Excellent article on the potential for relevance and applicability of social learning for the skeptics out there!
The problem with formal learning is that it’s inherently abstract: no matter how engaging and dynamic it is, it’s always one step away from our everyday reality. When people leave the event and go back to their real lives, real jobs and real pressures, it’s always hard to bridge the gap. Whilst workshops can be very enjoyable, drawing the links back to reality is a challenge. Which is where social and collaborative approaches come in.
Using social learning communities that surround and extend the formal learning is a great way of continuing the conversation, but situated in our everyday reality: we can draw links out from the classroom and use structured or scaffolded discussions to create meaning in the real world. But it needs to be a two way process. All the time that we are looking forward and teasing out the meaning, we also need to be…
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All Things Moocable 