Learning Object Repositories are becoming more widespread and more popular among researchers and educators across the globe. Ochoa and Duval (2009) noted that LORs grew linearly and the popularity of such resources was growing steadily irrespective of the number of objects or quality of the objects submitted.
Therefore, it is possible to note that LORs are seen as useful tools to improve and develop. People long to create communities where researchers and educators could share information.
I believe that LORs make up almost an ideal community. I think LORs represent this idea community where a lot of valuable information is stored. People from different countries and having different backgrounds manage to share information. Admittedly, this fosters research and development of teaching strategies.
I have found a lot of particular ideas and resources to make my teaching more effective. There were moments when I felt stuck as I could not find ways to present material in a more effective way. I came across a variety of ideas in LORS.
I suppose lots of researchers and educators have had similar moments when they did not know an answer to a question. Many answers are available at LORs now. Koppi, Bogle and Bogle (2005) pointed out that there were three aspects of LOR.
According to Koppi, Bogle and Bogle (2005, p. 83) the third aspect, i.e. “the collaborative space” is the most valuable for researchers and educators from all over the world. I agree with this assumption and I think availability of different data can foster research in a variety of spheres.
Nonetheless, it is necessary to note that LORs are still almost ideal as there are certain factors that prevent these resources from becoming truly ideal communities. Some argue that ideas of ‘old’ teachers make people doubt in effectiveness of LORs.
However, the major problem is still associated with technology as many people have no access to LORs due to scarce financial support of educational and research spheres (Richards, McGreal, Hatala & Friesen, 2002). I am a teacher in the UAE and I have access to the Internet and a variety of resources.
However, some LORs are inaccessible for me as sometimes membership requires certain payments. I understand that many organizations have resources to be members of some LORs. At the same time, in the UAE many organizations do not have an opportunity to be members of such communities.
Moreover, many teachers in this country do not have access to the Internet. Of course, this is quite a considerable limitation to the use of LORs as many really brilliant ideas are still outside the global communities of researchers and educators.
Therefore, I’d like to note that LORs can become a really great invention of humanity as these global communities can rocket research, to a great extent.
At the same time, it is necessary to remember that there is still much to be done. Governments should pay attention to the development of LORs. Development of the global communities must be one of the priorities of officials.
Reference List
Koppi, T., Bogle, L. & Bogle, M. (2005). Learning objects, repositories, sharing and reusability. Open Learning, 20(1), 83-91.
Ochoa, X. & Duval, E. (2009). Quantitative analysis of learning object repositories. IEEE Transactions on Learning Technologies, 2(3), 226-238.
Richards, G., McGreal, R., Hatala, M. & Friesen, N. (2002). The evolution of learning object repository technologies: Portals for on-line objects for learning. Journal of Distance Education, 17(3), 67-79.