No Such Thing as a Learning Object

The title of Michael Feldstein’s article, There’s No Such Thing as a Learning Object, is as provocative as the article is thought provoking. Some tidbits:

« An object is a thing. We don’t learn from things. We learn from doing things. »

To move away from the emphasis on the object as a learning fait accompli, Feldstein proposes the term cognitive catalyst:

Cognitive catalysts can be learning content, learning activities or, most often, a fusion of the two. A PDF can be a cognitive catalyst but it doesn’t automatically become one just because we can download it from a Web site or email it to our students. To have an object fairly called a « cognitive catalyst, » one must answer the questions, « What cognition does it catalyze? What learning process does it stimulate? »

He suggests that we look at objects as the equivalent of the direct object of a full sentence, as something we do something with:

« Jane measures velocity. Harry critiques The Iliad. We debate learning objects. »