Nancy White

Ah, I'm thinking your offering should be in the wiki so we could add/comment upon it. If that sounds appealing, we could make that happen

I want to pick up on a distinction I'm sensing. I'll use the distance learning category as an example.

There can be formal and informal distance learning.

Likewise, informal learning happens all the time in formal learning situations. Formal learning can trigger informal learning and vica versa.

So I'm sensing the idea of a continuum from formal to informal is inadequate to express the true value of informal learning. It is sort of like the air we breath.

Does that make any sense?

OK, I'm freaking out a bit here. I can't believe how many of you who have posted I know or have bumped into online. It is astonishing. This is for me another benefit of informal learning -- the network of people you can form in a very ad hoc manner. It is stunning!

I have to admit some confusion here. (Actually, I think confusion may be a part of informal learning, so I've learned to embrace it!)

minh, can you help me understand the difference between chaos and complexity in the way you are using the term? Or maybe I'm not seeing the "chaos is to autonomy" ... maybe tell us a story to help clarify?

My sense is informal learning is a great strategy in a complex system. But I'm not sure anything helps with chaos! :-)

Hey Sus! Good to 'see' you. Your story is one of the reasons I feel informal learning is not only a strategy, but a competency in today's world. Yeah!

Is the school in Washington DC or Washington State? (I'm in the state. The REAL Washington. Grin).

Chris, besides blushing, I have been thinking over your posting. I have been trying to separate the two strands that come up for me: moving examples of informal learning and the concept of how we nurture and facilitate informal learning. (Then perhaps, the substream of how we do this online or in a hybrid on/off situation.)

I'll start with the easiest: moving examples. I can't say they are the most moving. They are the ones that are moving that I can remember. There are TONS of moving examples. It happens every day.

From 2000-2004 I worked with an amazing group of people in Armenia, Georgia and Azerbaijan, most closely with a school connectivity project in Armenia (http://www.projectharmony.am/) We were developing the technical and process infrastructure to facilitate people interacting, connecting and working together using the internet to address local issues. Many rural mountain villages are cut off from everything in the winter, and cost of travel prohibitive at other times. But there are shared problems. The team helped get community internet centers set up in schools, did local trainings, then organized online events around themes such as children's health, employment, volunteerism etc. They found people interested across 3-4 villages for each theme and organized online events. Two amazing and touching examples of informal learning here:'

• The parents who convened online to talk about their children's health with pediatricians from the capital found out there WAS things they could do both to prevent and treat illnesses, even without a doctor. The doctors thought they were there to give advice, but they discovered that there were compelling reasons to get out into the villages and see children more often, and by talking with fellow doctors, they became encouraged to do this and formed an informal pediatrics association to both support their professional development and to coordinate field visits. What happened at the core is that people connected and discovered new learning and resources - each other. Amazingly wonderful.
• The second example of informal learning in this project was how we did after action reviews and storytelling to evaluate our work. It was slow at first, with most people saying the obvious. "We planned to do this, we did that." Then all of a sudden something changed and one member of the team thought back to our first meeting and the man who convened us. At that moment they started to really see the big picture of what they had accomplished and it was more than just a set of tasks. It was transforming first their own thinking, then helping others do the same. The stories came alive, richer with detail. Our ability to learn from our stories increased. It was a moment of self awareness, triggered by storytelling, that facilitated our leap forward in our informal learning.

So my take aways from this are that connection and self awareness are two key components of informal learning for me.

What are your moving examples and lessons?