Skip to main content

Informal web based learning

Would you like to engage in web based informal learning, rather than learning in a classroom? There are several advantages in doing so:

  • You can learn at your time, place, and pace
  • You can engage in more reflection, which will enable a better learning experience, more retention, and clearer perspectives
  • Statistics show that classroom based corporate training just does not work


There are several resources (free as well as paid) that will help you in your learning endevours. I will publish links to such learning resources constantly on this blog. Here's one to start with.

Sang Shin facilitates free online Java courses on his Java Passion website. It's really neat.

If you are curious about what informal learning is and why it is better than formal learning, you may also want to check out Jay Cross' blog, and this webpage



Notes: This text was originally posted on my earlier blog at http://www.adaptivelearningonline.net
Here are the comments from the original post

-----
COMMENT:
AUTHOR: Ramesh
URL:
DATE: 08/21/2006 08:56:54 PM
Nice information. Thanks a ton..Keep it up !!

COMMENT:
AUTHOR: Sachin More
EMAIL: sachin_more@omniscientweb.com
URL:
DATE: 08/23/2006 04:25:24 PM
No doubt informal learning is anytime better then formal!,

The only thing I felt is you should be very clear what you want to learn, and thats about it.

COMMENT:
AUTHOR: Parag
DATE: 08/23/2006 05:14:08 PM
Sachin,
That was a good observation. In a formal learning scenario you are lead by a coach, it is analogous to being in a school bus, where the route is fixed.
Informal learning on the other hand is like riding a bicycle. You are on your own. This gives tremendous power but also comes with a responsibility to take charge of your learning requirments.
It is very important to first make a plan, then identify resources, and then stick to the plan with discipline, unless there is a good reason to swerve.


COMMENT:
AUTHOR: A.K.Purandare
EMAIL:
URL:
DATE: 06/24/2007 01:11:23 PM
Dear Parag,
Your description brings out the fact that for the learners who are not matured enough(Say in a particular field) class room training may bring satisfaction.while for advanced learner there is no equivalent to on line learning .

COMMENT:
AUTHOR: Parag
DATE: 06/25/2007 05:30:44 AM
Hello,

For an advanced learner, someone who knows what they are looking for, self motivated and self led learning usually works out best. Online is good because it allows the the learner to connect with resources (information as well as mentors) online. This is a big advantage, since it makes collaboration very simple.

Someone who is not yet as mature, will need more hand holding and guidance, which usually happens best in the classroom ( if at all :-) )
--
Regards
Parag

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

My HSQLDB schema inspection story

This is a simple story of my need to inspect the schema of an HSQLDB database for a participar FOREIGN KEY, and the interesting things I had to do to actually inspect it. I am using an HSQLDB 1.8 database in one of my web applications. The application has been developed using the Play framework , which by default uses JPA and Hibernate . A few days back, I wanted to inspect the schema which Hibernate had created for one of my model objects. I started the HSQLDB database on my local machine, and then started the database manager with the following command java -cp ./hsqldb-1.8.0.7.jar org.hsqldb.util.DatabaseManagerSwing When I tried the view the schema of my table, it showed me the columns and column types on that table, but it did not show me columns were FOREIGN KEYs. Image 1: Table schema as shown by HSQLDB's database manager I decided to search on StackOverflow and find out how I could view the full schema of the table in question. I got a few hints, and they all pointed to

Fuctional Programming Principles in Scala - Getting Started

Sometime back I registered for the Functional Programming Principles in Scala , on Coursera. I have been meaning to learn Scala from a while, but have been putting it on the back burner because of other commitments. But  when I saw this course being offered by Martin Odersky, on Coursera , I just had to enroll in it. This course is a 7 week course. I will blog my learning experience and notes here for the next seven weeks (well actually six, since the course started on Sept 18th). The first step was to install the required tools: JDK - Since this is my work machine, I already have a couple of JDK's installed SBT - SBT is the Scala Build Tool. Even though I have not looked into it in detail, it seems like a replacement for Maven. I am sure we will use it for several things, however upto now I only know about two uses for it - to submit assignments (which must be a feature added by the course team), and to start the Scala console. Installed sbt from here , and added the path

Five Reasons Why Your Product Needs an Awesome User Guide

Photo Credit: Peter Merholz ( Creative Commons 2.0 SA License ) A user guide is essentially a book-length document containing instructions for installing, using or troubleshooting a hardware or software product. A user guide can be very brief - for example, only 10 or 20 pages or it can be a full-length book of 200 pages or more. -- prismnet.com As engineers, we give a lot of importance to product design, architecture, code quality, and UX. However, when it comes to the user manual, we often only manage to pay lip service. This is not good. A usable manual is as important as usable software because it is the first line of help for the user and the first line of customer service for the organization. Any organization that prides itself on great customer service must have an awesome user manual for the product. In the spirit of listicles - here are at least five reasons why you should have an awesome user manual! Enhance User Satisfaction In my fourteen years as a