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

Commenting your code

Comments are an integral part of any program, even though they do not contribute to the logic. Appropriate comments add to the maintainability of a software. I have heard developers complain about not remembering the logic of some code they wrote a few months back. Can you imagine how difficult it can be to understand programs written by others, when we sometimes find it hard to understand our own code. It is a nightmare to maintain programs that are not appropriately commented. Java classes should contain comments at various levels. There are two types of comments; implementation comments and documentation comments. Implementation comments usually explain design desicisions, or a particularly intricate peice of code. If you find the need to make a lot of implementation comments, then it may signal overly complex code. Documentation comments usually describe the API of a program, they are meant for developers who are going to use your classes. All classes, methods and variables ...

Inheritance vs. composition depending on how much is same and how much differs

I am reading the excellent Django book right now. In the 4th chapter on Django templates , there is an example of includes and inheritance in Django templates. Without going into details about Django templates, the include is very similar to composition where we can include the text of another template for evaluation. Inheritance in Django templates works in a way similar to object inheritance. Django templates can specify certain blocks which can be redefined in subtemplates. The subtemplates use the rest of the parent template as is. Now we have all learned that inheritance is used when we have a is-a relationship between classes, and composition is used when we have a contains-a relationship. This is absolutely right, but while reading about Django templates, I just realized another pattern in these relationships. This is really simple and perhaps many of you may have already have had this insight... We use inheritance when we want to allow reuse of the bulk of one object in other ...

Planning a User Guide - Part 3/5 - Co-ordinate the Team

Photo by  Helloquence  on  Unsplash This is the third post in a series of five posts on how to plan a user guide. In the first post , I wrote about how to conduct an audience analysis and the second post discussed how to define the overall scope of the manual. Once the overall scope of the user guide is defined, the next step is to coordinate the team that will work on creating the manual. A typical team will consist of the following roles. Many of these roles will be fulfilled by freelancers since they are one-off or intermittent work engagements. At the end of the article, I have provided a list of websites where you can find good freelancers. Creative Artist You'll need to work with a creative artist to design the cover page and any other images for the user guide. Most small to mid-sized companies don't have a dedicated creative artist on their rolls. But that's not a problem. There are several freelancing websites where you can work with great creative ...