Ten Reasons Why

Bloggerize the tools!
George Siemens posts thoughts on complexity at his elearnspace weblog:

We need a simple standard…something that people can actually understand. If instructional technologists have trouble grasping the complexity of standards…the average instructor will NEVER adopt or use them.
The current gap between those setting standards and those who are supposed to be using them seems to be growing. There is a simple solution. We need to “Bloggerize” elearning. The act of using and posting a learning object should be as simple as setting up an account with Blogger (5 minutes). Make it easy to start…and add complexity as the users request it. Right now, we have the architects building a house…assuming that people will move in once it’s complete. Unless they (architects) start exploring the needs of the “tenant”…the tenants will end up building their own.

I don’t believe this is correct, particularly the part about the need for a “simple standard.” Here’s the reason why: users don’t use standards; they use software. Think about it: when was the last time you hand-coded an HTTP request? I don’t mean typed “http://etc” into the browser’s address field, but actually had to go check the HTTP 1.1 spec, to code the request headers, that stuff the browser usually takes care of? Or, raise your hand if you code the XML for your weblog’s RSS feed by hand — or is it automagically generated for you by Movable Type or some other weblog tool? Uh-huh. Thought so.
Unless you’re a programmer, you probably never have to understand standards like TCP/IP, HTTP, SMTP, XML, or RSS to make use of them. But, if you’re like me, you might make hundreds or even thousands of HTTP requests each day, send dozens of emails via SMTP, syndicate your weblog posts via XML formatted to the RSS spec, etc. . . . but you have never actually read any of the specifications for those standards. Why? Because the software — the browser in the case of HTTP, a weblogging tool in the case of RSS feeds, etc. — provides you with an interface that abstracts the standard, allowing you, the end user, to work with it without understanding it.

One purpose of software is to abstract interactions so end users don’t have to understand protocols and standards.
Turn this on Siemens’ idea. It really doesn’t matter how complex the standard is, as long as the software that allows us to make use of the standard is simple. Eventually, no “average instructor” will need to understand SCORM or IMS or the definition of a learning object. The software they use will manage that understanding for them.
The instructors will just launch their ACME All-in-One Wonder Tool For Instruction™, drop some content into the good ol’ Wonder Tool, and answer some questions about their content (metadata!). Click the “Done” button, and the Wonder Tool spits out a standards-compliant learning object that can be dropped into any course management system. Or, if they want to share it, they click the “Share” button, select from a list of options of who to share with (individual users, my department, my college, everyone), and *poof!* — it’s available to others. No slogging through dense technical documents required!
No users of the web chooses to adopt or use HTTP. You use it because it’s the standard that the web browsers adhere to. You don’t say, “I’m going to use SMTP because it’s the best email protocol out there!” every time you send an email to someone else on the Internet; you use it (and probably don’t even know it!) because your email program adheres to that standard.
Likewise, no instructor will “choose” to adopt SCORM (or whatever standard prevails). They’ll use it because it’s the standard their content providers, their content authoring tool vendors, and their content delivery systems adhere to.
Dumbing down the standard won’t make a difference, except to potentially rob the teaching and learning community of potential functionality. It’s not the standards that need to be “bloggerized.” Blogger is a tool that makes use of common web publishing standards (HTTP, HTML, FTP, etc.). It’s powerful becuase it greatly abstracts those standards (and the processes of using them) to “push-button” simplicity. That level of simplicity is important in the tools that make use of the standards, but it’s not necessarily required in the standards themselves.

Greg Education, Standards