RIP-ping on Learning Objects

iterating toward openness - RIP-ping on Learning Objects: "I’ve been saying that the idea of LEGO-like assembly of resources simply will not work from a learning perspective. The role of context is simply too great in learning, and the expectation that any educational resource could be reused without some contextual tweaking was either naive or stupid. I will here attribute learning objects’ inability to live up to the incredible hype and investment they received to the fact that the premise of the possibility of simple reuse was simply wrong."

My initial reaction to learning objects is the above. I have to say I'm not 100% keen on this idea of a lot of independent piecemeal learning. It seems to me to be about benefitting the provider of the material and not the student. Where's the scaffolding if you don't allow the learner a sense of building towards an understanding. Their own contextual, constructed understanding - sure - but still within the bounds of some kind of structure. How can we assume that we're all speaking the same language if we don't tread the same route at least to a degree?

I don't know. Learning objects do have a very 'Lego' feel about them....