Comments on Learning Rocks: The informal learning plugin, on an LMS near you s...

Bingo Dan! You nailed it. A formal advertisement p...

2011-10-26T11:38:16.191+01:00

Bingo Dan! You nailed it. A formal advertisement pretending to be an informal learning moment - uncovered. Will we see this (your) learning moment on an LMS?

@Mark Point taken. When you say "microbloggi...

2011-10-26T11:37:10.118+01:00

@Mark

Point taken. When you say "microblogging" I presume that you mean very short posts in the open areas to encourage engagement. But that is to co-opt existing behaviours and bring them in from elsewhere. I get the feeling that the Bb post wants to paint informal learning as something new and something that cannot take place without a tool to manage it.

@Jane
Thank you. Vendors have a tendency to stretch the truth, but this stretched it to breaking! Your intro on the page you provide a link to reiterates my understanding of Cross's original argument - that in a "non-informal learning aware" situation 80% of the learning was informal. This is at odds with the implicit assertions on the Bb post that it is something that can be "introduced" - not if it is already there! But Jay doesn't challenge this, and that's really what I find puzzling.

@criticallearner - I think I agree with your points. In my understanding, informal learning emerges from context and what Bb seem to be implying is that you can make it emerge by structuring it with a tool. Seems a bit odd.

If you have to go to the LMS to go do the learning...

2011-10-23T02:42:50.136+01:00

If you have to go to the LMS to go do the learning (formal or informal), it is a bit unnatural, manufactured, and trending more on the formal/structured side. The same can be said to some degree of manufactured SoMe environments to "go do" informal learning. The more it gets embedded into the natural workflow of the employee/org, the more you keep it natural/informal.

It's a spectrum, each org's view of where the cutline between formal and informal differs vastly, but I think at the core, if you think of "how manufactured" to "go do the"... ...it's more or less formal (Okay everyone, stop the work you are doing to go do the informal learning stuff over here..._).

If it happened naturally as a part of moving the org forward, it is probably more informal.

My 2 cents, I am sure as the tools and methodologies mature, so will my perspective ;)

Dan, a nice rebuttal of the Blackboard post. I thi...

2011-10-22T12:29:53.589+01:00

Dan, a nice rebuttal of the Blackboard post. I think this is a case of vendors misunderstanding the definition of informal learning - or rather "adapting" it to their own purposes. Accessing informational/informal resources through an LMS is NOT informal learning - it's still formal learning. Here is an article I produced for those who need help in understanding informal and social learning in the workplace here - http://c4lpt.co.uk/new-workplace-learning/understanding-informal-and-social-learning-in-the-workplace/ Jane Hart (sorry Google seems to want to sign me in as Industry News)

"informal learning" on an LMS!? Isn'...

2011-10-22T09:06:14.344+01:00

"informal learning" on an LMS!? Isn't that paradoxical?"

Not entirely... perhaps there is a role for the LMS to incorporate informal learning functions (eg. microblogging), if it helps to get the LMS better used?