Oleg Liber

The use of the Web to deliver open, distance, and flexible learning has opened up the potential for social interaction and adaptive learning, but the usability, expressivity, and interoperability of the available tools leave much to be desired. This article explores these issues as they relate to teachers and learning designers through the case of the Reload Learning Design Editor and its successor, ReCourse. The applications are introduced and the results of evaluation are summarized. The principal challenges overcome in the development process are identified. By reflecting on the development process, the applications produced, evaluation, and user feedback, the conclusions regarding IMS Learning Design (IMS LD) and its potential use are identified. The principal areas discussed are programming frameworks, terminology, graphical interfaces, the relative salience of IMS LD elements, integration with authors' workflow, the authoring of services, and the authoring of IMS LD level B.

The recent emergence of internet-enabled software tools to support e-learning has prompted many UK universities to begin to attempt to integrate auch Virtual Learning Environments (VLEs) into their teaching. It is generally recognised that to be effective in an institutional context, VLEs need to be joined up to existing information and administration systems. In this paper we argue from a cybernetics perspective that in addition to the technical demands of this task, there are a wide variety of organisational, social and political factors associated with the way a university is structured, the dynamics of its internal operation and its recent history that present a significant risk of project failure of they are not given sufficient recognition and appropriate strategies for change put in place. The challenges can usefully be addressed from a cybernetics perspective. The remainder of this paper describes an approach to modelling an institution's socio-techncial systems using a combination of the Viable System Model, drawn from management cybernetics and action research techniques.

Current systems used in education follow a consistent design pattern, one that is not supportive of lifelong learning or personalization, is asymmetric in terms of user capability, and which is disconnected from the global ecology of Internet services. In this paper we propose an alternative design pattern for educational systems that emphasizes symmetric connections with a range of services both in formal and informal learning, work, and leisure, and identify strategies for implementation and experimentation

This paper is based on the author's inaugural lecture, delivered on 22 May 2003. The paper is dedicated to the memory of two recently deceased thinkers: Ivan Illich and Stafford Beer. The paper first gives an overview of the contribution they made to illuminating the nature of institutions and their organizational structure, in particular, the education system.
Learning technologies challenge accepted models of educational organization. Developments since the 1970s are examined, identifying how the three strands of learning content development, computer mediated communication and learning management have become integrated in Learning Management Systems (LMS) made possible by the World Wide Web.
It is argued that mainstream LMS offer restricted pedagogic opportunities if they are adapted to existing organizational forms, instead of being used relax organizational constraints. Beer's work provides us with tools for the redesign of educational systems to make most benefit from new technologies, guided by Illich's critique of formal education.

This article elaborates the factors that have led to the emergence of the concept of learning objects as the predominant model for digital learning materials, examining the problems that they address. It suggests that while there do appear to be real benefits, for a learning object model to be successful there needs to be a thriving learning object economy. In turn this demands a wide group of authors, drawn from the teaching community, and for these to participate there is an urgent requirement for tools that permit the easy creation and description of learning materials in learning objects format; but more importantly, support for sustainable communities of authors of digital learning materials.