Edited by Amanda Harrington-Vail, Thursday, 24 Apr 2014, 14:30
I opted for the Brian Lamb video because it was the most recent resource on this.
It was reassuring that Brian considered the concepts (IMS and SCORM) were no clearer for him now than they were in 2001. However he still considers it be be "a very sound idea" that "digital media" is "non-rivalrous resource" (Lamb, 2009). He develops this by explaining that shared resources save time and money, which is a point made by Downes in 2001.
Lamb state that building the archives was a problem in sharing learning objects, citing Merlot.org as a repository that has remained in situ since 2005. There were problems with the meta-tagging which meant resources were not able to be searched for, so it was like having an excellent library but without any referencing systems. Anyone searching literally had to work their way through the materials until they found the one they wanted. The resources were there but could not be easily accessed. Lamb claims it was "clumsy" and there was a need to avoid potential "chaos" (2009).
Therefore Lamb decided to blog about the issue as soon as blogging tools became available. When unsure on an aspect he would ask questions and others would provide the answer, he noted that friends of his would share some of the information. This he noted in his discussions is what people wanted to do with the "learning object repository", to "share each others work" and to build "communities of practice" to "foster real collaboration and rapport" (Lamb, 2009). This sharing developed out of professionals blogging about their work, as Weller does.
Criticism of learning objects
Lamb, B. (2009) Who the hell is Brian Lamb? (video), Barry Dahl blog, 26 October [online],http://barrydahl.com/ 2009/ 10/ 26/ who-the-hell-is-brian-lamb/ (last accessed 24 March 2014).