Jay Cross on Informal Learning

Former CEO of the eLearning forum Jay Cross is now promoting the concept of “Informal Learning” to a wider audience. The concept itself is interesting in that is recognises that most people access learning in very informal ways, such as through conversations with friends and peers rather than through formally designed training interventions.

There seems to be a broad acknowledgement that “informal learning” does take place on an incredibly wide scale and is an important part of the process of acquiring new skills and knowledge, but what we don’t always acknowledge as learning professionals is just how important it is, perhaps this is because it lies outside our point of direct intervention and is therefore not within our control, or that it’s too difficult to apply a meaningful measure to. I know that when I need to educate myself on a new topic, whether that’s research for a new course, learning a new recipe or working out how to defeat some some alien bad guy in a video game, my first port of call will be Google followed most of the time by informal discussion with my peers. It’s interesting that this happens mostly because I want to learn these things, not because I’ve been told to learn them. When I am motivated to learn I will find a way that suits me and with an urgency that’s appropriate for the situation.

It would appear to me that the vast majority of learning takes place without any intervention from a learning professional at all, and the questions I am pondering are around:

• How do I make that process more effective?
• Would it help if I could facilitate access to these informal networks/ methods for people within my organisation, or does that intervention break it by definition?
• How do I measure the extent and effectiveness of informal learning?
• What does this mean for instructional design if anyone is allowed to create formal “informal learning” spaces?

These aren’t new questions but I do feel the direction I am approaching them from is different.

Some people have suggested that his ideas don’t take in to account the value that training professionals bring to the process of learning, but for me acknowledging the scope and importance of “informal learning” doesn’t ring the death knell for classroom training, elearning or any other form of traditional training intervention. What it does is add an interesting new dynamic to how I think about tapping the learning potential in my organisation.

Also of use are the links he provides to books and documents via the Internet Time Group. Well worth having a dig around.