The discussion board is a learning object that contains chunks of information or sub-objects that
are themselves made up of smaller components or sub-objects. Additionally, a discussion board
as a learning object is a sub-object or chunk of a larger learning object. It is simply a matter of
contextualization.
This is an important insight because it confirms what has been learned in the literature about
learning objects. It also confirms that learning objects generally conform to certain observable
phenomena in nature, namely, interval numbers. Being infinitely divisible, the discussion board
demonstrates that learning objects resemble interval-level data that are by definition equally and
infinitely divisible. Being infinitely compoundable, the discussion board also demonstrates that
learning objects resemble interval-level data because as is the case for interval-level data the
process of division can be reversed and the process of multiplication can move towards a larger
data value or larger datum.
If learning objects resemble interval data then do bits resemble ordinal-level or categorical-level
data? Or is this simply an issue of contextualization? Will researchers and information scientists
continue to identify smaller and smaller contexts in a manner similar to the journey taken by theoretical
physicists? Will researchers and information scientists come to a point, like theoretical
physicists, that there is an understanding of the practical and philosophical problems posed by an
ever-expanding universe of learning objects? In what ways will technological advances enable us,
like theoretical physicists, to answer previously difficult or complex questions (e.g., the Hubble
Telescope enabling astronomers to see into deep space)?
These are issues that merit future research because they may help researchers and information
scientists come to grips with fundamental definitional problems and to expand the taxonomy of
learning objects - an enhanced taxonomy of contexts and a richer understanding of how and why
contextualization works. For example, is it possible that contextualization is essentially algorithmic
in nature, i.e. is it an iterative process? If so, what does that imply for developing and using
learning objects?