Portal:Learning objects

Welcome to the Wikiversity Center for the Study of Learning Objects. This is a content development project where participants create, organize and develop learning resources about learning objects.

Learning Objects (like all objects) are little packets, in this case, of educational material designed to be easy to produce, package, distribute, find, sort, use, and so on. What they are exactly, and how useful they are seems a bit subjective to me.

Many on-line services purport to be the "ideal" or "complete" repositories for these learning objects, so we might examine for ourselves what they are all about.

Learning projects
See: Learning Projects and the Learning model.

Learning materials and learning projects are located in the main Wikiversity namespace. Simply make a link to the name of the learning project (learning projects are independent pages in the main namespace) and start writing! We suggest the use of the learning project template (use "subst:Learning project boilerplate" on the new page, inside the double curved brackets – ).

Learning materials and learning projects can be used by multiple departments. Cooperate with other departments that use the same learning resource.
 * Introduction to Learning Objects

Databases
Topic:Databases - Learning objects and their repositories require a knowledge of databases. We may develop a shared resource with a title something like Learning object database management or similar. (discuss)

"Due to interoperability concerns, all meta-information has to be stored in an application independent format. On the other hand, allowing the final user to efficiently perform arbitrary metadata queries is one of the most important goals of the repository. For meeting both requirements (...) a subset of the standard metadata [should be] stored in a relational database. The proposed mechanism is in no way restrictive, because complete LOM instances are also going to be stored as specified by the chosen standard binding."

Architecture

 * 1) Topic:Computer Architecture - Oriented toward hardware, but a good read
 * 2) Topic:Concurrency and Real-Time Programming - This is more toward the kind of architecture I wanna cover in our design labs later on.
 * Learning object metadata - Outline based on the IEEE 1484.12.1 – 2002 Standard for Learning Object Metadata

Labs
I think we can begin to craft some Wiki-fied learning object that are ripe for pickin'...
 * 1) Human&mdash;Machine Sonic user interface (SUI) - for use in Commputer-assisted translation User: Translation Department
 * 2) Musical Instruction Light tree - a set of colored lights (or color graphics) that cues musicians in real-time about their position and approaching changes during practice or performance - User: School:Music
 * 3) Bloom clock project - an attempt to create a language for discussing the bloom times of wildflowers and other plants that is neutral in respect to climate, region, and hemisphere.
 * 4) Wikiversity the Movie - a community-wide project to produce a promotional DVD that illustrates and describes Wikiversity.
 * 5) Learning Objects Brainstorm - Brainstorm - Users: Us (It seems the thread was archived, although I could not find it.)

Onward through the Fog
Juicy Future Topics to apply to education systems and Learning object development:
 * 1) Topic:Computational linguistics
 * 2) Topic:Scientific Computing
 * 3) Topic:Algorithms

Metadata
Metadata is required in order to describe learning objects, enabling learners and instructors to search, evaluate and utilize them. Standards compliance leads to a uniform style, enhancing the sharing, reuse, and exchange of metadata-described LO.

IEEE Learning Object Metadata (LOM) Standard emphasizes on the "minimal set of attributes needed to allow these Learning Objects to be managed, located, and evaluated"

Participants
I have no Earthly idea why anyone in their right mind would sign up for this, but here's a place to do so:
 * 1) CQ 17:33, 22 October 2006 (UTC)
 * 2) w:Rjgodoy 12:11, 18 April 2007 (UTC)
 * 3) Must.. Not.. Sign... Cormaggio talk 14:36, 18 April 2007 (UTC) Ach!

Resources
Examples of Learning Objects:
 * Earth Unfolding Quicktime movie of R. Buckminster Fuller's "Dymaxion map" of Earth