So we got a foot of snow overnight in Moncton, which of course made it the perfect day to pack myself into the bus and ship myself off to Fredericton, where I'll be at meetings during the day tomorrow (of course I surf during the meetings; how do you thing the newsletter will get published?). Anyhow, the sort of thing I'll be talking about tomorrow is the sort of thing raised here by Scott Leslie as he asks why Freesound - a sound sampling service - is a success where learning objects are less so. It's not interface, it's not metadata - rather, it seems to be a combination of the license (which encourages reuse, natch) and the data format. Leslie asks, "what's the standardized format for 'learning content'? HTML? Flash? Powerpoint? PDF? Word? XML? IMS Content Packages?" Also, "the very fact that within a few seconds of hearing a sample you can often judge whether it will work or not gives them a huge advantage over 'learning content'." Related and relevant: L.M. Orchard on the goodness of sloppy XML and ignorant feed handling. The message: stop trying to tell people how to do it. Get simple objects out there that are easy (and legal) to use, some simple and standard players, and step back. Teachers and students really will create - if the software and instructional design industry out there lets them. P.S. Sorry about using 'metadata' as a verb.
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