Learning is a process, not an event. A Learnscape is where that process plays out.
Learnscapes are learning ecosystems.
Informal learning is about situated action, collaboration, coaching, and reflection -- not classes. Developing a platform to support informal learning is analogous to landscaping a garden. You don't make the platform; you make what's there better.
A major component of informal learning is natural learning, the notion of treating people as organisms in nature. Our role as learning professionals is to protect their environment, provide nutrients for growth, and let nature take its course.Self-service learners connect to one another, to ongoing flows of information and work, to their teams and organizations, to their customers and markets, not to mention their families and friends. Because the design of informal learning ecosystems is analogous to landscape design, I will call the environment of informal learning a learnscape. A landscape designer’s goal is to conceptualize a harmonious, unified, pleasing garden that makes the most of the site at hand. A learnscaper strives to create a learning environment that increases the organization’s longevity and health, and the individual learner’s happiness and well-being. Gardeners don’t control plants; managers don’t control people. Gardeners and managers have influence but not absolute authority. They can’t make a plant fit into the landscape or a person fit into a team.
A learnscape is a learning ecology. It’s learning without borders.
Jay's blogs on Learnscapes. Free-range learning. Learnscaping seven-minute overview
Learnscapes are not formal or all informal; they are always a mix of both.
Discussion became quite heated when I depicted this as an audio mixer:
Internet Culture and the Evolution of Learning
Designing a Web-based learning ecology
Dave Gray's delightful drawing addresses common Learnscape communication issues.
Teemu Arina's sketch puts informal learning in the center and formal learning around the periphery.
A sample Learnscape (Unworkshop)
Learnscape Health Checklist
Conversations |
Relationships |
Individual skils & support |
Optimal network |
Learning Culture |
Third places
Online discussions
Un-meetings
Informal support of formal
Storytelling
Visual support |
Fast: IM
Communities
Each one/teach one Foster collaboration BBS, VoIP, discussion boards Coach |
Communications
Health
Tech savvy
Visual
Mindful Web 2.0
Refined PKM
Unlearning
Conferences & unmeetings
Meta-Learning: reflection
Performance support
Large screen
Ease of access |
Bandwidth
Connections
Right people-ONA
Internet inside
Signal/noise
Search: Findable: social search, tabs, federated search, tagging, cross-linking, V-search. Find people, too. Tag clouds. |
Bottom-up
Open/transparent
Conversational
Flexible< br/> Include customers & partners
Bus & bike
Trust |
Characteristics of successful nodes
Transparency (findable, tagged, plugged in)
Mindful, enthused, open to opportunity
Skilled at communication and pattern recognition
System-savvy, understand navigation, visualizing connections, PKM
Communication prereqs
Read, write, speak, visual
Sound mind, well body
Friendly, outgoing, receptive
Nurturing connections
beliefs and processes
1. learning is natural. get out of its way and let it happen.
2. learning is social. encourage conversation and networking.
3. learning is adapatation to one's ecosystems. it is a dynamic relationship.
4. learning involves skills one can improve.
5. authenticity trumps its facsimiles.
6. good learning comes from having good connections.
7. learning is spontaneous. so is rain. but you can seed a rain cloud…or learning
connections
to others: know who, ease of access
to info: know where, perf support
pave the cow paths, bring trails
learning is a series of relationships
receiving node
nurturing relationships
listening skills, meta-learning, search, grok, frameworks, emotion, stability
sending node
empathy,
audit, organization and individual
community, yeah, but…
strength of weak ties not just master and apprentice
seed groups
friendly nomenclature: helper nets
issue: mistakenly seeing only one connection. oversimplify. stereotype.
The rise of the individual
The increased capacity for connections and connectivity
The breaking apart of content
The creation of user-controlled space
the stocks become flows. "powerpoint = tyranny"
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