Informal Collaborative Social Learning & Work

Some recent threads seem to be interweaving and creating patterns in what is becoming my de facto field of practice - “informal collaborative social learning & work”.

One thread is what Jay Cross has referred to with Hole-in-the-Wall Learning (HiW), which I first came across in the book Design Like You Give a Damn, and this conversation has been picked up by Peter Isackson:

It seems to me that the fundamental key to the success of HiW is the notion of “self-organized groups” who learn on their own. If education is to become truly non-invasive, as Jay suggests, it must refrain from defining both the goals and the means to reach them, entrusting the groups with this task. If educational gurus (authorities) notice that a group is neglecting what is considered “essential” in the curriculum (for whatever reason, whether it’s basic security, survival or inculcating an existing set of values), the group could be challenged to account for why they may be neglecting a certain topic or reminded of the interest in pursuing it. Respecting the self-organizing group and its decision-making capacity is the sine qua non of success. It also happens to be the absolute opposite of the organizational principles of traditional education and training.

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Promote “green” with technology projects

Going “ green” is a popular term that means awareness and action to preserve, restore, and improve the natural environment. Students these days are very aware of these issues and have strong feelings about being part of the solution. January seems to be a great opportunity for student to make a statement regarding this issues. Here are some great sites that can help your Generation YES programs “go green”.

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A best practice

If you haven’t read Ewan’s post, Does blogging affect attainment? Yes!, and its comments, you need to! Take special note of Ewan’s reply to the comments.

Stephen’s right that we need more examples - although I read examples every week in my RSS feeds of where social software have improved the learner experience. I do have a question though, which might need to be a blog post: how can you link attainment to social software? I don’t think you can, because there are so many other factors at play, including the quality of the teacher.

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Mobile phone project considered in New York City schools

I have done a 180 degree turn concerning education woes: I think the perfect storm already hit education, decades ago. Now lovely lights twinkle on the horizon and golden days of learning lie ahead. This and future Golden Swamp posts will develop this new Golden Learning theme and category.

We begin with an article about The Million program proposed by David Droga last week at Advertising Age’s Idea Conference in New York. This is the crux of the approach, from an Advertising Age article about the Droga proposal:
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