Learning Objects: Clarifications

As Ace pointed out in her response to my last post, the term "learning objects" is confusing to those of us (including me!) who have not heard of it before. As I looked over various sites and definitions, I came up with clearer insights as to what a "learning object" really is. Here is the main portion of what I posted in response to Ace:

A learning object is basically any type of digital aid that can be used in your lesson and can be reused for other lessons. A videotaped experiment posted to the Web, for example, is a learning object that can be used in a seventh grade science class in one school and a tenth grade biology class in another school, depending on the context in which it is presented and the discussions/ assignments that spring from it.

The goal of learning objects seems to be to provide students with a variety of smaller chunks of information in a lesson instead of presenting them with a continuous lecture that is much less stimulating and does not appeal to various learning styles.

Library PowerPoints, video clips, or even short digital scavenger hunts could all be considered learning objects that are relevant to us.

My explanation here seems to coincide well with the explanation given by Ohio State University librarians in the workshop PowerPoint linked at the bottom of this page. In the PowerPoint, the presenters note that games, short WebQuests, cartoons, online mazes, and many more instructional tools can all be considered library learning objects. Check out the benefits/ purposes of using learning objects on the final slide!