| Learning
is a Process, Not a Thing
By Rick Nigol
 The eLearning field is prone to hype,
and one of the most hyped things I have come across in the last
five years is the promise of learning objects. It is difficult
to go to an eLearning conference or read an eLearning journal
without hearing about the wonders of these self-contained electronic
learning widgets that can be catalogued, shared and re-used.
In the imagined future of eLearning, there will be millions
of these wonderful resources that will be accessible via searchable
learning object repositories (many financed by our tax dollars)
and that can be downloaded, plugged in, and re-arranged, like
so many Lego pieces.
"We learn by doing. We consider. We compare.
We measure, discuss, debate, critique, test, and explore. We
try, fail, and try again. Learning is an activity. It's a process.
Given this undeniable fact, the term "learning object" can only
be an oxymoron. An object is a thing. We don't learn from things.
We learn from doing things... We must balance the instructional
objects against learning activities, the nouns against the verbs,
by having a complete sentence with a subject (student), a verb
(cognitive process), and a direct object (content). Jane measures
velocity. Harry critiques The Iliad. We debate learning objects.
If we are going to consider objects in the context of learning,
then let them be direct objects. Taken by itself without the
learner and the cognitive process, a "learning object" is the
pedagogical equivalent of a sentence fragment. It is only occasionally
appropriate and often fails to communicate."
Proponents of learning objects seem to think
that the problem with eLearning is that there is not enough
eLearning content out there. Learning objects are akin to bricks,
and the thinking seems to be if we have enough of these at our
disposal, we will all be able to coble together wonderful buildings.
However, I don't think that bricks are the problem.....we are
awash in bricks.
What is needed, in my view, are more skilled
architects and tradespeople who can design and build beautiful
and functional learning environments. Sure, bricks are part
of the structure, but only part. When you look at a magificent
cathedral, for example, you do not see the bricks. The total
is definitely more than the sum of the parts. I think the same
thing holds true for excellent eLearning.
This is why I always correct people who say
that MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) is putting
all its courses online via their Open Courseware Initiative.
This simply isn't true. Admirably, MIT is making a great deal
of course outlines, notes, reading lists, related resources,
photos, graphs, recorded lectures, assignments, quizzes, etc.
freely available online, but they are not conducting courses
online. You cannot interact with faculty and other learners,
or get expert feedback on your work, which is the real value
of an MIT education. It is just more stuff (albeit good stuff)
added to the infinite array of stuff already freely available
online.
But stuff is stuff, and we only learn so much
from stuff. Real learning is a process, it is about doing, getting
feedback, reflecting, and doing again.
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