Informal Learning -- the "other 80%"

See the community page for notes taken "live" during the meeting. Also see the new eLF Blog for participants' meeting notes.

What is "informal learning"? In formal learning, others decide the subject matter and provide the way
to learn it: workshops, seminars, courses, etc. With informal learning, learners generally make their own choices, learning through asking questions, searching, self-guided study, and trial-and-error.

A session on informal learning calls for informality, so we're thinking "out of the box" and replacing our standard format of presentation followed by Q&A with something looser and more participative. You, whether attending remotely or in-person, and the following resource people, make this all work.

Jay Cross, Internet Time Group (and eLF founder), will set the stage for the session, presenting some of the concepts from the white paper we're asking you to read in advance. During the show-and-tell portion of the meeting, he plans to to cover collaboration, mentoring, and personal knowledge management. [Jay's introduction] Our evolving design for the meeting is looking more like a three-ring circus than a bunch of presenters. Kevin Wheeler has volunteered to be ringmaster. [Kevin's presentation] Jen Fitzpatrick of Google will share stories from Google users and describe trends and innovations. People probably learn more from Google than from all our public libraries combined. [Jen's presentation] Jason Shellen, also from Google, was an employee of Pyra (Blogger) when they only had two employees. He will share his view of the Blogosphere and describe Google's in-house implementation of Blogger. Ross Mayfield, CEO of SocialText and cofounder of the Social Software Alliance, will briefly describe the Social Software movement, the value of social networks, and social network patterns, with perhaps a demo of a Wiki. [Ross' presentation] (Caution: 1.7MB) George Siemens will attend remotely. George is an instructor at Red River College in Winnipeg and author of the elearnspace blog. He will discuss edu-blogging, blogs and community, and the Open Source Content movement. [George's presentation] Sandeep Sood sits on the board of eLearning Forum, and he will be wearing several hats for this session. He will present some of the findings and some demos from his recent research on collaborative software. He will show how kids are parallel processing these days. You have a key role as an informal learner who can share your experiences. Richard Clark (eLF webmaster) and Eilif Trondsen (SRI Business Intelligence & eLF Director) will bring the results of the survey on informal learning. [Survey results] Rick Huebsch is handling the care and feeding of remote members. [A note from Rick...]

Be prepared!

• Jay Cross is releasing a new white paper on Informal Learning. Please read the first draft before the meeting.
• Also, we've just released the survey results.

Location

Microsoft's Mountain View campus, 1065 La Avenida Ave., Mountain View, CA 94043 [directions]

Remote access

The quick summary:

1. We're using WebEx to broadcast presentations: https://mcdemo1.webex.com/mcdemo1/j.php?ED=76915766&UID=7642151 (meeting number 692258187 and meeting password america)
2. The dial-in numbers are 1-866-289-3239 (US and Canada) or 1-408-678-2429 (International)
3. Please join us on the Community Page to see webcam images from the meeting and more.
4. If a speaker gave us a presentation before the meeting, it's listed with the speaker bio above.

The whole story, with detailed instructions, is on the remote access page.