Tuesday, July 04, 2006

Informal Learning

I’ve been running into some references to informal learning lately and thought I’d start to maintain some of these resources:

What is informal learning? - by Jay Cross

Since most of my experience in education is at the secondary level, I ask these questions:

How does this translate to K-12? Developmentally? Can we have K-5 participating in this sort of learning? What does it look like?

  1. The bus vs. bike analogy: institutional control vs. learner control. Schools are like a ride on the bus - all learning is scripted and the same for everyone. No bike rides where you can decide to take a detour from the rest of the group.
  2. “Training is something that’s pushed on you; learning is something you choose.”
  3. “Google is the world’s largest learning provider, answering thousands of inquires every second.” Could this be the epitome of informal learning?
  4. “Formal learning takes place in classrooms; informal learning happens in learnscapes. A learnscape is a learning ecology: learning without borders. Learnscaping involves removing obstacles, seeding communities, increasing bandwidth, encouraging conversation, and growing networks. It’s a natural way to learn and grow.”

Posted by Randy on 07/04 at 12:04 AM
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