I have written and spoken from time to time about the appropriate use of learning objects as being placed as elements in a 'learning environment' as opposed to joined together like bits of text as pages or chapters in an online course. This article and associated presentation represent large steps toward the sort of think I am talking about. Follow through the presentation to the end and you'll get a userid and password to enter a functioning reasearch observatory - some of the content is not complete, but a good example of the sort of organization that works is in the discussion of research methods at the bottom of the page in Room 3. The demo site is still pretty linear, and we could talk about concepts of environment design - but first steps first: let's begin by thinking about what the authors call 'pull' metaphors for online learning design. Technologists should note as well the methodologies for producing such an environment: XML authoring with a processor (they use Java but any language will do) plus XSLT for rendering. This group is doing a lot of things right.
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