The Wales-Wide Web

Sorry for the lack of entries lately. In the middle of a big re-organisation of Pontydysgu. Many greetings to Peter who has joined us to run the administration. And Dirk is working hard on the launch of our new website. Meanwhile I am hurtling from meeting to meeting.

But there is still time for the odd post here. Some time ago I posted the following question on my Facebook page:

"How can we support informal learning?"

At least I thought I did. What I actually posted was "How can we support informal earning?" What a difference a consonant makes. Well, George Roberts answered the original question:

" I support informal earning through car boot sales and Russian MP3 download sites. CAVEAT: The support of informal earning is illegal, immoral and (I hear) the basis of the economy of Liverpool ;)"

And then I edited the question to my original intent.

Here is a summary of the answers. Thanks to all of you who contributed.

Scott Wilson
Stop hoarding stuff behind passwords and firewalls. Respect informal learning by universally supporting accreditation via APEL.

Jenny Hughes
Who's 'we' ? And what informal learning are we supporting by whom? There's quite a lot of informal learning I wouldn't want to support, ditto a lot of informal learners

Cristina Costa

By creating, enhancing, developing and maintaining a learning environment where participants (not students!) are entitled to an opinion, stimulated to develop their own voice and share what they know while LEARNING what they want to learn!

Steve Wheeler

By giving them licence to use more (any type of) social networking

George Roberts
Once it's supported is it informal? John Cook proposed a continuum: informal (off the radar) via semi-formal to formal. I think "we" can support informal learning by doing formal learning as best we can: open, socially engaged, Freirian, learning-centred.

David Delgado
a) Making it easy to find useful resources for anyone in the organization
b) Making it easy to make connections among people in the organization and sharing their knowledge
c) Encouraging everyone to learn what he needs or likes most in their job

Stan Stanier
I'm with Terry - first we need to identify the what, how and when

Frances Bell

by letting the learner determine the context and content of the learning and then offering support appropriate to that.

Stuart A Yeates
(a) avoidance of over-specified prescriptive assessments
(b) promotion of quality engaging resources

Paul Harrington

I agree with Mr Wassall the first part of the exercise will be to observe how it is happening amongst the 'digital natives' ( don't like the term) - then give them opportunities on our terms to use tech..

Terry Wassall

Good question! First we need to understand how informal learning takes place. Reflecting on and surfacing our own modes of informal learning would be a start, and there are probably many modes and contexts to consider. Then exploit this avoiding formality.

I am underwelmed by mots of the Facebook plug-ins (although overwhelmed by the number available. And I totally fail to understand the attraction of applications like Zombies

But the one application which I think is really useful - as opposed to decorative - is my questions. I have tried asking questions a few times on my blog - and have got a reasonable response - but the blog display is in no way as useful as the plug-in for this sort of discourse. My questions is really handy for quickly gathering different people's views on key issues.

And - 9f you do have a Facebook account - my question is "How can we support informal earning?". For those of you without an account I will publish the relies on this blog some time in the future.

Last Friday I chaired one of the morning plenary sessions at Educa on-line.

the session was on informal learning and was packed out - about 700 'participants'. At least informal learning is now being taken seriously - although I have to say this was not perhaps the ideal setting for learning to take place - formal or informal.

there were four speakers. I was a little disappointed with Jay Cross - who - although he said it nicely - seemed to say little or nothing new. I was greatly impressed with Kevin Wheeler from 'Global Learning Resources' - in general I am pretty cynical about consultants but Kevin knows what he is talking about, is reflective and challenging.

Then there were presentations form Yael Ravin from IBM and Mike McKeown from Cisco (I have to say this is not my normal setup or company - but I kind of enjoyed a glimpse into the corporate world). Both gave competent presentations, as one would expect. Both showed off what their companies were doing in terms of using ICT to encourage informal learning.

Neither really gave any indication of how successful such activities were (even more useful would have been what is not working and why) - rather they focused on the different platforms they had developed. I am quite sure they had put much time and expertise into developing these platforms but i saw little that could not be hacked together in a day or two using open source and a little ingenuity. perhaps that is just a sign of how fast social software has advanced!

I am taking part at the moment in an on-line conference organised by the UNESCO IIEP Community of Interest in Open Educational Resources. Although I don't really like the format of these email conferences, it is lively with a lot of cultural interchange. And I just received this wonderful post from K. C. Sabu from Bhopal, India. He or she says in one short story more than I have ever managed to say in long convoluted papers!

"Women Hand Pump Care Takers
In one of the Water and Sanitation Projects in South India, during the 90s women were to be trained to be hand pump care takers. Due to some reason the training was delayed - and the authorities distributed the tool kits to the suggested women in the remote rural areas.

Surprisingly after about 6 months when we visited the areas, we found that the women were actually functioning as Hand Pump care takers though they were not trained to be. Through trial and error they learned the ‘Engineering’ of hand pump. The factors behind the learning include access to the tools, the need - for water - and the natural determination? Learning is mostly demand driven, self organized and self paced. Opportunity and access are important factors in the process of learning.

It is very much true that the children find schooling to be boring. A more active involvement of the user – students - in specifying the content and curriculum may make a difference in this scenario. Teachers need to recognize that there cannot be any teaching if there is no learning. There is need for teachers to realise the fact that the learners are able to construct knowledge. Once this is realized, the teachers will naturally grow above their level of delivering the content, to higher levels like that of becoming partners and facilitators in the process of constructing knowledge."

Technorati Tags: creativity, open content, storytelling

Had an email from Sally Reynolds on the subject on Online Educa Berlin.

Sally says: " Hi Graham, I hope you are keeping well and enjoying the summer. Graham I have a question for you, I know you are interested in the subject of informal learning and we are having a plenary on the subject at OEB this year, we are actively looking for companies and organisations really adopting a strategy to incorporate informal learning in a meaningful way and trying to find good speaker reps who could make a strong contribution to our agenda on the subject - any suggestions?"

Anyone any ideas?

Technorati Tags: informal learning, informal_learning

Ah an all to brief holiday - but I had a great time at the Cambridge festival and will write about it at the weekend.

But now back to business. I have been doing some work for the ICOVET project coordinated by the Deutches Jugendsinstitut. The project is looking at the recognition of informal learning for socially disadvantaged young people. The DJi is featuring the project as its theme of the month on their web site.

the web site includes the background to the project and an interview with Ulrike Richter from the DJi. There is a short article by me comparing the recognition of informal learning in the UK and in Germany. And there is an excellent article by Magda Balica on the potential of the recognition of informal learning for young people from the Roma community in Romania.

Well worth checking out. And it is good to see topical and well thought out presentation of project work on an institutional web site.

Technorati Tags: informal learning

Last year I spoke at the Educa on-line conference in Berlin about e-learning in Small and Medium Enterprises. my presentation was based on the outcomes of a European Commission funded Leonardo project called ICT and SMEs.

Some time later, I received an invitation to talk at a meeting of the Elearn2work project in York in the UK - which I gather has similar aims.

So Wednesday I am off to York. Anthony Busk who works for KnowledgeBase UK - who are the project coordinators - asked me for a summary to send out in advance of the meeting. I sent him my long paper based on the project - about 23 pages and also a shorter version - about 6 pages - which I recently wrote. Anthony replied:

"Thanks for paper Graham – hope the 2 pager is OK. Had to leave out much. Many issues-allowing scope for lots of discussion?".

And indeed Anthony has condensed my pages of researchy prose to an excellent bullet list of tow pages focused on the issues arising from the project. So impressed was I, that I am posting it on the blog.

Scope
350 SMEs, focus groups, 90 case studies in seven countries (2002-2005).

Learning:
Is interactive with communities of practice
Builds on personal knowledge bases
Takes place in communities of practice
Controlled by the learner in terms of pace and time
Is episodic
Is sequenced by the learner
Response to problems or interests

ICT for Learning and Work Organisation
Main way of learning was through search engines (Google in particular).
ICT for learning is more likely to be used with flatter hierarchies and employees having greater autonomy in organising their work. –mainly smaller companies (Also, such firms has tended to have a more experienced workforce and low employee turnover).
Hierarchical work organisations tended to have least use of ICT for learning (largely manufacturing/production line enterprises).
Especially in micro firms, SME employees tend to be isolated from wider communities of practice.
Search engines are used to seek out potential forums and contexts for learning.

Knowledge of e-Learning
Few SMES aware of potential or possibilities of ICT for formal learning. Not received information from Public Sector providers – if advertising material sent, seen as junk mail.

Use of ICT
Varied by sector and occupation. Uses included administration and accounting, e-trading, customer communications, advertising and promotion, stock control and logistics. ICT not seen as a means of learning, but as a normal part of the work processes. Use of ICT in SMEs is increasing, but limited e-commerce growth.

Availability of ICT Skills
Managers did not perceive a shortage of ICT skills in the workplace as younger workers had sufficient skills.

Formal Training and Learning
Very little formal training other than regulatory, either face to face or using ICT.
Where seen as necessary: buy in initially from public sector providers, and if unavailable use private training based on word of mouth reputation.
Attitudes and involvement in training varies by size and sector

Accreditation of Learning
No employees had attempted to claim recognition or accreditation

Education and Training Policies.
Many managers are unconvinced of the benefits of initiating or continuing training:.
Few enterprises had a formal policy for education and training.
No budget for training
Nobody with formal responsibility.
Gained required skills through experience or buying in staff already trained
Few managers had formal management qualifications
Most networked with other managers
Variety of management style
There is little correlation between employees previous qualifications and their present employment.

Informal Learning
In contrast to formal learning, much informal learning was taking place.
It was learner driven rather than planned, and problem motivated or linked to personal interests.
There were differences between enterprises in use of ICT for informal learning.
Where ICT for informal learning is common, employees have developed their own occupational profiles, based on needs of the enterprise and their own specialities and interests. There may be a relationship.

Discussion
Learning and Knowledge Development
There is a big political interest in informal learning – if it could be systematised it could be a cost effective route to increasing training. First though it is necessary to formalise that learning. Attwell suggest (2005) all learning is valid – not just that supported by qualification frameworks.

Acquiring information is not learning. Case studies found learning is purposeful, influenced by context, often results in behaviour change, learners structured their own learning, problem or personal interest driven.

Whilst formal learning is progressively increasing and building on existing knowledge on a sequential basis, informal learning within the workplace is more incidental. To cope with the unexpected or unknown, relevant information is acquired which then adjusts existing knowledge.

Is European Quality Framework Flawed
The EQF is competence based rather than course driven, with the aim of developing systems and processes to accredit informal learning. It is based on educational achievement, goals and structures, rather than focusing on work based learning and knowledge.

Potential of EC I-Curriculum
The EC Socrates I-Curriculum project distinguishes between transformational, integrating and operational skills and knowledge, and is used to develop a framework for digital skills (I-Curriculum 2003). This framework matches the kind of skills for learning observed in the case studies.

Technorati Tags: e-learning, education and training research, Small and Medium Enterprises

The debate on personal learning environments is taking off. See this contribution by Terry Anderson.

But, like Oleg, Terry misses miss the point. he is right to see PLEs as a disruptive technology, as a technology which threatens formal learning ...entrenched in Learning management Systems.

Counterpoising PLEs to LMS systems is interesting - at least form a management ands curricular point of view.Still as Oleg makes clear the two can live side by side.

There are three main reasons for the importance of PLEs.

the first is in providing learning systems for the vast majority of people who are not enrolled on formal learning programmes.

The second is in recognising and helping learners organise informal learning. I read somewhere recently - I cannot remember where and I have no evidence it is true - that 90 or so per cent of funding is spent on formal learning - whilst 90 per cent or so of learning is informal. It feels about right. PLEs can help people recognise their own informal learning and organise that learning.

PLEs also allow people to form their own (transitory) networks for learning. Learning is a social activity and takes place in communities of interest and communities of practice. Wilfred points out rightly that in many on-line learning communities learners have too weak a sense of ownership. PLEs can provide that ownership.

Technorati Tags: communities of practice, e-learning, e-portfolios, eportfolio, informal_learning, Personal_Learning_Environments

Wilfred has replied to my previous post on Blogging and Communities. I said "Learning is a social activity. Blogging does not, on its own, support the social aspect of learning - neither does it support communities of practice...initiatives like EduCause, Edublogs and Elgg have been so successful - because they provide a community as well as blogging tools. " (See also Dave's comments on this post)

Wilfred goes on to say: "the problem with traditional communities of practices is imho the lack of ownership. A network of weblogs of people with a common interest could be a good alternative.

Furthermore you could argue that weblogs are great tools for individual reflection which is necessary for learning as a social activity...... If our communities shall succeed, we need to create ownership, passion and a sense of urgency."

This raises many more questions about the nature of communities of practice and issues we need to resolve in a practical and applied sense.

Ettiene Wenger defines Communities of practice as follows:

"Communities of practice are groups of people who share a concern or a passion for something they do and learn how to do it better as they interact regularly."

He goes on to qualify this with three further 'critical characteristics".

"The domain: A community of practice ... has an identity defined by a shared domain of interest. Membership therefore implies a commitment to the domain, and therefore a shared competence that distinguishes members from other people.

The community: In pursuing their interest in their domain, members engage in joint activities and discussions, help each other, and share information. They build relationships that enable them to learn from each other. A website in itself is not a community of practice.

The practice: Members of a community of practice are practitioners. They develop a shared repertoire of resources: experiences, stories, tools, ways of addressing recurring problems—in short a shared practice. This takes time and sustained interaction."

Firstly, I do not understand what wilfred means when he talks about a problem with lack of ownership of communities if practice. Of course lots of management consultants have jumped on the bandwagon and are claiming to build communities of practice 'for' the practitioners. But if you accept Ettienne Wenger's definition these are not really communities of practice as such.

Now back to the blogging question. Yes - I am sure blogging can provide the passion. But are trackback, categories and tagging enough for a "shared competence" and "shared practice'". Remember the blogging is not the practice - it is just a means of communication. I really don't think networks of blogs, on their own, are enough.. I think we have to go far further in developing tools which allow people to communicate in a way which expresses elements of the nature of the practice. Blogging standards will, I suspect, play a big part. But we are not there yet.

More to come.

Technorati Tags: e-learning, edublogs, education and training research, eportfolio, European_projects, Small and Medium Enterprises, social

I have spent a lot of time arguing that the debate over differences between informal and formal learning is overly academic and misses the reality that all is learning (see previous post).

I am particularly interested in how to support informal learning using Information and Communciation technology. In this regard it is important to identify differences and and how they might effect the development of educational technology.

Four differences stand out for me.

The first is the importance of context. Although some formal learning is context dependent to a degree - particularly occupational or vocational learning - much education is virtually context free. Informal learning, on the other hand is heavily contextual - why I am learning something, where I am learning something, with whom I am learning it, when I am learning it and where I will apply it.

Secondly, whilst formal learning remains largely structured by traditional subject or disciplinary boundaries, informal learning does not in general respect such borders.

Similarly, formal learning tends to be scaffolded by well worked progression routes, building on previous learning. Informal learning may build on previous knowledge, but will often proceed in different ways. rather than build blocks of learning. Learners may acquire higher level learning and then fill in the gaps.

Finally, whilst formal learning is generally sequenced through course times and structures informal learning appears to be episodic with period of intense activity punctuated by periods of inactivity.

Will write another post on what this means for designing and developing educational software

Technorati Tags: e-learning, education and training research, informal_learning, non formal learning, work based learning

Last post for the day - I deserve a beer.

Just has an interesting chat on the phone with Dave Tosh. He was saying one of the problems with blogs is the isolation. Many people get few readers and even less comments or track backs.

That is fine if the idea of the blog is as a personal diary or a place to record ideas - essentially for yourself. But many people start blogs with a more social intention - of joining the blogging community. The problem is that the community is not so easy to join.

This may explain why initiatives like EduCause, Edublogs and Elgg have been so successful - because they provide a community as well as blogging tools.

I am more than ever convinced that learning often takes place through integration in communities of practice. The sites above are not yet communities if practice as such. But they point towards how we might use social software to support communities of practice.

Moer to come on this...

Technorati Tags: communities of practice, e-learning, edublogs, informal_learning, non formal learning, pedagogy

The fourth paradigm:

Ah ha - someone else has got it. Quote form Clive on Learning at some length not only because he is saying what I have been ranting on about for the last six months but also because he says it so much more eloquently than me.

"The fourth e-learning paradigm is learners doing it for themselves.

I say 'learners' but it's hard to identify them as such - they don't wear school uniforms and sit neatly in rows behind their desks. Learners in this context are just people looking to get things done and using their initiative to overcome any obstacles in the way (like being short of information or not knowing how to go about doing something). They can do this because they have been empowered by software tools that are incredibly easy to use yet awe-inspiring in their potential. First port of call is of course Google - not a new phenomenon, but one that plays an increasingly important role in everyday life. You will buy books, watch TV documentaries, consult with experts, even go on training courses, but only if you can't find what you need on Google.

But Google's not enough, because with Google you're still essentially a passive recipient; you are not in a position to challenge or debate. More importantly, you don't have the opportunity to publish your own thoughts and opinions, to become a provider as well as a recipient. With the new tools, everyone's a publisher, everyone's a teacher. As we enter 2006, there are something like 30 million blogs like this one, with more than 30 thousand being discovered daily. Blogs allow people like you and me to publish our thoughts and experiences to whoever will take notice. They allow us to make contact with others who are facing similar challenges and who may be able to provide us with help. They expose us to the broadest possible range of views and perspectives, often in stark contrast to the 'official view' or the hysterical outpourings of the mass media."

Technorati Tags: e-learning, non formal learning, work based learning

Ok - Stuart Yeates thinks my blog on Commodification and the Shaping of e-learning was pessimistic. It may appear so but was not intended as such.

It is the opening excerpt from a paper I have written for a book to be called (I think)

"Die 'Wissensgesellschaft": Mythos, Ideologie oder Realität".

The whole argument goes something like this.

e-Learning has been shaped by dominant political discourses in education - namely consumerisation and privatisation. However implementing those discourses is not so simple. Whilst the consumer driven approach to e-learning may have some sway in the corporate market, the values run counter to the natural values of the education system. This is why we see so much debate and controversy over e-learning in education. Where they have tried to introduce the model and values per se - eg the UK e-Learning University it has failed. In contrast the traditional distance universities like the Dutch and UK Open Universities have been much more successful because they already had a strong ethos and value system based not on consumerism but on distance education.

In vocational education and in Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) ICT based learning has made little impact. the value systems and the pedagogic approaches based on technology centred development stand in total contradiction to how people learn.

Whilst there is little evidence of any take up of 'official' e-learning in the SME sector, there is much evidence that people are using computers and ICT to learn - through informal learning. This is happening through participation in distributed communities of practice. the major 'learning programme' is Google. This is in line with writings from Lave and Wenger about communities of practice and with Vygotsky's theory of Legitimate Peripheral Integration.

I predict that social software will increasingly be used for learning in the future. Social software allows learners to develop and control their own learning environment, outside the control freakery of institutional LMS, VLEs and portals

Thus, although existing e-learning products have been shaped through political discourses, the future of e-learning may come to be shaped by people taking software tools and application and shaping them for their own learning.

Not so pessimistic!

Technorati Tags: communities of practice, e-learning, informal_learning, knowledge development, non formal learning, nonformal_leaarning, Small and Medium Enterprises, social software

Regular readers of this web log will know that I am somewhat obsessed with informal learning and have been wrestling in my mind once more over definitions and meanings.

Definitions of informal and non formal learning are problematic and contested. Helen Colley, Phil Hodkinson and Janice Malcom have undertaken an extensive review of literature on this subject. In the review they identified eight different theoretical models of informal or non formal learning. They suggest the following factors as being common in many if not all of the definitions:

• “Process. This includes learner activity, pedagogical styles and issues of assessment: that is, the learning practices, and the relationships between learner and others (tutors, teachers, trainers, mentors, guides).
• Location and setting. Is the location of the learning within a setting that is primarily education, community or workplace? Does the learning take place in the context of: fixed or open time frames; is there specified curriculum, objectives, certification; etc.
• Purposes. Is the learning secondary to other prime purposes, or the main purpose of itself? Whose purposes are dominant – the learner’s, or others’?
• Content. This covers issues about the nature of what is being learned. Is this the acquisition of established expert knowledge/understanding/practices, or the development of something new? Is the focus on propositional knowledge or situated practice? Is the focus on high status knowledge or not?”

In reality the debate seems overly academic and driven by dominant discourses in education and training policy. The distinctions between formal and non formal learning seem more often driven by finding regime requirements than by the nature of the learning itself. However there is a very big political interest in informal learning. If informal learning could be systematised it could be a cost effective route to increasing training. However in order to do this it is felt necessary to be able to measure the learning taken place - in other words to formalise that learning. Much of the political thrust is not - as it claims to be about recognised learning - but to controlling learning through a system of accreditation. In other words the concern is to develop an exchange value to learning which at present is seen only as having use value. That is not to say that exchange values are only in the interests of employers and policy makers. In an insecure labour market exchange values are important for workers. However present proposals and mechanisms to establishing exchange value are based on identifying equivalents within frameworks linking informal learning to formally acquired qualifications seem more likely to constrain rather than advantage the use and status of informal learning. A better approach might be to recognise the use value of informal learning through profiling learning in non-constrained (e)-portfolios. Such an approach would provide a major move to leaner driven learning where all learning is valid rather than only recognising that learning supported by qualification frameworks.
There is a major issue in distinguishing between information seeking and learning. Assessment or testing has traditionally been seen as a means of assuring that learning has taken place. How effective assessment is as a measurement of learning may be contested. It may be more fruitful to examine the nature of activities resulting from informal learning as a means of validation. Activities identified in a series of recent case studies of the use of ICT for learning in Small and Medium Enterprises were:

a)Purposeful
b)Heavily influenced by context
c) Often resulted in changes in behaviour
d) Were sequenced in terms of developing a personal knowledge base
e) Problem driven or driven by personal interest
f) Social – in that they often involved recourse to shared community knowledge bases through the internet and / or shared with others in the workplace.

To me this proves that learning was taking place, even if there was no teacher or trainer, no tests and no certificates!

Technorati Tags: e-learning, e-portfolios, informal_learning, non formal learning, nonformal_leaarning

This is the introduction to a new paper I have written for a forthcoming book. The paper is mainly focused on how employees in SMEs are using ICT technologies for informal learning in totally unexpected ways. This excerpt looks at different policy discourses in learning and suggests these policy discourses have shaped the form of e-learning as it is presently developed.

E-learning is a young technology and the study of e-learning is equally in its infancy. Despite this there is by now an extensive literature on the subject and learning technology is increasingly recognised as a discipline in itself. However the overwhelming majority of these studies, from both proponents and sceptics, have been technologically determinist, based on the potentials and effects of technologies on education and learning, rather than looking at the influence of learning and teaching on technology (Attwell et al).

The hypothesis which this paper is based on is that the forms and uses of technologies are shaped by political and social processes (Rauner, Heidegger). If learning is a social process (Young), then any consideration of the development and impact of e-learning and e-learning technologies needs to examine the wider social, economic and cultural processes and discourses involved in the development and implementation of new technologies in education.

Technorati Tags: education and training research, informal_learning, knowledge development, pedagogy

Guardian Unlimited Technology | Technology | How the web will link us all:

Nice short article in the Guardian introducing social software. Also gets the point around communities establishing their own rules and hierarchies - which is why social software has so much to offer to the development of communities of practice.

"The communities that emerge from social software create their own norms, hierarchies and rules. They reflect what we know offline and connect people online. Importantly, social software encourages collaboration. It is the social in the software which will bring communities together, building upon the success of its technological predecessors and enhancing, rather than replacing, human interaction."

Technorati Tags: communities of practice, knowledge development, social software

PLE Project Summary:

I have a contract as evaluator of the JISC elearning programme. Its a pretty mind boggling programme, embracing over 100 projects divided into different strands and actions. I find it hard to keep an overview of the project, despite the hard work of the folks running the programme web site.

Occasionally a project does grab my attention. The one which I am excited about at the moment is the Personal Learning Environments project. Its very nice to see they have set up a blog site for the project.

Here's a short description of what they are up to:

" The last five years have seen a major uptake of VLEs by colleges and universities. The vast majority of these are large, institutional systems, which are predominantly course based providing support for content distribution, discussion and assessment, mainly through proprietary tools. There are several problems with this approach of which two are of most concern.

VLEs are not easily customised to suit the needs and preferences of individuals
As learners move between institutions, they may need to learn the interfaces to different VLEs.

An alternative approach would be to locate a large amount of VLE functionality with the learner either as a desktop application or an independently hosted portal. Institutions would still provide content via repositories, undertake assessment and so on, but learners would interact with these using their personal systems (Personal Learning Environment), comprising their preferred tools and ways of working."

I think this is a big deal in that it transfers ownership to the learner. Instead of the learner logging in to a university based system the leaner is able to integrate multiple contexts and sources of learning and develop their own 'learning mix'. Moreover this promises to be of use to the many, many thousands of learners who are not registered with educational institutions. It may even force institutions to reflect on their role in supporting - rather than defining - learning and knowledge.

Technorati Tags: e-learning, e-portfolios, education and training research, eportfolio, non formal learning

elearnspace. everything elearning: Blogs:

More from George Siemans. George says "Learning was "messy", chaotic, social, collaborative, and connected with other activities and interests. Formal education, in contrast, was artificial and structured. The experience, however, was valuable in providing a space for self-evaluation and reflection. Most importantly, I've realized that certain learning challenges, by their nature, require formal, structured processes, while others require more fluid, informal approaches. The nature of each intended learning experience should drive the selection of tools and processes. Rather than outright dismissing theories and techniques which have served the learning field well for centuries, we need to retain their value for appropriate tasks. No one concept or theory is universally in its application."

George is distinguishing approaches to learning based on the nature of the learning task. I am not so sure that it is that simple. There are other factors which might determine approaches to learning including:

• Previous learning experinces of the learner
• Prefernces of the learner
• Nature of the community of practice
• Avaliability of opportunties for learning
• Nature of the learning environment
• Nature of the subject (is that the same as learning task?)
• Am fairly sure there are more. I think this could be important in determining the interactions between formal and non formal learning.

Technorati Tags: education and training research

Part 3 in my series on e-Learning in Small and Medium Enterprises. In the last part ,I said that to fully understand the uses of ICT for non formal learning in SMEs we need more detailed understandings of the different type of knowledge being acquired and developed.

Jenny Hughes (unpublished text) has produced an analysis of different forms of knowledge based on the Welsh language. Whilst English has few words to differentiate knowledge, in Welsh there are at least six different terms for knowledge processes and six different terms for different types of knowledge, each with their own distinct meaning.

The general word for knowledge in Welsh – the translation from the English word knowledge is Gwybodaeth. Even this is not an exact translation. Gwybodaeth means something like ‘knowing-ness’, rather than knowledge.

However, the word Gwybodaeth – or knowing-ness comes in different forms defining different types of knowledge.

The first six words would appear to relate to knowledge processes. They can, in turn be divided in two – the first three possibly dealing with Knowledge ‘absorption’ and the following three referring to knowledge generation:

1. Cynnull (gwybodaeth) – to gather knowledge (as in acquisition) ‘along life’s way’
2. Cynhaeaf (gwybodaeth) – to harvest (purposefully) knowledge– or set up systems for harnessing knowledge or organise knowledge
3. Cymrodedd (gwybodaeth) - to compromise what you know to accommodate the unknown
4. Cynnau (gwybodaeth) - to light or kindle knowledge (in someone else) – can also be used to ‘share knowledge’ but implicit is that it is an active process not simply an exchange of information, which is an entirely different concept.
5. Cynllunplas (gwybodaeth) - to design (new) knowledge, paradigm shift
6. Cynyddu (gwybodaeth) - to increase or grow (existing) knowledge

The second six terms deal with different types of knowledge. The first three are arguably internal and the second three external.

1. (Gwybodaeth) cynhenid - original, congenital knowledge
2. (Gwybodaeth) cynhwynol - innate knowledge (collective)
3. (Gwybodaeth) cymrodeddol - compromised knowledge – knowledge adjusted to cope with the unexpected or unknown
4. (Gwybodaeth) cymdeithasol - sociable knowledge – not ‘social skills’ but knowledge about the social context in which the knowledge is used and the appropriate way of using it
5. (Gwybodaeth) cynefin - shared and passed on knowledge – implies usual, accustomed knowledge
6. (Gwybodaeth) Cynddelw - archetype /model / exemplary knowledge

These distinctions are very important and could prove extremely powerful in analysing non formal learning and knowledge development processes in Small and Medium Enterprise. For instance both ‘Cynnull (gwybodaeth) – to gather knowledge (as in acquisition) along life’s way’ and ‘Cynhaeaf (gwybodaeth) – to harvest (purposefully) knowledge – or set up systems for harnessing knowledge or organise knowledge’ take place in SMEs. But there is a very different quality to the different processes and the implications in terms of learning are quite distinct. It would be very interesting to go back to some of the SMEs we have studies and to analyse which of these processes in taking place.

In a similar vein the idea of ‘Cynnau (gwybodaeth) - to light or kindle knowledge as an active process” as opposed to passing on information is a very useful distinction.

Most valuable of all may be the distinction between ‘Cynyddu (gwybodaeth) - to increase or grow (existing) knowledge’ and ‘Cymrodedd (gwybodaeth) - to compromise what you know to accommodate the unknown’. As a quick hypothesis I would suggest that much of formal learning is ‘Cynyddu’ – increasing and building on existing knowledge. Much of the non formal learning using ICT that we have observed falls in the definition of ‘Cymrodedd (gwybodaeth) - to compromise what you know to accommodate the unknown’. This may be why non formal learning using ICT can be so powerful.

I also particularly like the idea of ‘(Gwybodaeth) cymdeithasol - sociable knowledge – not ‘social skills’ but knowledge about the social context in which the knowledge is used and the appropriate way of using it’ as a way of explaining the social contexts to which knowledge is used in SMEs.

Technorati Tags: describing knowledge, knowledge development, non formal learning, Small and Medium Enterprises, welsh langauge, work based learning

I got involved in developing educational technology about six years ago. Why is a question I've asked many times since. Basically I wanted software which would do the things I wanted to do pedagogically - and couldn't find anything. I wanted social software but it didn't exist.

Now things have changed. There is great software being developed. True most of the best stuff is not designed for learning but who cares? But whilst social software, primarily, has advanced so far - we have failed to keep up with the pedagogy.

I am working in two projects on using e-portfolio software for recognising non formal learning. One project, ICOVET. is aimed at socially disadvantaged young people; the other, Workplace Learning partnerships, is aimed at apprentices.

I am using two different systems. one project will work on the Elgg system, the other with Knownet's Knotes system.

I should add that the projects both involve partners from five or more different European projects - adding problems in arriving at shared understandings of meanings.

Over the last two weeks I have had a number of pleas from the partners. One said: "Translation of Graham`s text is hard for me. I can`t understand the difference between the words validating - assessing, and identificating - recording."

Another said: "I had some problems with working with the portfolio. Simply not knowing how to start. Would need some inspiration." and a third asked "What is the didactic concept".

These are not easy questions to answer. But if ePortfolios are to make any impact we must be able to answer them. I have talked to dave Tosh from Elgg and he recognises the problem. We are going to try to write some resources together. As Dave says: "we can continue building features etc but if people are a little lost as to what to do and how to use the system there is no point."

I think it goes beyond ePortfolios. We have great software for learning but first people need to know how to use it in a pedagogic sense.

i have been working for some time to get enhanced versions of my presentation at Bucharest on e-Portfolios onto the web. Will keep trying - in the meantime here is a very plain Powerpoint version.

icovetportfoliosrev.ppt