I would have preferred to link to individual articles, but the publishers have chosen to distribute this book, consisting of about a dozen articles as a single 1.1 megabye PDF file. Oh well. It's worth the time to download, though: there is some good and important writing here. David Wiley, for example, offers an excellent paper outlining the differentes between the 'learning objects' approach to online learning and the 'learning communities' approach - and while one might expect him (and me) to argue for the former, in fact he (and I) argue for the latter, community centered approach. I especially like Wiley's four dimensions of distinction between the two approaches: in the indexing and discovery of resources, the way resources are combined, the way resources are used, and the way they are evaluated. With only the most minor of quibbles, I would endorse this paper as a whole. In another paper, Michael Halm offers an engaging description of standards emerging 'beyond the LOM', though I wish he had looked beyond IMS for inspiration. Michele Lamberson and Brian Lamb offer a good discussion of content management systems and 'silos', arguing that the CMS can function as a platform as well as a storage facility. All in all, this is an important book. Take the time and give it a good read.
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