is informal learning the wave of the future?
Scribbled down on July 19th, 2006 by she
Posted in Learning & Education
Tony Karrer and Harold Jarche have been participating in a cross blog dialog on informal learning. Of course, I was fascinated immediately by Harold’s points relating to Human Performance Technology (HPT) and it’s foundation on training needs analysis. He – far more eloquently than I could ever dream of doing – summed up the basis of my mini-rant yesterday regarding the desperate need to ensure that training is the right fit for the issue to be resolved.
In HPT, one of the main areas of focus is the analysis; to determine what the performance gaps are. I was told by an experienced practitioner in the field that only 15% of organisational performance problems can be addressed by training. This is based on about 50 years of research and on the premise that Instruction & Training can only address a lack of skills or knowledge.
With my heart a-flutter I read on, only to see the following:
Of particular interest to me is Item 7, because the Internet has changed the balance of power and control in many organisations. With the Internet, and now with cheap and easy ways to connect people (Web 2.0), we have more possibilities for non-instructional performance interventions. Each of these addresses a different performance need, so there is no single methodology for informal learning.
I’m sold, hook line and sinker. Except…
Aside from Job Aids and Knowledge Management systems – which could be argued is just another form of Just-in-time (JIT) learning – I haven’t really seen a lot of the other items on the list work in a corporate environment. Perhaps it’s my naivete when it comes to training, or my lack of experience in multiple corporations, but I rarely see a lot of the other items on the non-instructional performance interventions list functioning as “designed” in the real world. By designed, of course I don’t mean that someone planned them out. After all if complete analysis and planning were involved, wouldn’t that make the intervention formal on some level? There would have had to have been a problem (or at least an anticipated one), analysis to determine the best options for solutions, plans for interventions and eventually the roll out of the intervention.
Harold’s end comments also struck me as being possibly as naive as I am. With the ways that companies are locking down Internet access and using programs such as Surfcontrol to ensure that access to many of the communities Harold describes (Wiki’s, blogs, etc.) are denied to their employees, I don’t think that informal learning is at the stage where we can assume the option is available and pursued by all learners. That’s not to mention the digital divide that exists in many homes and communities on a Global scale. Sure, the information may be out there, but if learners can’t access it, it’s not going to be an effective block on which to build any foundation for performance improvement and learning.
Many of Harold’s strategies for informal learning seem to me to be simply elements of self-directed learning. So, is informal learning just the new buzz word for describing what was once known as self-directed learning? I, struck by whatever reason suits my fancy – overabundance of curiosity, desperate need to know, project due tomorrow, found a new buzz word I’m not familiar with, etc. – crawl through the Internet searching websites, papers, blogs and wiki’s in order to learn as much as I can about a topic in order to help me develop a new vision, connect new material to old and form new pathways of understanding. I’m controlling my own learning and it’s driven by my own motivations. The classic definition of self-directed learning as I undestand the term. While I can hardly argue that it’s informal, to date these experiences have never been fostered by my employer.
If informal learning is just self-directed learning dressed up in a new costume then how do things such as Job Aids, which have always been firmly on the side of ISD in my opinion, fit into this category?
Oh my, I think I’m more confused now than I was when I started considering this topic.
h/t to Stephen’s Web for featuring Tony’s response in his OL Daily newsletter and starting the cogs spinning in my little brain.
Technorati Tags: informal learning, self-directed learning
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July 19th, 2006 at 1:55 am
Excellent questions and food for thought. A major obstacle to informal learning is the corporate response to batten down hatches in the face of Web 2.0 technologies that allow learners to have some control. I’m not sure what the answer is, but it’s a heck of a lot easier to group and re-group when you are an independent agent outside the corporation. That’s why I’m working on alternatives to the corporate model, such as the Commons (http://www.jarche.com/?cat=15).
There are others who think that the corporate, hierarchical model is the main obstacle to learning and growing as a society (http://blog.wirearchy.com/blog), but we are beginning to see a chink in the armour 😉
July 19th, 2006 at 1:38 pm
I understand your questions and have been going through the same kind of struggle trying to better understand Self-Directed Learning (or Personal Learning) and Informal Learning.
I do think there’s a big cross-over somewhere in there between Informal Learning and Self-Directed Learning, but there are places where they are different and it might just be directionality. In other words, Informal Learning might suggest helping to foster a CoP. As a Personal Learning strategy you might participate in a CoP. You almost need both to occur for success since the CoP needs to exist and you need people motivated to participate.
As your thinking evolves, I certainly hope you’ll continue to contribute to the dialog.
I personally am a little less concerned about the corporate lock-down issue. This will sort itself out over time and the new technologies are far less problematic (web-based) than some of the prior generation (download required, ports opened). Yes, corporations are locking out Yahoo Groups today, but as we define the need to access or the products move to the enterprise, these will be opened up again.