28/06/2009 by lizit.

I’ve been watching an interesting recording from ASTD 2009 - a conference aimed at Learning and Development people in large corporates. The subject matter was informal learning, but the focus of the address was social learning (meaning use of Web 2.0 technologies) and the NetGens (otherwise known as digital natives or Generation Y and in this case referring to those born between 1977 and 1997).

As with most stuff on digital natives, there was a tendency to assume all of that ‘group’ are tech savvy, use Web 2.0, etc.  They were described as looking for freedom, fun and collaboration and having no clear differential between work and personal life. Some of this may be true - and some applies to those born pre 1977 too, especially with changing work patterns and demands of workplace leading to more use of home offices etc.

What interested me most was how informal learning was being equated to social learning, with a momentary allusion to other forms of informal learning like information gathering through internet searches. The focus seemed to be very much on how to manage social learning within companies by the creation of social networking possibilities, both physical and virtual. Delegates were being encouraged to divert formal learning budgets into the creation of social learning environments and were being given advice on how to use them.  For example, the appointment of wiki gardeners to read the blogs and wikis and find the tacit knowledge elements contained within them for incorporation in easily accessible databases.

I wasn’t at all sure whether the proposal had much to do with learning, except perhaps for the employing organisations.  It seemed to have more to do with knowledge management and formalisation of informal processes. The commercial aspects of social leaning were heavily endorsed in terms of serving the customer better, which actually means selling additional products.

The tie up between informal (serendipitous) learning and social learning is an interesting one, but the incorporation of this in knowledge management appears to me to be another attempt to formalise those interactions.

Posted in social learning, informal learning | Print | 1 Comment »

15/06/2009 by lizit.

Was chatting about the White Paper on informal learning (DIUS. (2009). The Learning Revolution. Cm7555) over supper and mentioned how easy it is to be suspicious if not even cynical about the government’s motivation in suddenly deciding to support informal education after years of decreasing the funding given to adult education, except for those classes which led to formally recognised qualifications. The white paper itself recognises this: “The Government has taken the decision to re-prioritise LSC funding on longer, more valuable accredited courses that provide real help for people to get on in work” (para 24, p. 9) and goes on to acknowledge this has led to to an ‘expected reduction in shorter courses: “Many were in areas like health and safety at work or food hygiene which are properly the responsibility of employers. Some have been in areas which, while popular, would not attract the highest priority, or where learners are willing to pay full fees. Recreational language classes used to be one of the short courses most heavily-subsidised by the LSC and many still take place, but in a different form” (para 25, p.9). So thriving adult education classes have been closed or passed to other providers and people have found other learning opportunities which are not funded by Government leading to a flourishing informal learning sector which often goes unnoticed and unrecognised.

Now if we turn the clock back 25 years or so, we find huge changes in social care provision under the Conservative government of the day. Promises of support for the voluntary sector turned to support for volunteers (when it was realised how much voluntary organisations cost) and then to informal and family carers (when it was realised volunteers do not come completely free of overheads). During those years we saw the beginning of the contracting out of social care to voluntary and private organisations,  the closure of the large mental hospitals in favour of care in the community, and the move from public sector funding of care to the lottery. OK, not all that has happened in the social care field is bad, and some people may have slightly more say in the care they receive now, but there are also many casusalties of the caring revolution.

So where will the learning revolution lead.  It is driven by economic and demographic factors - the credit crunch and the increasing number of older, economically inactive people and younger people with few employment prospects. One can almost hear the thinking, now if we can formally recognise all the work these non-funded bodies and informal groups are doing and label it learning and perhaps even accredit some of it, we can reduce the amount we spend on formal education while claiming to increase the total amount of learning happening within the UK.  We can even disguise what we are doing with our digital agenda pointing to the need to ensure everybody is upskilled for the digital age.

Call me an old cynic, but these are worrying times we live in.

Posted in informal learning, Government policy, funding, education, learning | Print | 1 Comment »

04/06/2009 by lizit.

It’s so often said that the most important content of conferences goes on outside the formal sessions and that is proving true of these few days in Milton Keynes.  That is not to say there hasn’t been some interesting and stimulating content in the presentations, but it has been useful touching base with a whole lot of people, some old friends and some folk I hadn’t met before.

Out of the various discussions, I’ve got some new leads to follow up in my literature review. There are a number of terms that seem to be spoken about in considering informal learning: social capital, practical intelligence, learning through social action.  Will be useful to put these through some search tools.

I had a chat with one of the OU specialist librarians this morning.  She has suggested I have a look at the British Journal of Sociology, the Community Development Journal and the Social Science citation index.  In looking through some of the material on the shelves, I also came across the International Journal of lifelong education which has references to informal learning.  I also found that an OU colleague had included informal learning in her MSc dissertation and had built on this in her PhD.  I’ve been in touch with her and got copies of the relevant part of her lit review, her dissertation and a paper she has co-authored with references to informal learning.

I’m starting to collect quite a bit of material around informal learning now - and noting most of the things I am reading refer to this as an under-researched area and problematic because of problems with defining what exactly is meant by informal learning.  I still have to start exploring community development in any serious way, but I do know there is a lot in the Sussex library, so I guess I am going to be spending some time there soon.

I must admit I am enjoying myself!

Posted in informal learning, community, bibliography, learning | Print | 1 Comment »