Susan Alcorn MacKay

I like this thought Julia - perhaps the ONLY way to evaluate informal learning - the prior learning assessment portfolio.

It could be organized specifically for the outcomes and the activities done to achieve those outcomes. I suppose there is an element of trust here. I have confidence that a 'professional' person would give an honest description of the learning they did towards an outcome - I'm less certain about some of our postsecondary students willingness or ability to assess themselves honestly.

I suppose PLA requires a certain level of development - though I guess it could be a mix of items, some of which may have been evaluated by someone else.

But thanks for the approach - this may help me in the future - expand the mind a bit!

:) susan

 "...informally evaluating informal learning...What might that look like? Is this an observation, level of participation, or analysis of ongoing comments?...

-I've seen time logged on - not real I think because who knew what they were doing?

- I've seen number of posts/comments - but how substantive are they

And some people do best ruminating, reading off-line/on-line, thinking about it all and that may be way more meaningful than the 'often poster'.

The prolblem for me is putting a quantitave evaluation on qualitative information - I know it can be done but really like the self report. Perhaps a self report with a 'likert-style' self rating that translates into a mark? (though those can be manufactured too).  Perhaps a 'grade' isn't always required. Or a mix of hard quantitative data supplemented by a softer qualitative grade that is instructor assigned from observation of the activity...??

Pamela I really enjoyed reading your post. In Ontario we have enacted the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act that mandates training by every business, agency, government etc to ALL their employees to ensure they have awareness in customer service, communications, employment and the built environment releated to disabilities. You can only imagine the scope as virtually every employee in Ontrio begins to receive this training about now - and businesses need to capture and report on this training.

Obviously there needs to be a formal piece to this training (on-line with tracking) but to be truly effective, (as you point out) there needs I think to be some informal, collaborative learning as well. For that we need engagement of learners with eachother and learning objects. I can't think of a way to evaluate this less formal training - perhaps it can only be through self report and annecdotal to get at the real reflection and learning. We can always quantify what the learner can demonstrate at the end of formal training but how can we quantify - or qualify- the actual reflective learning in addition to that more formal piece? or maybe we shouldn't as its very individual to each...

:) susan

It does make sense Cindy! in the struggle to see the transformation from traditional 'leader' to on-line leader/facilitator, I'm reminded that while many of the same qualities are helpful, some of them may not be. And what a great leveller on-line learning is!

I work in disability services and find that all types of people with various challenges that are immediately obvious in the classroom, are completely equal in the on-line classroom.

what fun!

susan

My first Wiki posting - its easy!

The whole question of leadership it seems to me is one that has/is evolving which makes the whole issue of on-line leadership/facilitation so interesting.

The article I posted on the WIKI by Larry Lashway, JoAnn Mazzarella, Thomas Grundy, Portrait of a Leader, gives quite a bit about the traditional leader in a school (principal) and goes on to give some traits or characteristics of leaders; energy & involvement, competence,  (intelligence, technical skills, interpersonal communication), communication, listening, personality (sociability, psychological health, charisma), character.

These are the traditional views of the leader in say schools - now, how do we transform that to the on-line medium?

Likely most/all of those are important and I know much can come through careful crafting of writing - but the 'how' we say something is so critical too.

Its more than how we craft our responses, its also about supporting and guiding learners, especially during these transition years as we move from my generation (first wiki posting ever) to the gang who live on these platforms. While figuring out how we are going to be able to mentor the seasoned folks to work in this format and passing on the skills and knowledge to the emerging professionals who know the medium but perhaps not the content so much.

I suspect the portrait of a leader on-line will take from the core traits and tweak them to this platform - I guess the how is what we're talking about!

:) susan