Bob Mosher Workshop on Informal Learning

To all of my local Massachusetts colleagues and readers, be sure to put this event on your calendar and then get yourself there!

I’ll be there with bells on – and not just because the workshop is being held five minutes from my house, but also because Bob Mosher is an amazingly dynamic and engaging speaker with lots of practical ideas for your learning organization.

Hope to see you there!

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Mass ISPI Fall 2010 Workshop, October 21

Informal Learning: Are We Missing a HUGE Opportunity?

Bob Mosher
Global Chief Learning Strategy and Evangelism
LearningGuide Solutions

Thursday, October 21
7:30 AM-11:30 AM

Some research suggests that up to 80 percent of learning in the workplace occurs on an informal basis. Even with this being the case, most corporations spend more than 80 percent of their training budget and effort on formal training.

This workshop will address issues and methodologies surrounding understanding and effectively delivering informal learning, including e-communities (forums and synchronous environments) and electronic performance support systems (EPSS). See how some emerging and nontraditional methods are stepping up to fill this much needed training opportunity.

Location:
Westford Regency
219 Littleton Road
Westford, MA 01886

For more information and to register, click:
Mass ISPI

Interview with Tony Karrer on Informal and Social Learning

Be sure to listen to the latest Kineo podcast with Dr. Tony Karrer. Steve Lowenthal interviews Dr. Tony Karrer to get his thoughts on informal and social learning in the enterprise.

And while you’re there, check out Kineo’s complete audio series, including interviews with such e-learning notables as Jay Cross, Laura Overton and Clive Shepherd.

Lance Dublin: Formalizing Informal Learning

[My notes from a webinar.  Missed the first 20 minutes…sorry!]

Lance Dublin:  Formalizing Informal Learning ….&#%!? Why? How?  Presented by Training Magazine Network

Diagram of the learning process:

• Input: you can get input in lots of ways
• Organize
• Apply
• Evaluate

(in a wheel – each of these is a subprocess)

Looking first at learning.

In a disconnected learning system:

Need. Learning. Performance

The Learning process is often disconnected from the need and the performance.

The Search Engine = “great big white box of hope.” (Lance’s trademark term!)

A High Performance Learning System has Need/Learning/Performance all cycling together.

How can we add more to Learning to get to high performance?

Need to think about New Learning Principles:

• Rapid
• Mobile
• Collaborative
• Immersive (we don’t want to be lectured at)

Formal vs. Informal – a spectrum

Examples of a formal learning activity:

webinar, classroom, lecture, etc.

What made it formal?

Structure. Planned with objectives…intention.

Examples of informal:

Water cooler, SoMe

Informal learning is never intentional.  Formal learning is intentional.  [I disagree with this! I use my blog/twitter with intention.

Lance asks:  What happens if you add intentionality to an informal activity?

It moves it on the contiuum.  It’s not black and white.  It’s not informal vs. informal.

Marcia Connor’s four-square chart from 2004 (pre web 2.0):

Formal (classes, elearning, meetings)/Informal (community, teaming, playing)

Intentional (reading, coaching, mentoring)/Unexpected (self-study, exploring, internet surfing)

The choice is not informal vs. formal.

Intentionally Informal:  reading a blog, twitter, etc.

Take Marcia’s view to 2009:

Formal/Informal vs. Intentional/Unintentional

Formal intentional:  classes, meetings, elearning, virtual experiences

Informal unintentional: social media, search, conversations, play, life.

Intentional Informal: reading and searching, coaching and mentoring, blogs, wikis, some, etc.  This is the sweet spot.  Taking tools and using them in a new way – add intentionality to them.

These are all tools – it’s how you use them.

Intention gives you metrics and measurement.

Non-formal learning can have objectives.

The opportunity is not formalizing informal learning, but rather working with non-formal learning.

You will lose the battle if try to come up with metrics around totally informal learning.

“Technology gives us more options.” (Kevin Kelly)  We used to have two options: formal and informal.  Now we’ve got all this middle ground.

If there’s no design, it’s informal.

HOW

Stage 1:  Get Organized (Leadership)

• What is the problem you’re trying to solve?
• What are the metrics? – think about them upfront, not at the end.  (Amount of time to move info through a salesforce – maybe the metric is time).
• Stakeholders? 
• Learner profile?
• Approach? Given our problem, the metrics, the stakeholders – how are we gonna do it? 

 Stage 2: Get Oriented

• What’s the scope?
• Organizational factors?
• What are the weaknesses?
• What are milestones along the way?

[Note: still haven’t selected the technology or tool!]

Stage 3:  Get Smarter

• Architect the solution (hmm…maybe twitter, maybe a blog…)
• Develop the design
• Integrate into larger system
• Test, learn, iterate (rapid prototyping and quick cycles) – “fast and ok is better than slow and good.”  Today’s world is ready, fire, aim, ready, fire, reaim!

Stage 4:  Get Real (Develop-Implement)

• Go right to Version 1 – forget the beta.  No one’s committed to a beta.
• Continue to learn and iterate
• listen and communicate

5 Key Principles:

1. Speed.  Rapid.
2. Action learning – nothing is certain.
3. Integration – it’s got to fit inside a larger system.
4. Pragmatism – leverage opportunities.  look inside the org and decide where this will make a difference.
5. Working from right to left – keep the end in mind – first figure out what problem you’re trying to solve.  Don’t start with Twitter and then work backward.

Warnings:

• No models
• No roadmap
• Layers of complexity (a classroom is actually pretty simple.  But this will have many things you can’t control or plan for).
• Mistakes are inevitable
• Surprises are given
• Strong forces are working against you
• Time is of the essence

And then…we ran out of time!

_____________________

“If I annoyed you, I meant to.”  [I think he said that.  He did.] 

Side two of his business card = Creative Abrasionist – hoping to be provocative.  30 years in the learning industry.  People in the biz need to be open – it’s not either/or. 

www.dublinconsulting.net

Flashback: DIY vs. Formal Learning

I was looking through my blog recently, finding some old nuggets from my early days (which was all of two years ago!)

This post stood out: DIY vs. Formal Learning.

So what's changed in the past two years with the rise of social media tools? Are more people doing it themselves? Is the economy pushing that change?

Instructional Designers with Formal Training: Survey Update

As of today, over 119 responses to the ongoing survey Instructional Designers: Do You Have An Advanced Degree?

37% of IDs say "Yes, I do have a formal/advanced ID degree."
63% of working IDS say "Nope. I'm flying on intuition and experience and informal learning."

Only 13% of those without a degree say they have ever been denied work as a result.

38% of respondents have been in the field for just 3-5 years. Is that a spike in the amount of ID work going on? Or is this a high burnout field that people don't stick around in for too long?

I'm still curious about the breakdown in degrees between the corporate and academic sectors. What's the ratio of IDs working in corporate with advanced degrees vs. academic?

The survey remains open indefinitely. Chime in, if you haven't.

Building Community in Second Life: Renaissance Island

As you know, I've been trying to walk-the-talk and experiment a bit with Second Life, role my virtual sleeves up and see what all the fuss is about. Last week, I visited Renaissance Island and wrote about it in My Second Second Life Experience.

This has sparked a little exchange in the comments between myself and one of the active members of the of Renaissance Island community. I asked Diogenes Kuhr to talk about how she (or is it a he?) had become involved in Ren Island:

I became involved in Ren Island like most people did..they happened to find out about (I did through a good friend who did a lot of the build) some time hanging around and enjoying it, and then volunteered to do stuff. This last weekend, I volunteered to represent Queen Elizabeth I at the christening of the new galleon and the team, was kind enough to let me give it a shot. We had a blast, and learned a lot in the process (who would have guessed that a Tudor era ships christening was real different from the version we are familiar with today?)

Anyway, the team is sort of informal, although there are a couple of people from the Alliance Library system who are the primary team leaders, so working with us is perhaps part o their job. Other team leaders are some of the people who have been working on it as volunteers for some time.

The group that is active includes people from different backgrounds, including teachers, librarians, a museum guy, and people who work in or have retired various businesses, including customer service, hospitality, and tech related things. The group ebbs and flows and people come and go, which is one of the interesting things about it. It is very much an experiment and definitely an delightful way for folks from disparate locations and backgrounds to come together and share ideas, opinions and experiences.

I think this is a really interesting story of how spontaneous community happens. People with similar interests are connecting in a virtual space to create a virtual world in which they learn about another time and place. Informal learning at its best.

Thanks, Dio!

Blogging is the new Graduate School

I'm not the only one getting an informal master's degree out here.

In a guest post on the Brazen Careerist, Ryan Healy writes, "maybe blogging is the new graduate school."

Twentysomething: Blogging is the new Graduate School

It’s ironic, though, because blogging is a way to deal with the biggest problem at the beginning of one’s career: No expertise. If you offer intelligent opinions or advice on a credible blog, then you are an expert. This is why more young people should blog. If you have a focused blog, then you can jump from job to job and learn many skills, but the constant will be that you are an expert in whatever area you choose to research and write about.

Now I'm not at the beginning of my career and I'd like to think that I have some expertise...if but a little. But I do see my knowledge growing along with my expertise the more I partake of this beautiful blogging world.

Dan Roddy has gone off on a cognitive load theory research stint lately. It feels like some of us are moving in the same streams. Or perhaps that a pebble thrown in one place produces ripples in lots of ponds. Knowledge is viral.

Getting an Informal M.Ed

For various reasons, I'm not going to go back to school to get a Masters Degree in instructional design. At least not formally.

But I firmly believe that this journey I'm on is giving me the experience and educational equivalent (if not better) than a formal M.Ed.

The benefits: It's free! It's available whenever I want it to be! I get to learn what I want to learn! I never have to graduate! I already have a job doing it!

Even though I've been doing this ("instructional design") for over ten years, I'm starting over. I'm putting my beginner's mind back on; I've realized how much I don't know about this stuff.

I'm the over-eager kid in the front row, asking the dumb questions. The 1st year grad student.

You are my professors.

You are my classmates.

You are my students.

This blog is my notebook. Comments are encouraged, especially when I get something wrong.

My work-related projects are my laboratory, my assignments, my assessments -- to be "graded" by my clients.

I don't have a formal curriculum. I am starting right where I am.

I am compiling some reading lists and resources that I have found useful. See also the "Instructional Design Resources" section in my sidebar, which I just added this morning.

Be sure to check out Essential Reading for Instructional Designers with a link to Dr. John Curry's post How to Get An Instructional Design Education Without Paying Tuition.

I welcome your suggestions, your feedback, your guidance.

Thanks for helping.

Informal/DIY Learning: Montessori School for Adults?

We've been exploring the notion of sending our son to a local Montessori school come this fall. He'll be 4. So last week, we had the chance to take a tour of the school, peek in on some classrooms, and ask a lot of questions.

My first response was, "I want to go to Montessori School." It looks awesome.

Now, I don't know all the theory and I've only read a bit about Maria Montessori (the founder of this approach) and the Montessori Method. But there seem to be some similarities between that and informal learning/DIY learning -- all this adult stuff we've been talking about lately.

A brief description of the Montessori Method from the Montessori.edu website:

It is a revolutionary method of observing and supporting the natural development
of children. Montessori educational practice helps children develop creativity,
problem solving, social, and time-management skills, to contribute to society
and the environment, and to become fulfilled persons in their particular time
and place on Earth. The basis of Montessori practice in the classroom is
respected individual choice of research and work, and uninterrupted
concentration rather than group lessons led by an adult.

Here's what I see:

Kids get to choose what they want to do for their "work" each day. If your kid just wants to polish brass for three hours, so be it. That's where he needs to be . And he's learning some great skills. Self-directed.

Kids go at their own pace. Polish brass for 10 minutes. Pick up a puzzle. Eat a snack when you feel like it. (How revolutionary! The snack table is ALWAYS set up. I like that.) No forced transitions. No "Now is the time we color. Now is the time we sit on carpets and listen."

Kids define their workspace. Role out a mat on the floor and voila! -- you've got your boundaries and your workspace -- your "office" all set up.

Learn from your peers -- water cooler style. Classrooms are made up of mixed ages. Big kids model new activities for the little ones. Little ones learn by observing big ones and asking questions. Mentoring occurs at the peer level.

Teacher is often in observe mode. When the teacher sees that the child is ready for the next challenge, he or she may step in and do some one-on-one instruction. I guess this is the "formal" part. The seminar or workshop. But again, it's customized for the child. "I see you've mastered the sandpaper letters....let's see what you can do with the block letters." It's the manager seeing what questions need to be asked next and stepping in.

This informal style is the rule, even at the middle school level. Classrooms have tables in circles. And couches. Kids work on their geometry homework together or alone. Whatever works best. The conversation seems fluid and open. And learning is going on all around.

So, the question is, can we make the Montessori Method a part of the coporate learning environment? Is that what all this informal/DIY/learning 2.0 stuff is all about?

This job ain't dead yet....

It's ok Dan. We're not dead yet.

What strikes me about this whole DIY/informal learning/death of ISD conversation is that what we're really talking about are those so-called motivated knowledge workers. These are the folks in the corporate world. These are guys who will take informal learning by the horns and run with it. And they do. They get raises and promotions for being smart.

Not the maintenance guys working on the line in manufacturing (and for whom I've been creating a lot of e-learning these days). These folks are described to us by their managers as wanting to do their jobs and then go home and crack a few beers. (Although that describes most of us, right?) They're certainly not going to take the initiative to take e-learning courses on their own time. At least, this is what I'm told.

I cringe a bit seeing what I've wrote here -- it sounds sort of elitist, which is not my intent.

In Brent Schenkler's response to Dan, he says

There are many people still willing to be led blindly by others and doing as they're told...do this, do that, go get training, etc. And as long as companies still pay for it we are all sittin' pretty making some coin crankin' out the Captivate movies sippin' a cold pint.

Yes...many many good years of living ahead...if you call this living.

DIY vs. Formal Learning

DIY Learning (Do-it-Yourself) is the term of the week, it seems.

Elliot Masie's most recent Learning Trends newsletter leads with the headline "DIY: Do It Yourself Trends". He quotes an article by Dion Hinchcliffe in ZD Net in which Dion states,

The idea of DIY (Do It Yourself) is to get developers and IT departments out of
the demand loop and letting users self-service themselves.

Eliot goes on to talk about how "Content Widgets might add to the creation of learning assets" and the rise of "Do It Yourself Content creation."

Harold Jarche says, The future of learning is DIY:

This is the power of informal learning, if organisations decide to enable it. It has to be DIY, user-driven and uncontrolled. People will figure out what’s best for them, as they have for millennia.

Brent Schenkler has been on a soapbox recently, talking about the death of ISD in the wake of informal learning. He responds in DIY not ISD:

I can over-simplify the issue significantly and state the following: ISD is only necessary when you are mandating learning to unwilling participants...for everthing else we do indeed learn it ourselves.

This is a very interesting conversation... and seems like a no duh to me. But then, I've been working in small organizations for the past 11 years. Small companies rarely have money or time for formal training programs. These flatter organizations tend to be more transparent. A staff meeting includes all ten of us -- opportunities for knowledge transfer are endless. In small companies, DIY/informal learning is pretty much all you got. It's a way of life down here.

It's been years since I've taken a formal training program for work. (I went to school a few years back to learn a completely unrelated trade. That was definitely formal classroom training. I had teachers. Tests. Grades. Report cards. And tuition payments.)

Ironically, I've never taken an e-Learning course, although I've been producing them for over decade. Or rather, I've never been mandated to take an e-Learning course. I check 'em out on line in the name of professional development -- see what all the other vendors are doing.

Lately I've been taking e-Learning courses on e-Learning -- because I want to learn more. Because it's out there. And I can. I'm getting a Masters Degree in Instructional Design. And it's free. Free range. Free of cost. "User-driven and uncontrolled" as Jarche says. Of course, I won't get a grade and I won't have fancy letters to tack on at the end of my name. But I'll have the knowledge and the confidence that I know what the hell I'm talking about for once. Maybe.

So is the world of the Large Corporation so different? I guess it is. You've got Compliance. And Standards to live up to. And Managers to report to. And Performance Competencies that your LMS tells you you need to have in order to get that raise you want. And there's all that $ that needs to get spent on something, right? Do folks have time for DIY when they've got all these other things to live up to?

Large Corporations, it seems to me, need to learn something from us small fries down here where free-range, DIY, informal learning is a way of life by necessity, by design, because it makes sense.

The sticking point, however, for those Large Corporations are Brent's "unwilling participants". Smaller organizations typically have to weed out those unwilling folks; large corporations have to stick with 'em. They serve a function. They have necessary skills. But they don't always feel like training or learning. So how can you expect these folks to embrace DIY learning?

To Brent's unwilling participants, I might add those learners who don't even know what questions they should be asking. I wrote about this a little in an earlier post Informal Learning: Getting Learners to Ask the Right Questions. This is where ISD still plays a role. Or maybe it's not the ISD our mothers' told us about. Maybe it's managers or mentors who have to provide guidance -- on-the-fly instructional design.

(I do think DIY Learning is a better term than Informal Learning -- if we're gonna use labels at all.)

Informal Learning -- Getting Learners to Ask the Right Questions

In a post on informal learning by Ray Sims (thanks to Tony ), he lists out a whole bunch o' good things "to do on behalf of increasing informal learning aligned with company strategy and goals."

This got me musing on some of the issues that have been bumping around in my head as I read all the blog talk on the topic of informal learning as well as Jay's book (which I have admittedly only gotten partly through). The biggest question I have is how do organizations ensure that the right content is in all the right places? You've got your wikis and your blogs and your rapid e-Learning pieces and your social networking tools, but should someone be making sure that the right stuff is out there?

As an occasional classroom teacher, I have always been extremely aware of those students who don't even know what questions to ask. The role of the teacher in the classroom is often to guide these students to asking the right questions.

In the world of informal learning, who can be the teacher/the mentor? How can organizations ensure that the right questions are being asked by the informal learner?