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Who Forgot the Learner?

Lassi Nirhamo, University of Turku, Feb 09, 2004
Commentary by Stephen Downes

As Charles Churchman pointed out already decades ago, note the href="http://users.utu.fi/lasnir/" class="Troll">authors: "To conceive of knowledge as a collection of information seems to rob the concept of all of its life... Knowledge resides in the user and not in the collection. It is how the user reacts to a collection of information that matters." This forms the basis for this paper's sustained and intelligent criticism of the learning object paradigm as defined by SCOs and SCORM. Social interaction and learning context, they argue, are essential and should not be overlooked. While I would be the last to say that individual atoms of learning content in themselves constitute learning, I caution against supposing that the human element cannot exist unless it is defined. These can be, as I have argued elsewhere, emergent properties arising from the organization of learning materials and learner contributions, and need not be explicitly expressed in order to exist. Via Seb Schmoller, who also recommends the authors'

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