granularity is another concept borrowed from
object-oriented programming. In a computer science context, it refers
roughly to how simple or complicated a programming routine should
be in order to achieve maximum reusability.
[back]
[6] The basic idea behind open source is very simple:
When programmers can read, redistribute, and modify the source code
for a piece of software, the software evolves. People improve it,
people adapt it, people fix bugs. And this can happen at a speed
that, if one is used to the slow pace of conventional software development,
seems astonishing. 'We in the open source community have learned
that this rapid evolutionary process produces better software than
the traditional closed model, in which only a very few programmers
can see the source and everybody else must blindly use an opaque
block of bits. Open Source Initiative exists to make this case to
the commercial world' (Open Source, 2002).
[back]
[7] CAREO is an open repository developed by the
University of Alberta in Canada. The repository contains a collection
of learning objects that can be freely downloaded and it welcomes
contributions by educators around the world (CAREO, 2002).
[back]
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