iterativelearning

One of the many interesting educational trends that has attracted a fair bit of attention as a result of Web 2.0 tools is what’s simply referred to as, Informal learning. Despite the rather generic term, it’s generated interest among learning researchers because it looks at what drives people to learn without the formal structure of a class or training session.

Lifehacker has a nice example of this with their Lifehacker Night School series. In this series (which is free), they’re reaching out to people who want to know what’s happening under the software hood, but feel a little overwhelmed about exactly where to begin. Beyond the videos, Adam Dachis (the author of the tutorial) has corresponding posts that expand on some of the major points and define key terms. So if you’re feeling the need to release the inner nerd in you, go check it out.

Sometimes faculty or student groups just need to do super-quick, on-the-spot polls (e.g., should we write about this topic or that?). Yet many conventional LMS systems require faculty or users to click through a cumbersome series of options and approvals in order to do this, and for students, it’s equally difficult if not impossible. Reading Lifehacker’s short post on Google’s Moderator tool got me thinking a little bit about this, and by way of association, how newcomer Wiggio, the collaboration tool geared primarily towards students, makes it quite easy.