the Design Experience Weblog Archive

Thanks to everyone for your support!

Another way to look at this is how learning is about making connections and recognizing patterns. This is closely related to Connectivism (more), or a theory a learning by finding the meaning in connections between ideas, things, and information.

This is also how e-portfolios are starting to look, as a dynamic set of information linked, or connected, instead of a static list of accomplishments.

I think the point is that all objects are learning objects, and the way to improve learning is to make it easier to take these objects and use them in a way to create something new, and develop an understanding in an indiviual way. A big part of this is just making someone aware of what is available to use, and let them explore and learn along the way.

The learning is not in the objects. I got this from Alan Kay when he said "the music is not in the piano".

It looks like there is a newer logger.pl available that adds support for the DailyChumpbot. I'll have to look into that.

Michael has the luxury of distance from the details of technology, so he doesn't have any preconceived ideas of what software to use, he just wants it to work. I can't help thinking about how to make this work, so here are some first ideas about open formats for making the kind of connections an LMOS will support.

In the past an LMS might integrate an external web application by presenting it in a frame, with the host LMS navigation surrounding it. Now a solution might include a web service that offers XML syndication of the content. If its a discussion forum, for example, our LMOS could query for the newest postings, or anything else our user wanted to see, possibly searching by keyword, or author or a posting. In addition I just learned about the Atom Publishing Format and Protocol. This seems like at least a standardized way to publish information back to the web service. It also could be used for the syndication format, but would not be the only option. It's certainly not the only way, but this idea does use existing open formats to make the connection.

This is just the first idea that I had about open formats for a LMOS. I am sure its not the only way. It is something existing LMSs could support right now, with a gradual shift to more and more support for open standards, formats, and protocols.