elearning session at CCL shows significance of informal learning

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Stephen Downes is blogging the Canadian Council on Learning’s Conference on Adult Learning in Canada. Stephen’s report on the presentation (see my last post) on e-learning shows, among other findings, the significance of informal learning:

Griff Richards: on four functional areas:
– e-learning as an extension of military education
– e-learning as distance education
– e-learning as classroom education
– e-learning as informal education

Terry Anderson: report misses an emphasis on informal learning.

The notion of the message being more impotant than the carrier: I asked some students, is it worth the extra money? Some said it was, and the logic was, a power issue. They had the same resources the professor did. And because they could take time to research something, they would go into the class knowing more that what the prof does. It completely changes the playing field. And when I look at online informal learning, I see, they’re offering advice, practical advice, that they cannot get. And again, it’s about power. So the question is, is it just the thing we used to do? Has this been developed and explored?

Comment: Following up on Melissa’s comment: I think perhaps we need a response that takes it out of the formal education sector. When we respond from the formal sector, we are still looking at teaching and not learning. And perhaps adult learners who might have an affinity for technology might have an interest in knowledge and sharing, not so much credits. Not teaching, but the informal use of learning for new knowledge.

Comment: paper on barriers. 59 percent of people are participating in informal learning. Do you really know who those users are who are using e-learning?

Adult Learning – pressing issues and where the field is headed, in two sentences

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I just received this message and spent some time reviewing the hundreds of posts I’ve made about learning over the past few years. I can’t think of any one or two lines that would actually make a difference. I’m leaving at 6:00 AM tomorrow, but may be able to get a response sent before the end of the day. Any suggestions? (Emphasis is mine)

The Canadian Council on Learning’s Adult Learning Knowledge Centre will hold its first national symposium at the Wu Conference Centre, in Fredericton, NB, on June 21-23, 2006. The symposium will provide an opportunity for dialogue between stakeholders in the practice and research of adult learning. At the symposium, I will be presenting the CCL’s state-of-the-field literature review for e-learning and adult learning with reactions by front-line practitioners and researchers.

I would like to incorporate comments from actual practitioners and researchers on the state of the field of e-learning, especially in relation to adult learning. Please feel free to share your perspectives on the state of the field from your perspective as an independent consultant in Atlantic Canada by Wednesday (June 21st) and I will gladly reports back to this larger audience (Sorry for the short notice!). One sentence or two on where the field is headed and some of the pressing issues from your perspective will suffice. Comments or quotes will be acknowledged and authors identified during the presentation. The symposium is intended to facilitate researchers and practitioners working together in meaningful collaborations, and to influence the policy process resulting in better learning opportunities and improved outcomes. The symposium will provide ALKC with concrete ideas to meet its goal of creating a culture of adult learning that is accessible and relevant to all Canadians.

Update: This is what I submitted:

The overwhelming majority of the learning needs of Canadian adults are not addressed by formal training and education. In this post-industrial era, adults today require self-directed learning skills to thrive in the unstructured work environments outside of school. Efforts should be focused on the development of practical tools and strategies for adults to learn in a networked information society.

Creative writing, school and blogging

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Our son, Lucas, has just written a story for his Grade 7 English class. It’s loosely based on the Dragonlance series of fantasy books and when Lucas read it in class this week, all of the students wanted to find out what happens next.

At my suggestion, Lucas posted the story on his blog and wants to continue writing stories over the Summer. He’s even said that he prefers writing these stories to playing computer games. Having his stories on a blog may also give him more positive feedback to continue writing. There is no option for students to use blogs or other web-based learning tools in school, so we supplement these skills at home, as I’ve mentioned before.

If you’re interested in blogs and creative writing in public education, take a look at Lucas’ first story posted online – Sakata. This is unedited creativity from an 11 year old. Lucas had a great teacher for English this year (thank you Mr. Stewart) and he was given a lot of freedom to explore writing. I think that the results of this positive learning experience are incredible.

Informal Networked Learning

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We’re currently in our second Informl Learning Unworkshop, using various web tools that didn’t exist several years ago, with participants around the globe.

My initial experiences in the learning field were from the point of view of methods of instruction (how to get subject matter across to captive students) and later, the systems approach to training (from which flows instructional systems design or ISD). Later I became immersed in human performance technology, and found it a good method to analyse certain aspects of organisational performance. HPT ensures that training, which is costly, isn’t prescribed unless it addresses a verifiable lack of skills and/or knowledge. Even HPT itself seems to be too constrained for me now.

What I like about informal learning is that it opens up the way to look at other methods of helping people to learn. Training and education are two sets of tools but there are many more. Options for learning have increased exponentially with access to the Internet. As with any new technology, we first put the old media (modules, courses, classrooms, programs, degrees) into the new medium. Now that some of us are becoming more comfortable with the medium, we are seeing more experimentation.

Using blogs, wikis, podcasts or social bookmarks for learning can change the dynamic from teaching-centric to learning-centric. Informal learning is not new, but the ways in which we can connect with others have improved drastically (skype, anyone?). Informal learning is about connecting – whether it be to information or people.

The network effect of the Web is explained in detail in Yochai Benkler’s The Wealth of Networks. Benkler describes the changes that a networked society can have on our governance, economic and cultural structures [more to follow on this book as I savour every page]:

The networked information economy improves the practical capacities of individuals along three dimensions: (1) it improves their capacity to do more for and by themselves; (2) it enhances their capacity to do more in loose commonality with others, without being constrained to organize their relationship through a price system or in traditional hierarchical models of social and economic organization; and (3) it improves the capacity of individuals to do more in formal organizations that operate outside the market sphere. This enhanced autonomy is at the core of all the other improvements I describe. Individuals are using their newly expanded practical freedom to act and cooperate with others in ways that improve the practiced experience of democracy, justice and development, a critical culture, and community.

Learning skills, especially outside the formal training & education sphere, are necessary for everyone in our society to take advantage of the opportunities of a networked information economy. I believe that the development of environments that nurture informal, networked learning will be the ISD of the 21st century.

Adobe Informl Learning eSeminar Today

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Yesterday, we had our third session of the Informl Learning Unworkshop, with about 10 participants online and the rest watching the recording later. Many are blogging for the first time, and there are some natural storytellers and artists. This is our second unworkshop series and it’s beginning to hit a natural learning rhythm – many “ah ha” moments.

If informal learning is of any interest, then you may want to tune into Jay Cross’ presentation this afternoon (Friday, 16 June at 2:00 PM Eastern or 3:00 PM Atlantic, etc.). You can register here for this free eSeminar (requires Adobe membership registration).

NB: If you missed the session, the recording will soon be available on the Adobe Presentation Site.

Tutorcasts – community-built learning objects

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My good friend Dave Cormier has started Tutorcasts, self-described as:

Tutorcasts is meant to be a repository (and directory) of screencasts available for educational purposes. If you would like to become a part of this group, please sign up and post your screencast information.

The first example, made by Dave, is An introduction to Wikipedia. The site is still in its infancy, but I think this will take off.

Dave used Camtasia to create the tutorial. Camtasia retails for $299 but has a free 30-day trial . Microsoft Encoder, which is free, could also do the trick, but not as well. Thanks for leading the way, Dave.

Cheap Web Conferencing Tool Selection

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This past week I’ve been testing out some tools for audio and web conferencing for our Informl Learning Unworkshop. The platforms range from free, to pay, to open source, and each option has its pros and cons. Free programs, like Skype for audio and Vyew for slide presentations and text chat, are just fine if you want something that is quick and simple to set up. There is a still a learning curve, as I learned with our skypecast, but little technical skill is required. The problem with these free systems is that they don’t scale well. For instance, you can’t run a private skypecast, nor can you run Vyew on your intranet (at least not for free).

If you are planning on using a system inside your company or your Intranet/Extranet then you may want to start with an open source system. It will require more technical expertise to get the software operating on your server, but you will own the installation and code and will be able to grow it according to your business needs. One of the few available open source web conferencing tools is Canadian-made ePresence. I haven’t tried it out yet, but it appears to be fairly stable.

Another option would be to pay for a service or proprietary system. The trade-off with these proprietary systems is that you will have a packaged solution, but you won’t own the code. System upgrades may cost you more money than anticipated, and you can’t “look under the hood”. There are dozens, if not hundreds, of web conferencing systems on the market. These range in price up to hundreds of thousands of dollars per year. Unfortunately, you don’t always get what you pay for. One of the lowest cost systems, which also interoperates with skype, is Persony, available for a one-time cost of $299 and recommended by the web collaboration guru, Robin Good.

There’s a good range of options available today but you have to test these tools within the context of your operations. For instance, certain platforms work better with international conferences. Others are great when all of the participants are in North America, but break down when you add people from across oceans. Try them out first.

A First Principle for the Learning Vocation

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Christian Long has posed a thoughtful question at the end of this post on learning, education and schooling.

So, here’s my challenge back to you and all others who are even mildly interested:

Show me the spirit of learning first. Follow its path. Follow the learners where they take you. Then, and only then, begin to show me and tell me and demonstrate in real time what those programs and those places and those calendars of ‘school’ are…and then perhaps, out of the corner of my eye, begin to highlight the emerging networks of ‘education’ that loosely draw them together. But if learning is not front and center, the learner leading the charge, and the path discoved en route, then there is no more need to argue the semantics of “industry” or “industrious”. The later is inate. The former irrelevant. And we’ll all ring around the rosey, ashes ashes, we all fall down.

Christian has put forth what I would call a first principle, from which our actions should follow – “learning front and center”.

Queen Street Commons cited in National Paper

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There is an article featuring the Queen Street Commons, the Innovation Commons and Workspace in today’s Globe & Mail newspaper (page B9):

The timing of these ventures [Work Commons] seems right, and they’re a phenomenon to watch. The past 10 years have seen an unprecedented rise in the number of contract positions and freelance workers, along with a proliferation of mobile computing technologies. Third working spaces capitalize on both trends, and have the potential to change the way labour is organized. Small businesses might, for instance, decide to use such environments instead of putting contract staff in their own high-priced office space, or forgo setting up their own facilities altogether. These environments may become the place where trends in small business IT use and spending are determined.

Third working spaces could also be the physical representation of the collaboration that blogs, wikis and related technologies have fostered over the Internet. Finally, they could change what we expect out of the working experience. In the dot-com days, companies installed foosball tables and beanbag chairs to lure talent and make them comfortable. After the bubble burst, those perks disappeared. Third working spaces propose something in between — a much-needed renovation of the workplace concept, rather than an extreme makeover.

More fodder for our Commons‘ business plan :-)

Who are the experts?

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Charles Nelson takes exception with my post on The Relevance of the Learning Profession:

There are two false assumptions here. One is that subverting hierarchy results in no experts …

The second is that “hyperlinks subvert hierarchy”.

I guess that we differ on the need for experts in a field. Dr. Nelson feels that experts are necessary, or “learning can become derailed or even stopped in its tracks.” He says that experts should proceed with humility, but that experts are necessary for our field to progress. We appear to be on divergent learning paths.

Today, expertise is being eroded in many fields. Medical doctors are confronted daily by patients who have researched a disease, from reputable sources, in greater depth than the doctor has time to do. Patients are becoming co-managers of their health. Even bloggers can get the scoop on expert journalists. It is getting difficult for anyone to be an expert other than in a very narrow field for a short period of time. As a consultant, I live this every day because I am only as good as my last project. Knowledge workers are like actors, we are only as good as our last performance. For a fleeting moment, we may be viewed as experts, but for not much longer.

Hierarchies and experts have a symbiotic relationship. Without hierarchies, no authority can tell us who is the expert. Were humans able to learn before there were hierarchies and experts? Would they be able to learn in spite of without experts?

Personally, I know that hyperlinks subvert hierarchies. That’s how a dispersed group of a dozen free-agents can out-manoeuver and under-bid a Fortune 50 company by 90% and secure a contract with a government agency. That’s how our Informl Learning Unworkshop [workshops] can be filled to capacity without spending a dollar on marketing expertise.

By subverting traditional business hierarchies, a lone consultant in Atlantic Canada can do business around the world. But does that make me the new expert? I have never purported to be an an expert. I have some skills and some knowledge, but my greatest asset is my network. Perhaps individual expertise is gradually being replaced by collaborative expertise. I’m not sure; but then I’m no expert.