Learning object

This learning object 'Disovering Food Webs' is deisgned for a year 3/4 mixed ability classroom. The overiding aim of the object is to foster students' understandings through adopting a differentiated learning program. Underpinning this are the following aims/objectives:

1. To allow for cooperative learning through student collaboration and the pairing of students.
2. To cater to different learning styles through a variety of visual and kinesthetic experiences (flash, manipulation of multimedia materials, and choices of which animal to study. This can also be done on an Interactive Whiteboard, allowing for whole class demonstrations and overviews).
3. Allow all students to be challenged and engaged through visual cues and peer mentoring for those who need extra support; for higher end students open ended, extended, challenging activities which require higher order thinking skills.
4. Promotes students engagement through students having the choice of which format to present their understandings, either in Paint, as a word document with images from the Internet, or in poster format.
5. Give students the opportunity to independently research sites and information from the Internet, and empowering them to find the answers to their own questions. A set of sites to critique (click here) and an evaluation rubric (click here) are also included. These can be done as a prior activity.
6. Through critiquing and recommending Internet sites, students are able to evaluate the information they are reserching and provides another opportunity for peer mentoring.

Please note: These documents are loaded into the school Workfolder for ease of access for the students.

Definition of Digital Learning Object

A Digital Learning Object is a reusable digital resource that is used during technology supported learning. It can be the smallest independent structural experience that consists of an objective, a learning activity, and an assessment (L'Allier, 1997). This means that it is a stand alone part of a unit that will support, using technology, the learning experiences of the students. Learning objects can also be linked together to form lessons, and then whole units of work.
The Wikipedia link below has some fantastic links to some learning object projects around the world, such as Global Education Online Depository and Exchange (GEODE) and Multimedia Educational Resource for Learning and Online Teaching (MERLOT) (both were linked to in the tutorial PowerPoint). It also has some other interesting definitions.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Learning_Object