Formal, informal...the importance of intention

I've struggled with trying to define formal and informal learning for years now. It seems like quite an important distinction, not least because any number of gurus and commentators seem to follow a path that moves from earning a good living selling the former (formal), to making an even better one consulting on the latter (informal).

I also sense a real tension amongst e-learning content providers, who, while advocating informal learning sense that actually it's their greatest competitor.

Anyway - recent posts by Clive Shepherd and Mark Berthelemy have done typically excellent jobs in continuing my education in this area, so thanks to them.

These posts also reminded me of what I regard as a very useful model of formal/informal learning produced by Vavoula. Her insight is to add the element of intention. So much of what we learn is accidental and unconscious. It seems to me that right at the opposite end of where most L&D departments are right now is an area of activity which is all about creating environments that cultivate constructive learning accidents that people aren't aware of. It's the very opposite of the compliance/learning by numbers/measurement culture that's grown up around e-learning, and which has given it such a bad name.

I'm hoping that this is one of the issues Mark and I will touch on in our session at Learning Technologies next January - but we're still writing the session, so we'll see... 

Comments

[Simon Bostock]

Another good post.

I'm interested in the tension between elearning content providers and informal learning. Classroom-based training is pretty much toast. But I don't get why we would move from one classroom to another bounded arena.

I realise I'm probably saying nothing new by saying it here. But some people evidently do believe that eLearning (provided by an eLearning provider) is where things are headed.

What I'm trying to grasp is, why? Some of the eLearning advocates are undoubtedly biased and have their own self-interest at heart. But not all of them.

eLearning 'courses', like textbooks, are a necessary evil. Are there outstanding examples of eLearning which are engaging, open-ended and focused on non-process-oriented facts?

[Matthias Rohs]

Thank you very much for this post and reminder to Vavoula. Its an very interesting typology focus intention - in my opinion an often ignored aspect to differ formal and informal learning.