Informal Learning Challenge: Be an Agent of Change

"learning by doing can provide a unique and personal set of insights into the ways and means for creating something in the world." (p. 94)

A New Culture of Learning: knowing, making, and playing 

Thomas & Brown

Instagram is quickly exhibiting its power as a source for identity construction and a repository for images that illustrate this formation. For the past month and a half, I have been exploring Instagram as a site of informal learning and how it functions as a resource for educational ideas about environmental stewardship. 

The challenge:

1) follow me on Instagram @stoplitterbugginme

2) explore and identify 3 Instagrammers whose main purpose supports a cause that is dear to your heart (mine is the environment), follow them and tag me in a comment on one of their posts. 

3) contribute to my project by uploading an image that makes a statement about an environmental issue you encounter this week (tag me in the comment). See my posts for ideas. And offer your own!!!

Informal Learning at SCI Port, Louisiana's Science Center

The first time we visited SCI Port, I was a little wary of how much my children, 1 and 3 would get out of it. Several people had advised against taking ones so young arguing that there really wasn’t much for them to see and do. Boy, was I glad I did not listen to the critics! While several areas of the museum were beyond my three year old and almost all were too much for my baby, the Children’s Gallery was a perfect place for both to explore, examine, and learn. A few of their favorite spots included: the playhouse, the critter corner (complete with geckos, Madagascar hissing cockroaches, turtles, guinea pigs, and a skink), a fully “furnished” child size fire truck and a water feature. The best part of this space: it was completely enclosed! (with its own set of bathrooms!!) With freedom to roam, my girls spent several hours hopping from activity to activity exploring, experimenting, and playing.

Ok, the stage is set for the informal learning experience that happened that day. In the corner of the Children’s Gallery there is an area called the “Smile Science Center.” This area is set up with various pieces of equipment, a dentist chair, dress-up items, instruments and a gigantic mouth for children to manipulate. The dentist’s chair was of particular interest to my child. Knowing that she would soon have her first dentist appointment, we used this opportunity to get an up close and personal look at what she would see and simulate what she might experience. She was able to handle oversized tools, pretend to be the hygienist, see and manipulate a large model of teeth, take a closer look at her own teeth in an enlarged mirror, pretend to be the patient and lay in the reclining chair, and see and feel the bright lights shining down into her mouth. This play opportunity allowed her to familiarize herself with an experience that is often traumatic for very young children. Being able to manipulate the equipment and move throughout the space at her own pace and according to her own interests eased her transition into the real experience. While we did have to distinguish between SCI Ports play space and the hygienist’s non-play space, she was able to integrate what she had learned in play into her real life experience. The hygienist was quite impressed by her ability to articulate much of what the exhibit displayed. 

By creating opportunities for children to play with real life experiences such as doctors, dentists, and other community helpers, the science center aids the continuation of learning far beyond the museum experience.

The first image is from the museum's site. It illustrates the Smile Science Center where children of all ages explore the world of dentistry. The second image is of my three year old's first visit to the dentist that happened after we were able to utilize SCI Port's newest addition to the Children's Gallery. 

Other sites (that are relatively close to us) that would offer similar informal learning experiences include: 

The Louisiana Children's Museum, New Orleans, LA:  http://lcm.org/

The Northeast Louisiana Children's Museum, Monroe, LA:  http://nelcm.org/

The Perot Museum of Nature and Science,  Dallas, TX:  http://www.perotmuseum.org/

kids think design

www.kidsthinkdesign.com is a collabrative project for kids 9+ who are interested in design. The site includes information on the world of design as well as focused links on fashion, graphic, interior, book, product, film and theater, architectural, animation, and environmental design. Under each design type, you can find tabs that expound upon the topic in a variety of ways.

World Design: This tab introduces kids to communities rich in design from all over the world. Depending upon the specific area of design, this can be a place, project, object, or group of people. 

Meet a Designer: Here you will find information about influential designers, past and current.

Think like a Designer: Here kids can learn the lingo of a particular area of design as well as important concepts and theory. There is also a space to test your knowledge.

Design a Project: Put new knowledge into practice in this section. There is also a section for students to submit their own projects to the site.


Learn More: This page links to more websites with interactive projects and information, as well as, books that will expound upon a particular subject of interest.

kidsthinkdesign is an example of a website that fosters creation and development within the first pedagogical site. The first pedagogical site is described as a place of self-initiated visual cultural production outside of a classroom where kids produce to please themselves (Wilson, 2005). Students access such a site in order to explore a particular area of design. While doing so, they are exposed to other areas of design, as well as, professionals and amateurs working in their same area of interest. As students navigate throughout the site, they have the opportunity to move from knowing to making to playing. They are given opportunities to experiment with and exercise their talents. In "Knowing, Making, and Playing," Thomas and Brown discuss a shift from knowing specific pieces of information (described as the "what") to knowing "where" to find this information.  This site offers the "where" in which to find such information. Once the information has been located, students can begin to "make and play." Since "learning by doing can provide a unique and personal set of insights into the ways and means for creating something" (Thomas & Brown, pg 94), students are encouraged to begin creating and offered a variety of projects in order to practice ideas and skills. The projects are not finished works, but rather  jumping off points for future creation.

The image below is of one of the projects on the site. While looking through the book design section, I was fascinated by a write-up on "pop-up" books. As lovers of children's books and owners of many beautiful pop-up books, my daughter and I dove head first into the project of making our own "pop-up" letters. She worked her magic with the markers "designing" the background of the letters, while I worked mine with the exacto knife. Here are the fruits of our labors. We also had a fun time (or at least I did) creating as many words as possible out of the letters you see below. Having never made a pop-up anything before, this project helped me to understand the mechanics of making a 2D object stand in 3D. Additionally, I learned about two important designers of these beautiful mechanical books: Lothar Meggendorfer and Marion Bataille. 

Here we are "playing" with design. 

With the freedom to explore, "they learn what they wish to learn at the time they wish to learn it" (Wilson, p 23). In doing so, students sift through the information on the site accepting and rejecting in order to meet their specific and current needs and interests. They demonstrate that "creative behavior is not making something out of nothing, but that it is based on extensions and combinations of conventional sources"(Wilson, p 23). Students are encouraged to learn from past and present designers, examine their work, learn from their technique, and move on from there. By understanding the history of design and what is happening in the design world today, students can see the relevancy of their own work. One critique of this site is that while students are encouraged to submit their work, there is no gallery showcasing such contributions. Feedback is limited; therefore, the opportunity for interaction, improvement, and growth specifically within this site is limited as well. This also prevents it from functioning as the third pedagogical site. 

For my niece, the desire to create is intrinsic. As a small child, she littered her journals, notebooks, and the house with drawings of clothing design. Of her own volition, she acquired a sewing machine, sought out lessons, and began to create the images of her imagination. She often looks for ways to challenge her skills or simply satiate her desire to create. Below you see one of her designs made from scraps found around the house. Simple as it may be, it exhibits her sense of motivation to create with or without a purpose and for her own personal pleasure. 

In closing, Wilson states he believes "that every art teacher should become a connoisseur and appreciator of the self-initiated visual culture created by his or her students and learn as much about kids' self-initiated visual cultural production are willing to reveal" (p. 33). The key is creating a space in which kids feel comfortable and "willing to reveal." The first step in achieving this is creating and encouraging the third pedagogical site: a neutral space where “teachers’ values, students’ values, texts, images, interpretations and conflicting interpretations” (p. 19) are all valid and “honored equivalently” (p. 19). The relationships forged between teacher, student, and object are “governed by democratic principles” (p. 19) and represent a confluence of ideas that both support and challenge one another.

Sources: 

Thomas, D. and Brown, J. S. (2011). A new culture of learning: Cultivating the imagination for a     

            world of constant change. Douglas Thomas and John Seely Brown.

Wilson, B. G. (2005). More Lessons from the Superheroes of J. C. Holz: The Visual Culture of Childhood and the Third Pedagogical Site. Art Education, 58(6), 18-24, 33-34.

 

Learning for Fun

In “Learning for Fun: The Unique Contribution of Educational Leisure Experiences,” Jan Packer explores the idea of “learning for fun” as the “phenomenon in which visitors engage in a learning experience because they value and enjoy the process of learning itself" (Packer 2006). She argues that in the “free choice learning” experiences found in a variety of educational leisure sites (museum, aquarium and national park) it is a person’s ability to chose that “makes the difference between learning as a chore and learning as a pleasure” (Packer 2006). Using the theories of economic experience (Pine & Gillmore), “flow” and “aesthetic encounter” (Csikszentmihalyi and colleagues), curiosity-driven museum visitor (Rounds) and various theories related to “intrinsic motivation,” Packer identifies characteristics of free choice learning in these settings that transforms learning into “an experience” in which the visitor has the ability lose all sense of time and engage emotional, physically, and cognitively.

Packer offers the following five propositions gleaned from the research listed above and her own research. Learning for fun offers “an experience in which education is entertainment, discovery is exciting, and learning is an adventure” (Packer 2006). Most visitors within her study perceived learning to be a pleasant experience and although they may not have visited the site with the intent purpose of learning something new, they almost always engaged in some sort of educationally motivated activity. Four conditions were identified by visitors as beneficial for learning for fun: sense of discovery, appeal to multiple senses, effortlessness, and availability of choice.  Lastly, learning for fun can be a transformative experience. When visiting a museum, zoo, park, or aquarium, visitors are aware of the opportunity to learn and find meaning; however, the amount of effort that is required to gain the knowledge presented can be intimidating, unappealing, or even exhaustive. The fact that most visitors believe that for them the most learning takes place in an environment in which the learning seems effortless reinforces the idea that we want to be entertained and in this entertainment, we are educated. The entertainment I am referring to is not a passive entertainment. It is active, one in which we are engaged physically, connected emotionally and cognitively. Our senses are piqued. Our beliefs are reinforced or challenged. Our boundaries pushed. 

Tilda playing with a Color Texture Sorting Rainbow Playmat that she and I made.

The most prominent example in my life of learning for fun is my children. My oldest daughter turns everything into a game. Singing her abc’s is called the “echo game.” She sings and I repeat (she is always in the lead). Walking down the street is “red light, green light” as we discuss traffic signs and laws. There are many others I could cite, but the point is she loves to take the information she is “learning” and transform it into something else, a game, a song, a rhyme, or a story. For her learning is fun because it isn’t forced upon her. It occurs naturally within a familiar setting (by familiar I do not mean always the same, but there is always an element of familiar, a person, a theme, something she already knows about, etc).

Museums, parks, zoos, any of these educational sites seek to meet the visitor where they are and provide an experience that fills a void, captures an interest, or just engages in an unexpected way. With my three year old, I am cognizant of her interests and seek out opportunities, activities and experiences that encourage her where she is right now. Tomorrow those interests may be different. Today, she told me her favorite book was A Whale of a Tale from the Dr. Seuss Cat in the Hat Knows a Lot About That learning series. So, we spent the day talking about porpoises, dolphins, and whales. Looking up images, videos, and if there had been an aquarium here we would have planned a trip (unfortunately, the Bass Pro Shop is the closest thing to an aquarium in Shreveport). Instead of a trip to the aquarium, we are looking for places to practice echolocation. 

Packer concludes that “more than just affirming that learning is fun, learning for fun positions learning as an experience that is valuable for its own sake, regardless of the presence or absence of learning outcomes” (Packer 2006). My three old loves the process of learning in the environment that I have created for her and thinks nothing of the outcome. As her primary educator (academically, culturally, socially, emotionally), I am able to capitalize on her current, most prominent interests in order to make learning seamless and effortless (?) for her. A recurring characteristic of visitors in informal learning research is intrinsic motivation. The most successful learners have a positive disposition toward learning.  Creating this attitude toward learning begins at a young age. In doing this, we are creating life-long learners who will utilize these educational leisure sites for their personal enjoyment and learning. 

Little "readers"

Teaching Art to Preschoolers using Art History

A few of the "art" books in our library: Babar's Museum of Art by Laurent de Brunhoff; You are My Work of Art by Sue Dicicco; and Art for Children, Figuring Figures by Brigitte Baumbusch.

Having a very creative and inquisitive three year old, I am always looking for ways to aid her in discovery and awareness of the things that excite her. Through this process, I am also passing on my own loves and interests. One of those loves is art and art history. On any given day, we have multiple art “activities” (as she likes to refer to any project we have going) in the works, hanging to dry, and on display in her “gallery” or “studio” (two different places in our home). Art is very much a part of our everyday vocabulary. We explore in doors and out of doors, talking about the things we see, looking at little details, comparing and contrasting, collecting, etc. The lesson plans I have selected all focus on teaching art elements and history through a collection of art historical masterpieces. By using these masterpieces to teach color, line, shape, texture, and subject, I am also able to teach culture, context, visual thinking skills, and history (just to name a few). The primary target age are preschoolers. It is my hope to use these with my daughter. 

1.  COLOR! This lesson explores the very basics of color: the science of color, primary colors (Modrian), secondary colors (Seurat and pointillism); as well as the emotional impacts of color (Matisse) and colors found in nature (Monet). Each lesson incorporates the works of art by the artist and hands own exploration of his technique.

2.  Art Cave Drawings (Learning Center) This learning center offers children an opportunity to learn about art forms from prehistoric cultures and experiment with a variety of materials by creating their own “cave art.”

3. Elements of Art These are a series of lessons that explore color, line, shape, texture, and space in various museum setting (but are easily adapted to the classroom).

4. Animals in Art By focusing on the subject matter in a grouping similar of masterpieces (all have tigers found within the painting), this lesson encourages students to compare and contrast as well as relate the paintings to their own personal experiences. Featured artists include Jean-Leon Gerome and Eugene Delacroix)

5.  Animals in Art II This lesson is based on the same idea as the one above. However, it introduces light and dark contrasts and the concept of space (above, below, behind, etc). Paul Gauguin is the artist highlighted in this lesson.

6.  Line Manipulatives This hands-on activity used the works of Van Gogh, Miro, and Mark Tobey to explore lines in artwork.

7.   Straight Lines Explores the element of lines through the artwork of Kandinsky, Modrian, Picasso, and Stella. Activities and artists in this lesson vary from those in the lesson above.

8.  Shapes in Art Using a variety of objects (tanagrams, vegetables, etc.) students explore, discover, and recreate shapes in the art of Paul Klee.

9.  Songs in the Key of Art This lesson incorporates music to reinforce teaching and understanding of the elements of art. Students listen to Greg Percy's "Songs in the Key of Art" while exploring the works of Kandinsky, Matisse, Modrian, and Denise Pannell (just to name a few).  The lesson links to many more songs featuring topics of art and art history.

10. Smelly Fruit Very simply, this lesson connects the senses using scented markers that students use to create still lifes with the corresponding fruit. While creating a kind of “scratch and sniff” art work is fun and appealing, I would suggest using old master's still life paintings (Severin Roesen, Pieter Claesz, Caravaggio) to inspire the students own creations.

Each of these lessons can be easily adapted to any age group. All include exciting hands-on learning that encourages the importance of creation. For my preschooler, the things made by her hands are extremely valuable and often seen as an extension of herself. By using art history to teach the elements of art to my three-year old, I am able to reinforce the value of her art as well as introduce her to a world of artists and masterpieces that influence us still today.

Tilda's Gallery

Tilda's Studio
(these are old pictures, these paintings have already been "sold" and replaced many times over :)

The Art of Teaching in the Museum

American Art Collector, Jack Warner, "teaching" a group of 5th graders about "Freedom and the Founding Fathers." These fifth graders would be guided through Warner's collection of art by the docents lining the back walls. The museum educators used similar questioning, guiding techniques to the ones described in the Burnham & Kai Kee article. This photo was taken at the former Westervelt Warner Musuem of Art.   

In this essay, Burhnam and Kai-Kee expound upon two different museum experiences in order to articulate their ideal for teaching within the museum. Throughout the essay, it is made clear that the onus is on the museum educator to properly facilitate discussion so that all visitors will have “an experience” with the artwork or artworks they encounter. In my observation, informal learning occurs least or is absent when the instructor is involved to such a level. In both of these examples, the educator had a clear direction in which she intended to guide her students. As stated in the article, the educator’s “goal [on one hand] is for people to gain a greater knowledge and understanding of a given work, and on the other, for them to connect with it personally, directly” (Burnham & Kai-Kee, 2011: 15). With this in mind, she directs conversation, intermittently adds information, and aids the visitors in drawing certain conclusions or connections (the hands in all of the paintings) throughout her experience.

Informal learning occurs through the unscripted fresh dialogue of the museum visitors as they experience a piece of art for the first, second, third time. When the museum educator is viewed as a facilitator and only one source of information rather than the ultimate authority on the piece, visitors freely offer and seek information from all sources (text panels, other visitors, past experiences, similar paintings hanging in proximity) at their disposal. They do not look to the educator for affirmation or answers, but rather collaborate to extract the meaning with their peers. Ideally, the educator becomes one of their peers and they view the painting anew together.

Unfortunately, certain expectations are placed upon the educator by the nature of the experience: a directed tour. As the article states and many of us have experienced, museum visitors seeking out group tour experiences are “held together by the implicit promise and conviction that they [will] leave with an understanding of the artwork that they did not have when they began” (Burnham & Kai-Kee, 2011: 16). A truly informal learning experience may be impossible to create in a “guided tour” setting.

Sources:
Burnham, R., & Kai-Kee, E. (2011). Teaching in the art museum. Los Angeles: Getty Publications.

Instagram as an Online Literacy Site

Students today have much more access to and preference for their smart phones than a personal computer. At any given moment, students are texting, snap-chatting, kiking, tweeting, updating facebook accounts, etc. In this post, I would like to explore Instagram as an Online Literacy Site. Instagram is an app first site whose online version really has little purpose. With more people opting for their phones instead of their pc's and most websites having a "mobile" (version of their) site, the term "online" can no longer be confined to a computer. 

In order to access Instagram, students must have an account. Setting up an account is simple. Download the app to your smart device. Choose a user name and a password. A user can also login with a pinterest or facebook account. Now that an account has been set up...select people to follow and allow others to follow you. 

What do I see? The first thing you see when you access the Instagram app is the latest picture or video posted by a user you follow. As you scroll down the screen, you see images from the lives of others: a silly video about cassette tapes made by someone feeling nostalgic and sentimental before she "chucks" them out; siblings sporting different versions of a sunhat (one wide brimmed, the other a colander) as they walk with dad to the park; a beautiful arrangement of flowers fresh from an English garden accompanied by an appropriate cup of tea; a hazy sunrise over Lake Washington; s'mores with the Moores over a glowing firepit. These are just a few of the images in my feed today. Each image is preceded by an identifier listing the user who posted it and the time of post. At the bottom of the image, you can also see how many viewers have "liked" the upload and any comments posted about it. 

At the bottom of the smart device's screen are five icons that are used to navigate the entire space: home (house), explore (starburst), camera (camera;), following/news (heart in text bubble), and profile (business card?). 

The "home" page includes all of the images that those you are following post. "Explore" allows you to search users and hashtags for similar postings. The "camera" is where you create and upload your own content. Updates are sent in the "following/news" section and other business can be taken care of in the profile.

What does it mean? This site is a place for the user to explore their own social identity through the posting of personal images or video that relate to daily life, personal opinions, and connections to places, objects, or others. How does one become "literate" in this space? By using it. "Following" other users. Allowing others to "follow" you. Posting images and videos that articulate emotional, political, economic, or social viewpoints. Documenting the places you've been. Exploring what others are doing through #hashtag searches. Receiving feedback from those who follow you regarding your posts. Offering feedback on the images posted by other users. Even using Instagram as a commercial venue (more and more people are selling products on Instagram). As you navigate through instagram, you connect with people you know, you want to know, whose work you admire, those that are similar to you in some way, etc. The more you connect and contribute the more literate you become in the site. The more information you share, the more feedback you receive. 

How do you know? Online literacies are online spaces (websites, social networking sites, blogs, gaming sites, instant messaging, etc) in which users create and/or interact with multimodal content as part of a larger social network of learners in order to explore and create their own social identity. In "Powerful Spaces: Tracing the Out-of-School Literacy Spaces of Latino/a Youth," Elizabeth Moje noted that students "use a variety of written texts and other forms of representation to navigate within and across physical space" (Moje, 16). Instagram as an online literacy site deals with these "other forms of representation"with minimal text. In the article, Moje is referring to language, music, symbols, body language, place, etc. These same forms and many more are visualized in the content created by users in Instagram. A "selfie" of me in front of Grant Wood's American Gothic identifies a place and interest connected with me: the Art Institute in Chicago and an appreciation for American Art. As the site also functions as a social networking site, every image or video posted to the site is either a physical or metaphorical representation of the user. The posts are meant to depict some aspect of the users identity: a like, a dislike, a place or space, an emotion, opinion, etc. 

The image to the left is a nostalgic reference to a trip to the ocean, as well as, a looking forward to the events of the coming summer. The user spends summers at the beach and sees it as part of her identity: socially, as she reconnects with people each summer; emotionally, as she has built relationships with the environment; and physically, as this is her residence for two months.

Instagram is also an online image gallery. In "Visual Culture and Literacy Online: Image Galleries as Sites of Learning," B. Stephen Carpenter and Lauren Cifuentes report a study conducted with students using the online image gallery Seeing Culture. In Seeing Culture, students accessed, uploaded, and manipulated images within this online gallery in order to increase their "visual literacy and collaborative interpretation of images, digital videos, and other forms of visual culture" (Carpenter & Cifuentes, 2011: 35). While Instagram users only have the ability to manipulate their own images, they still engage and collaborate with the content of others by posting comments, tagging and #tagging and "liking" images. These exchanges build meaning, connections, and further identity formation as users continue to create content.

In the article, Carpenter and Cifuentes are not making an argument for Seeing Culture as an online literacy site, but rather a site of learning. However, they observe that students begin to cultivate visual literacies. The learning that occurs as students interact with the content helps them to construct meaning from the images within the gallery thus creating and/or developing a deeper understanding of, connection with, and a bank of terminology relating to what they are seeing. I believe these characteristics qualify it as an online literacy site. Likewise, through the posting of images and videos, Instagram users also build literacy as they interact with their own content, as well as the content created by others. 

Articles cited in this post:

Moje, E. B. Powerful spaces: Tracing the out-of-school literacy spaces of Latino/ayouth. In K. M. Leander & M. Sheehy (Eds.), Spatializing literacy research and practice (pp. 15-38). New York, NY: Peter Lang.

Carpenter, B. S., & Cifuentes, L. (2011). Visual culture and literacy ONLINE: Image galleries as sites of learning. Art Education,64(4), 33-40.

Two more examples of "literacy"(in the traditional sense) on instagram:

 

Twitter!

Confession: I have been avoiding twitter since my 16 year old niece first chirped of its "coolness" several years ago. It's not that I am against new technology, by all means no! In fact, I sport all the latest creations by Apple with pride and current technology is often up for discussion at our dinner table, thanks to my tech savvy husband. For fear of appearing "old," I am compelled to at least investigate these tools regardless of my intent to use them. However, time is precious to me (as it is to all of us) and twitter has not been a social site of much interest to me. So, thank you A ED 814 for sparking an interest and nudging me into this space.

Follow me on Twitter @marteereeg

Down the street from my house is an American Art gem, the R. W. Norton Gallery of Art and Gardens. Established in 1966 as a private collection available for public viewing, this space has been embraced by the local community.  Walkers, runners, horticulture enthusiasts, art and culture seekers can be found along the paths of the gardens and the halls of the gallery all throughout the year. The Gallery and Garden's role as a site for informal learning in the community is the central question for my final project in A ED 814. While the gallery doesn't have a twitter account, there are many similar sites that do. Understanding how they function in this space will help me to gain a better understanding of how the R.W. Norton Gallery could benefit from such a social networking site as well as how informal learning is occurring simultaneously with the formal learning intended by the museum. (Note: the Gallery does have a facebook page)

The following are examples of similar sites that will serve this purpose:

1. The National Gallery of Art @ngadc

2. Americanart @americanart

3. Museum of Modern Art @museummodernart

4. Whitney Museum @whitneymuseum

5. Kimbell Art Museum @kimbellart

Additional sites of interest to me as I pursue this question include:

6. Technology in the Arts @techinthearts explores were art and technology connect and will aid me in gaining insight on how technology is being used in a variety of educational settings.

7. artnet @artnet will expand my understanding of the global presence of the arts

8. Penn State ART Ed @PennStateArtEd is a valuable resource for information on current scholarship is education. 

9. TED-ED @ted_ed offers a variety of engaging educational videos for all learners.

10. Sir Ken Robinson @sirkenrobinson is an innovative thinker in the arts and education.

This list is not exhaustive. As is the nature of twitter, I am daily finding more and more useful organizations and people to follow.

Happy Tweeting!

What is "Informal Learning"?

“Informal learning” is a concept that encapsulates the process by which learning occurs without a planned curriculum or even a clear direction or outcome. The learner seeks to engage a variety of resources within his specific learning ecology to acquire knowledge, expound upon existing knowledge, and share knowledge within this ecology. Informal learning occurs in a variety of spaces and is not mutually exclusive of “formal learning.” Such venues include: work, school, home, community, and among peers. The catalyst for informal learning is a desire to gain a greater understanding in a particular area of interest and a willingness to engage with those already exhibiting interest or expertise in the field, while at the same time seeking out new venues for information exchange. The environment created by this learner is learner-controlled, situational, experiential, social, possibly unintentional, and fluid across the boundaries of available resources. 

Listed above is a variety of sites targeted at the dissemination of information. Consequently, they provide many of the resources necessary for informal learning to occur. Click on the text to link to a blog post offering tech resources for educators. This image was borrowed from this blog.  

As I try to visualize what the process of informal learning looks like, my mind returns to the game of pinball. The ball (represents the learner's interest) is catapulted into the game board (the learning ecology). As the ball hits various points on the game board, points (knowledge) are acquired. The bottom controls (the learner) never know exactly where the ball is going to hit next (or where new information will lead), they just do their best to keep the ball in motion. The path the ball (the learning) takes is not predictable nor planned, but rather naturally occurring and changing with the introduction of new and old points of contact. The more complex the game board (learning ecology) is the more opportunities for contact and to increase point accumulation (information acquisition).

My intention was to include an animated pinball game with this post, but unfortunately I am not tech savvy enough. Here is the best I could do. Click the text below to link to an interactive, simple game of pinball.
Techies, any suggestions?

Canvas Pinball