Welcome to this initiative run by Nicholas Bowskill on behalf of WAOE. This is phase 2 of the initiative and we have just organised our 1st informal learning project from Mongolia!
By way of backgound, this initiative is designed as group based problem solving in an informal online setting. Members of WAOE are invited to propose an informal learning project to do with e-learning. Collaboratively we work on the proposal through dialogue and see what we can create together.
Initially, we would receive proposals for a project and then recruit a team of volunteers with time, knowledge, expertise or willingness (sometimes all 4) to work online in a distributed group exploring the project as a form of problem solving.
More recently, we have begun to use social networking software (http://mywaoe.ning.com) to bring members closer to each other and then to create spaces for projects to develop and be discussed.
The organisation, in the Ning environment, aims to work as a learning community around the proposal. This means that relationships and mutual support are as important as the learning strategy. In fact the development of relationships ARE a learning strategy. Through dialogue amongst the project participants along with the proposer of the project, the group does more than it might be able to achieve individually. It also creates a learning opportunity for all concerned. The groups typically discuss ideas and share resources to explore the tasks.
At the end of the project, a report is created to witness the value to all concerned and wherever possible to create a resource for others in WAOE and elsehwere. Generic outcomes include:
- experience of group based problem solving in an online setting
- experience of working in a learning community online
- experience of co-mentoring online
- experience of how informal learning can be organised and managed
- experience of working across cultures
- experience of social learning dialogue
In a connected environment we are all aware of how easy it is to access resources from anywhere in the world. Few people have developed skills in working with people in online informal e-learning communities.