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This rightfully belongs with the recent barking on Repository Follies-- a few weeks back Scott Leslie made reference to "Best Faculty-level presentation on Learning Objects from the last 18 months"-- a vintage 2002 keynote by William Horton titled "Don't Bother Me With Learning Objects! I've Got a Course to Teach!, a worthwhile 4.3 Mb PDF:
http://www.designingwbt.com/content/madison/objectkeynote.pdf
As usual, Scott is right on target.
I doubly agree with Scott that this is a must read for anyone involved with or scheming about learning objects. This is of course a series of slides and we are missing what is likely much more in the presentation, but among the gems:
Lego Analogy Requirement "... all speeches, presentations, or documents on learning objects, or content objects, whether in person, on paper, or online, must contain at least one picture or three verbal mentions of Lego blocks as a metaphor for objects."
There are the "new careers" including Object architect, Object carpenter, Object wrangler, Personal (knowledge object) shopper, and "The living object."
And one more tidbit, a bumper sticker:
"LCMSs don't make reusable objects. People do.
But beyond the fun stuff I plucked here is a very balanced and realistic look at learning objects, standards, plus a good set of key questions.