Personal Webpublishing as a reflective conversational tool for self-organized learning.

Sebastian Fiedler

Paper Draft for BlogTalk 2003 in Vienna ­ 12. May 2003

This paper suggests that personal Webpublishing technologies and practices can be conceptualized as a reflective conversational learning tool for self-organized learning. Beyond the examination of the theoretical basis for such a claim, initial ideas for specific learning environment designs on the basis of a "conversational framework" are presented.

"I think it is quite illuminating to conceptualize the emerging networks of personal Webpublishing outlets as a giant, self-actualizing conversational learning environment for self-organized learners. ... [S]elf-organized learners will quickly understand the potential of personal Webpublishing networks and practices, while other-organized learners will need considerable support and carefully design interventions before they can profit from this dynamic conversational learning environment."

[seblogging]

Excellent and thought-provoking paper.

10:53:23 PM    

About Learning Objects.

"Learning objects -- what are they? where did they come from? how are they created? where can they be found?

Currently, there are so many questions floating around about learning objects. Fortunately, and unfortunately, the recent attention being paid to learning objects means there is a lot of discussion, but very little agreement around the details and dynamics of learning objects.

In this site, you will find information on learning objects. The purpose is to provide a look at the different definitions, the current state of standards, and other happenings in the area of learning objects. Throughout the website, you will also come across various points of view, stories, and comments from people such as Dr. Tom Carey at the University of Waterloo. Listen to what these people have to say from first-hand perspectives."

[CLOE Stories]

Excellent resource and example.

5:07:12 PM    

Learning Object Repositories Online.

"The sites and organizations listed below either have generated learning objects and host their own repository (i.e. Wisc-Online) or have provided guidelines, templates, or frameworks for objects that are stored in their repository (i.e. Apple Learning Exchange)." [University of Texas at San Antonio, and others, Web-Based Learning Guidelines]

A more comprehensive list than others previously posted here. Unfortunately, it does not have an RSS feed and neither do most of the repositories listed. The site itself is interesting, and provides a view of ADDIE applied to e-Learning.

4:18:58 PM    

RDF Site Summary 1.0 Modules: Learning Object Metadata.

"The 1484.12.1 - 2002 Learning Object Metadata (LOM) was approved by the IEEE-Standards Association on June 12, 2002. The purpose of IEEE-LOM is to provide structured descriptions of re-usable digital learning resources, sometimes known as "Learning Objects." This standard was authored by the Learning Technology Standards Committee (LTSC) Learning Object Metadata Working Group and was based on previous work by the IMS Global Learning Consortium. Applications of the IEEE-LOM (as it is typically called) include the Sharable Content Object Reference Model and CanCore, among others.

The RSS-LOM Module provides translation from IEEE-LOM to RSS 1.0 to allow learning object repositories to syndicate listings and descriptions of learning objects. An RSS feed provided by a learning object repository is harvested by a metadata repository and aggregated with feeds from other learning object repositories. These aggregated feeds are then made available as a searchable resource, the links provided ultimately pointing to the learning objects provided by the original learning object repositories.

Note: though this document provides a complete translation from IEEE-LOM to RSS 1.0, much of IEEE-LOM is not useful for the present purpose. IEEE-LOM has a history of having been developed in a non-RDF environment and (therefore) in complete isolation from other XML initiatives. For most purposes, the use of Dub[l]in Core (DC) with only the educational and the classification schemas ought to be sufficient for syndication."

[Stephen Downes]

Posted 10 May 2003 on Stephen's site. More to come.

4:05:58 PM    

e-Learning Standards and the Dream of Universal Interoperability.

"But just blindly using SCORM is hardly the answer either- unless your community's needs can be satisfied by it. In this, Lisa Balzereit from the ADL co-lab, admitted, SCORM had clearly been oversold. One of the lessons ADL learned about the SCORM is to better manage expectations.

Which was well exemplified by Dan Rehak, SCORM's chief architect, who pointed out the many times he'd been told that 'we want to adopt SCORM', which is countered by Dan's standard 'what do you want to do with it?'- and often they have no idea."

(Wilbert Kraan, CETIS staff, reporting on speakers at the eLearning Results conference in Sestri Levante, Italy, Monday.)

[CETIS]

Good read, not very long. I notice that some teachers continue to fear that they will be replaced by "self-paced, asynchronous e-learning which teachers feel 'is robbing them of all their skills.'" In my opinion, the only teachers who need to fear this are the ones who have few or no skills to begin with. Good, skilled teachers and mentors will always be needed. The role of self-paced, asynchronous e-learning is to handle rote, canonical knowledge, freeing up the teacher's time to help individuals learn how to learn, to solve problems, etc. Or so it seems to me.

3:55:03 PM