I love LEGO! I have many fond memories of playing with them… and of spending hundreds of dollars on every conceivable LEGO kit for my son. I still have his LEGO collection, and will shortly pass it along to HIS son.
So, when Nate shared an article earlier this week by Stephen Downes http://elearnmag.org/subpage.cfm?section=articles&article=29-1 on e-learning, I did what the good computer drone does, I clicked on the blue/underlined link and started to read. I didn’t get far in that article when my eyes came across LEGO! So, I clicked on it (I can get lost very easily this way!) I arrived at http://www.learnativity.com/standards.html and a very intriguing article on learning standards and objectives…. and LEGO! Here is a clip from that article that I intend to revisit:
A simple example of valuable standards that I came to appreciate in life, and my children still enjoy, comes in the LEGO(tm) product-line. All LEGO blocks adhere to one absolute standard for pin size. Every LEGO piece, no matter what shape, color, size, age, or purpose can always be snapped together with any others piece because of their uniformly shaped pins. This allows children of all ages to create, deconstruct, and reconstruct LEGO structures easily and into most any form they can imagine.
If we map this to the world of learning content, we start to see the opportunities that would result if we were able to have the same standards and capabilities to reuse and assemble or disassemble content drawn from any source at any time.
I feel as if I am at a tasting party. I don’t have the time to read thorough and savor and digest everything we’re being asked to read… but I manage to taste it all.
I’m even starting to save some of this stuff in my newly-created furl.
I’m waiting for my computer to explode!
4 responses so far ↓
1
Julie Durando
// Nov 4, 2005 at 6:31 pm
Sheila,
I love the lego analogy! As I struggle through my course design, I find I am trying to include a variety of topics, and it is a good reminder that I make sure they all “fit together”. If there is nothing for the information to click with, it seems to simply get tossed aside.
I too have enjoyed many of the new blogs and my Sage list is continuously growing.
The amount of information on this thing (web/net) is mind-boggling! I keep waiting to hit the point like in that commercial where the computer says, “you have reached the end of the internet”. Yet, I realize there is probably more there than I could read in a lifetime. Wonderful isn’t it???
2
Administrator
// Nov 6, 2005 at 5:06 am
if you love the lego analogy, check out this website… http://www.tack-tiles.com.
This product was created by the father of a child who is blind/multiply handicapped. The teachers told this father that his son would never be able to read… not braille, not print. The father couldn’t accept this, and in one of those AHA! moments, developed the product that he used to teach his son how to read braille. His son is now in adulthood, and lives independently at the other end of the country.
There are many lessons to be learned… some of them are explained at this website. Enjoy!
3
Administrator
// Nov 6, 2005 at 4:43 pm
What an intriguing thought… “You have reached the end of the Internet.” Wow! blows me away… and reminds me of the concept of stars… and galaxies… that I can never seem to get across to my students…
I hate to miss anything… guess I’m going to have to revise my thoughts on this.
Another thought on LEGO… and the philosophies contained within that article… it reminded me of
Tell me and I forget, show me
and I remember, involve me and I understand.
Guess a lot of stuff I’m learning these days reminds me of alot of other stuff I’ve already learned… but the application is different.
4
Bollywood ringtones
// Sep 2, 2006 at 1:33 am
Bollywood ringtones…
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