Informal learning covers the myriad ways in which people acquire knowledge and skill in an unstructured way.
It is important not to underestimate the importance of informal learning: it has been suggested that people may learn most of what they know at work through such methods, rather than through training courses.
Here are some different strategies and technologies for informal learning.
On-line reference materials
Make guidance and reference materials available on an intranet.
Strengths |
Permanently available |
Weaknesses |
May be out-of-date but not obviously so |
Presentations
Usually seen as associated with formal events, presentations (such as those made with PowerPoint) can be indexed and made available through an intranet so that they can serve as readily available reference materials.
Strengths |
Useful for reinforcement or just-in-time refresher learning |
Weaknesses |
Passive |
Blogs
Blogs are on-line publicly available journals. In a work context for providing informal learning, experts can keep blogs as a record of such things as what they have done, why they have done it, how they made decisions, etc.
Strengths |
Other people can then refer to them for guidance. |
Weaknesses |
Reliant on individuals being prepared to share knowledge and then
updating them |
Wikis
Defined in the Urban Dictionary as "a collaborative web site comprised of the perpetual collective work of many authors". Wikis can be used to provide a constantly evolving (and hopefully improving) source of guidance.
They are therefore somewhat similar to blogs, but while a blog is the uneditable work of a single author, a wiki may have many different people adding to or amending it.
Strengths |
Reflect different areas of expertise and perspectives |
Weaknesses |
May not reflect ‘official’ policy or practice |
E-mail can be used to provide instant information to specific people. It can also be used to provide pointers to other sources of information such as presentations, blogs and wikis.
Strengths |
Keep recipients up-to-date |
Weaknesses |
Messages may get lost amongst huge volumes or other content |
On-line collaborative tools
On-line collaborative tools allow people to work together synchronously on a specific task. Such tools typically provide facilities such as:
- instant messaging, so that participants can type messages to each other
- voice communication, so that participants can talk and listen to other participants
- file sharing, so that participants can look at or download documents of interest
- whiteboards, so that participants can draw or write in a blank space that is visible to all other participants
- recording everything that happens to allow playback.
Such tools can be used for both formal and informal learning opportunities. For example, a project team may hold a project meeting which provides informal learning to its members. Alternatively, one of the participants could act as a 'virtual classroom teacher', using the collaborative tool to simulate classroom activities.
Strengths |
Useful for allowing dispersed workforces to collaborate on a single task in real time |
Weaknesses |
Technical constraints, such as bandwidth, the need for soundcards,
microphones, headsets, etc. |
Really Simple Syndication (RSS)
RSS is a technology that allows information
items to be sent to a web browser.
All that a user needs is special newsreader software incorporated in their
browser. They then subscribe to a newsfeed, and when they click on this their
browser is sent a list of relevant news items.
The illustration below shows RSS being used to keep someone up to date with ‘important’ non-work news.
It can therefore be used to provide briefings, updates, etc. in a similar
way to e-mail.
Strengths |
Useful for updates |
Weaknesses |
Users can find it difficult to subscribe to the right newsfeed |
Text messaging (SMS)
As most people nowadays carry a mobile phone with them at all times, it is quite feasible to use text messaging to deliver specific information to people. Multimedia Messaging Services (MMS) can be used to send a graphic, text and sound message.
There are limitations on the length of such messages and each message does, of course, have a cost, but they can be delivered to most of the people most of the time and are not reliant on the person having an Internet or intranet connection.
Strengths |
Most people have mobile phones with them at all times |
Weaknesses |
Message length limited |
Web phones (Voice over IP, VOIP)
Voice over IP technology lets people talk over a network or Internet connection as if they were using a telephone. As long as people are all using a network connection with the call will be free, which is a major advantage where people are located in different countries.
Such technologies usually make it quite easy to organise small conference calls and provide other facilities such as video and instant messaging.
Strengths |
Cheap way to provide simple collaboration |
Weaknesses |
Computers need sound cards, headphones and microphones |
Search engines
These include both Internet and desktop search engines.
Desktop search engines work in the same way as their Internet counterparts. They create an index of keywords so that they can create a more or less instant list of locations when a user types in a query. However, desktop engines do this on a local hard disk or within a specified network rather than across the whole Internet.
People can therefore use them to find specific information quickly and easily.
Strengths |
Powerful for finding information |
Weaknesses |
May find out-of-date information |
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(C) Bryan Hopkins, 2005