Is all learning “social?” In some ways, that’s a metaphysical question. I’ve learned by reading and then applying what I read to some problem– like fiddling with the style sheet on my blog.
I suppose I’ve interacted with the person who wrote the book, and indirectly with the people who see the results of what I’ve done. Or with myself, if I’m the only one who can tell the difference.
Parsing this can be fun, like pre-Vatican II discussions of Catholic practice. “Brother Andrew–if it was Friday at the South Pole, and I had a ham sandwich, could I walk over to where it would be Saturday and eat the sandwich? Would I have to wait before walking back to Friday?”
Most of the time, I think learning evidence itself through interaction with others (so, “social”). More important, to me “learning” demands application. Until you retrieve the facts, exercise the skill, attempt a new arrangement–do something–I don’t quite see how you can claim to have learned.
With that meandering out of the way, I’d like to highlight a highly useful series by Jane Hart: C4LPT’s Guide to Social Learning. She discusses the shift from elearning to social learning, discusses social media, and gives examples of social media in learning.
Most helpful to me: Jane identified five types of learning. Harold Jarche looked at those and created the chart you see on the right, showing the amount of “directedness” for each category.
- IOL: intra-organizational learning
- GDL: group-directed learning
- PDL: personally-directed learning
- ASL: accidental and serendipitous learning
- FSL: formal structured learning
(So the list and the chart are a nice example of collaboration. I thank Jane for clarifying this for me, and have edited this post accordingly.)
A highlight of Jane’s series is an extensive list of examples. In a grid, she provides examples of different social media tools as they can be used for each of the types of learning in Harold’s chart.
There’s plenty more, including discussions for each of the five categories. Take a look; see if there’s anything you can…well, learn.
“Talking to self” image adapted under a CC license from a photo by Leeni! / Kathleen.
Hi Dave, thanks for reviewing my guide to social learning. Much appreciated. I just wanted to clarify one tiny point, that it was me who first of all indentified and named the 5 different categories of learning, and it was then my colleague Harold who took these categories and created the chart to make sense of them, and observed the level of directedness that is required for most social learning.
Jane: thanks for the clarification; I’ll revise the post accordingly. (One of the subtexts here is collaboration, so now I get to do some.)