I have been pondering Wiley’s ideas concerning learning objects and
context. In the mean time I have also been reading some of Dumbing Us
Down by John Gatto. In order for learning object to be reused some
effort must be made to remove the
context from learning objects. Gatto’s criticizis the move to
remove learning from its original context and his ideas have had an
effect on me. Learning
object proponents would argue that you remove the context from the
object so that it is more reusable, but that removing context is fine
since before the instruction is finished you go back and wrap the
objects in context. I would argue that for some objects the context is
the learning and that by removing the context you remove all that is
valuable from the object.
The result of this thinking has altered my view of how we assemble
instruction. I agree that some objects are useful on their own. An
image can be reused in multiple instances. Sometimes a math problem
can be reused easily. What about an article on the web? I would argue
that the article itself contains context.
Both components constitute the learning experience, but
the point is that the objects themselves lack context. I think it is
more complex. Some objects are useful on their own. However, many
objects require the context that they were generated in to make sense,
and still other digital objects are kind of useful but only if you can
take them apart and reuse parts of them. It might be true that in an
ideal setting all objects would be labeled with all kinds of meta data
that would then let some really fancy computer software build
customized instruction at the learner’s whim. However, the more
practical solution is development of new learning materials using
existing objects ie the billions of web pages, images, flash files,
bits of source code, applets, pdfs, etc.
Reusing these objects is kind of like building a house or a car or some
real object. You buy the tires for the car, the chips for the
electronics, you get the glass from another supplier and so on. You be
able to buy sheet metal but it doesn’t look like a car so you will need
to rework it. This will produce some waste. In an ideal world you
could just get the exact piece you need for the front fender but it
isn’t going to happen anytime soon. Other parts you will make from
scratch yourself. You might have an in-house group that forges the
engine block etc. At any rate the finished product works great or at
least it works good for some specific purpose. Sports cars don’t work
if you need to haul the family around and you probably don’t want to
haul dirt in the back seat of your Cadillac.
Instruction isn’t all that different. The end product might be built
from some objects and some raw material. Some of it you will have to
build yourself. Sometimes you will try to reuse someone elses
instruction and find that you have to throw away a lot of it to make it
fit. That is OK. Whatever you do you better make sure that the
instruction that you end up with is well suited for the specific task
and that it is effective at what it does. It might be a Ferrari, but
if it needs to carry the family you have failed.