informal v formal learning

I like informal learning

It is a phrase used by lots of people

For example, Jay Cross

http://www.informl.com/

It is about the way people in companies learn today

Informally, by themselves or from others

The learners are in control

It is a ‘pull’ model

As opposed to being ‘taught’

On a course

Intuitively, informal learning sounds great

But what about our ‘shop floor’?

Many companies have 000s of employees who provide a very standardised product or service

Surely, whilst informal learning is important...

.. some formal, centrally-designed ‘push’ training is inevitable?

I was confused

And then I decided that both pull and push are

possible...

...if you put them into a matrix

kind of like a ‘situational leadership’ model, for learning

on the complexity of the person’s job

and also on the amount of autonomy the person

has

Because the approach to learning depends partly

Here is the matrix

It is called the Flojap model

Because it stemmed from a lunchtime

conversation

between Flora, Jane and Paul at the Berlin Online Educa conference 2008