Personal Learning Ecology . . .

Re: Personal Learning Ecology . . .

by Irwin DeVries -
Number of replies: 0
Re the Kineo piece. It's good to be reminded of the power of the "informal" learning processes that occur in the workplace, and I see this point as a strength of the article. To extend its discussion, I also believe we need to be aware that in the "knowledge-based" workplace the line between informal learning and individual or collaborative problem solving blurs very quickly. In fact I would have a hard time explaining the difference. In my admittedly informal observations, much of the information seeking, learning or problem solving in the workplace appears to be an intrinsic part of the job. In this context, it is not as though there is a clear-cut job with a quantifiable knowledge deficit as per earlier models of "training needs analysis." While for certain routine tasks it is helpful to pool information or otherwise manage knowledge sharing, many jobs are more open ended and consist largely in problem solving where no clear-cut answers exist. People in the knowledge industry to some extent create their jobs as they go. More of the effort in this case needs to be on encouraging the skills of open ended and continuous problem solving rather than on filling knowledge gaps in a certain domain, although the latter should not be neglected where necessary either. So to summarize, I think the Kineo paper is touching on something important, which deserves further consideration.