Since my blog a couple of days ago where I mentioned the way [1] Jane Hart was looking for a different way of categorising learning which moved away from the informal/formal model, Steven Verjans has set up a [2] Cloudworks site which is providing an opportunity to explore Jane’s model further and to consider [3] Harold Jarche’s extension to it.

As a result of reading the comments on the Cloudworks page, reading quite a bit about self-directed learning and how understanding of what it is has developed over the past thirty years, and playing more with my own idea, I have come up with this diagram. [4]

It is very much a first stab at trying to create a model which provides scope for acknowledging the co-existence of both formal and informal and planned and serendipitous within each and every learning experience. This follows the observations of Colley, Hodkinson and Malcolm (2002, 2003) where they suggested there was little value in seeking to differentiate formal and informal learning as characteristics of each were found in both.

Obviously this is a work in progress, but it does begin to feel as though the time might be right to re-examine the informal/formal learning paradigm.