Blog Profile / Informal Learning Blog

This blog is closing…

I started this blog when Informal Learning was released, November 10, 2006. The informal learning meme has gone mainstream. I am gratified. That crusade is behind me. Informal learning is more important than ever. It’s part of life. It no longer needs an in-your-face site to promote it. These days I focus my energies on helping organizations work [...]

Re-reading A New Culture of Learning

A New Culture of Learning by John Seely Brown and Doug Thomas This short book (136 pages) is inspiring. I just read it a second time, something I very rarely do. These paragraphs lept out and grabbed me: Peer-to-Peer Learning In the new culture of learning, people learn through their interaction and participation with one another in [...]

Free webinar, Wednesday, February 16th

Training Smarter, Working Smarter Wednesday, February 16, 2011 at 11 AM PST/ 2 PM EST FREE Considering the fast pace and super-connectedness of today’s business environment, is the old static classroom really the best place for achieving...Show More Summary

Change or die

LX Briefing Mixing case studies, stories, and actionable recommendations together with humor and easy-to-understand language, Jay Cross provides much more than buzzwords and back-patting, or so says his bio. He also has some very strong opinions on the future of workplace learning. A Harvard MBA and Princeton undergrad, he has been improving business processes since developing [...]

Calling shades of gray “black and white”

Recognition of Non-formal and Informal Learning. Fifteen years ago, “the OECD education ministers agreed to develop strategies for ‘lifelong learning for all’.” They still don’t have it right. Who are these guys? OECD? According to Wikipedia, The...Show More Summary

Arts & Letters Daily, Denis Dutton RIP

A moment of silence, please. Denis Dutton, a philosophy who founded the pioneering website Arts & Letters Daily, has died in Christchurch, New Zealand, at the age of 66. Arts & Letters Daily broke new ground went it came online in 1998. The site’s archive shows what grabbed people’s interest back then. Here are entries from [...]

Happy Multidisciplinary 2011!

Overcoming Bipolar Thinking

Learning is a continuum of degrees of formality • BY JAY CROSS In the five years since the publication of Informal Learning, I’ve become the Johnny Appleseed of informal learning. I didn’t invent the concept. Informal learning is older than civilization. My contribution has been pointing out that overemphasis on formal learning in organizations is [...]

Each one teach one customer service

Here’s a worthy idea. Mobilize your users to support one another via Twitter. This instance is part of the latest upgrade to Firefox. The push button takes you to their Tweetstream.

L’apprentissage informel

An artifact from Learning Day at the European Commission. My keynote was titled “The Impact and Inevitability of Informal Learning.”

Mash-up of Michael Wesch & Santa Claus

Social media Christmas circa 1 AD. Thanks to Marc Rosenberg for tipping me off to this one.

Send large files with WeTransfer

For several years, I’ve used YouSendIt to send large files over the net for free. Yesterday I tried to send a 1.25 gig movie to a colleague. YouSendIt said I’d need to sign up for the pro version to send a file that big. I clicked the okay button and was charged $110 for a year’s [...]

Buy some inspiration before the year ends

Amazon just dropped the price of Informal Learning to $28.96. The Kindle edition is $26.06. You can buy a giant (4? x 2?), durable, grommeted Informal Learning poster in the Internet Time Store. The Store also offers an online, read-only version of The Working Smarter Fieldbook for $12. Got money you have to spend before year-end? The Internet [...]

Evolution of learning software

From classroom scheduling to nose counting to connecting people. Time for a change in emphasis.

Best of informal learning since September 1, 2010…

Informal Learning Flow Next month, a new aggregator on Working Smarter from Internet Time Alliance, sponsored by Xyleme, will replace Informal Learning Flow. Here’s what’s probably the swan song, the end of a great run. September 1 to...Show More Summary

A quiz for enterprise learning movers & shakers…

Shuffle through Mary Meeker’s phenomenal research report on the state of the internet economy. (Thanks for the pointer, George Siemens.) Be amazed. Here’s the Quiz Question: Name a single trend Mary Meeker describes that won’t have a major impact on your workscape. Which trend can a director of human resources, CLO, or chief information officer cast off as irrelevant [...]

Can You Hear Me Now?

Conversation has long been the most important learning technology. Unfortunately, not everyone is a born conversationalist. From an article in today’s Wall Street Journal, She Talks a Lot, He Listens a Little, tips on conversing: Set aside a time to talk. Taylor Keeney, a pilot, and his wife plan to speak for the first 20 minutes [...]

Socialcast

Today I visited a very cool company in the South Park neighborhood of San Francisco. These guys have developed what looks to be an ideal enterprise social learning platform. Internet Time Alliance will soon have an instance of the software for you to play with. South Park is an old neighborhood by San Francisco standards, founded [...]

Reflections on DevLearn 2010

“Evaluation sheets, be sure to hand in your evaluation sheets.” I refuse to fill them out. It takes a while for the important lessons to emerge. What people blurt out 30 seconds after hearing a presentation bears little relationship to what’s going to stick. After the LearnTrends conferences, I wait six weeks until I send [...]

Jay’s snapshots

Poor man’s instructional technology I bought several 12? electronic picture frames from Amazon for $120 a pop and installed them in a display case at the Internet Time Lab in Berkeley. NIX N’ EASY 12 Inch Hi Resolution SVGA Digital Picture Frame, 1GB Internal Memory, Remote Control, Photo, Video, Music, Split Screen Option, X12A In the Lab, one [...]