2002/03/06: gathering MOA2 writeup

Collated notes on my MOA2, METS, IMS, RSS work

I'm working on writing up my study of the practical state of interoperability among technical communities: academic libraries, educational/instructional technology, and weblogging/news syndication. First step: collating what I have written in my blog over the last month: Interop soup: MOA2, METS, IMS, RSS, OPML Next step: I will edit it down.

My wrists are feeling better

Ruth and Lynn, thanks for your concern about my wrists. Lynn sent me a link to the University Health Services about Ergonomics@Work. The page on stretching reminded me about the advice that Isaac gave me about taking care of my arms. Chris told me about ergonomic keyboards available for sale at the ASUC.

I've decided to take more breaks from the computer and to use a gentler touch on the keyboard.

Welcome to Ruth Tringham

I'm very excited that Ruth Tringham has begun a weblog about her work with the IU (and perhaps her work more generally). Ruth writes:

I saw a learning object as any combination of images, text, video clip etc. that can be juxtaposed to build a one-minute story or vignette (in the mind of your audience) that can be used to build a larger and larger story. The juxtaposition gives the images etc. their "meaning". The fun thing is that the same juxtapositioning can set of different resonances (or stories) in the different members of your audience. That is the power of ambiguity and reflexivity that we are trying to generate in our audience. Isn't it?

There's a lot of debate over defining learning object. Let me quickly mention three different definitions. (A good summary about learning objects is available from UW Milwaukee Center for International Eduation)

IEEE: "any entity, digital or non-digital, which can be used, re-used or referenced during technology-supported learning."
David Wiley: "any digital resource that can be reused to support learning"
Clive Shepherd: "A learning object is a small, reusable digital component that can be selectively applied - alone or in combination - by computer software, learning facilitators or learners themselves, to meet individual needs for learning or performance support."

I certainly agree with Ruth that the "fun thing" about having a set of learning objects (and what we call "research objects", source materials packaged up to be flexibly manipulable) is the ability to juxtapose the in new arrangements to create new meaning. What we are trying to do is to build technology and processes to facilitate the process.

Lynn on what we are missing

I was intrigued by Lynn's comment today in response to the praise that Chris and I sang about amazon: " I find it interesting that the peer-review feature of Amazon inspires such adoration, despite the fact that Amazon only represents the universe of what they have for sale--- and omits the other 95?% of the world of information that they don't sell. It especially interests me that people I know to be omnivorously interested in a wide variety of topics both popular and scholarly don't seem to miss the missing 95%."

Don't underestimate the power of laziness (or to put it more positively, the power of easy access). What amazon and all these other web sources have going for them is the incredibly easy access: so much information at my fingertips. And even though I love (traditional) libraries, work only hundreds of meters from some pretty amazing world class libraries, have access to two branches of a very good public library within easy walking distance of my house, I hardly visit them. I'm too lazy. Every time I do wander into the library, though, I think, "wow, look at how much I'm missing by not being here. I really should get away from my desk more often." But the power of inertia is quite amazing.

Lynn, you work in the library -- so you are immersed in the richness of the library. I don't work in the library but am increasingly getting used to having Yahoo, google, amazon as my quick-fixes to my information needs.

On a related note, look at Jon Udell's quote of The Shifted Librarian, who wrote "I don't get to read books very often anymore" (which Jon Udell thought was scary coming from a librarian!)

Feb Apr

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