We believe that it should be a system of activities and practices over time; these include the actions of individual learn - ers as well as the roles of other participants, such as mediating tools, semiotic media, and local conditions directly relevant to and supportive of (or obstructing) the learning activities
Well that sounds scalable. Geez?
Conventionally, an (occasionally naïve) attribu - tion of a valued condition to some specific cause (e.g., to an intervention). Rarely, however, are valued learning goals the outcome of discrete, identifiable causes.
Getting at the idea that traditional outcomes based assessment is shallow.
Assessment, evaluation and research all build on documen - tation but may require different modes and foci of documen - tation. In more traditional terms,
An important distinction
Know-that matters only insofar as it is mobilized as part of know-how; know-how (cultural capital) matters for career futures and social policy only when effectively combined with know-who (social capital).
Know -that, know-how, and know who. Interesting way to define knowledge. the latter two being based on capital. As if knowledge is something we build up to spend?
Learning that matters is learning that lasts and that is mobilized across tasks and domains
Again you see the idea that learning as action is the major goal.
Second is the improved ability to act collaboratively, coor - dinating and completing tasks with others, assisting them, and productively using affective sensibilities in doing so
Here the group learning is put ahead of the individual. It goes back to it isn't learning if it isn't acted upon and acting in a group not only make learning visible but is also the goal.
First is the personal increase of comfort with, and capacity to partici - pate in, activities that involve inquiry, investigation, and repre - sentation of phenomena in a widening range of domains.
Interesting that comfort with the domain and listed before knowledge of the domain.
emphasize the importance of taking into account in assessment design the incorporation of relevant knowledge about the history of the project, the community, and the partici - pating organizations and knowledge of the current wider insti - tutional contexts
Interesting take on the importance of historical knowledge influencing assessment of informal spaces.
“Know-who” is as important as know-how in getting things done.
I am stealing this when discussing social search and networked learning spaces.
As an aspect of human development—at the individual, group, or organizational level—the learning that mat - ters is learning that is used.
So this line here reveals a lot about the theoretical underpinnings of the authors. Then again so did their names.
that simple declarative knowledge is only one valued outcome of learning and is too often overemphasized in assessment designs to the exclusion or marginalization of other equally or more important outcomes.
this is often the case when we think in terms of practicality, efficiency, fidelity, and reliability.
Informal learning experiences, in contrast, build on the diverse interests and curiosity of learners and support their self- motivated inquiries.
Contrasting to formal education. I feel sometimes that formal education cab be vilified in the literature as being void of intentional learning.
That just isn't true. Many students have complex reasons for wanting to succeed or not in school.
ond, to offer program staffs, project funders, and other supporters recommendations of good practices in project assessment and identifiable needs for devel - oping improved assessment techniques.
So more future looking. What do we have to develop?
first, to offer to those who design and assess informal learning programs a model of good assessment practice, a tool kit of methods and approaches, and pointers to the relevant literature
point away. This fits well with efforts in Mozilla Learning to try and develop friction free assessment.
to reviewing the literature, the authors convened three expert meetings involving a total of 25 participants to dis - cuss key issues, identify successful approaches and outstanding challenges,
This is a very interesting methodology to add to the traditional literature review.
many sig - nificant learning outcomes may be unpredictable in advance of the learner’s participation
and this basically sums up what makes assessment of informal learning so difficult.
learning goals pursued by participants are generally open-ended, dependent in part on available resources and on repurposed ways to use those resources
I like this idea of repurposing resources as a way to reach open ended goal, though sometimes informal learning spaces are joined for goals unrelated to learning or for very specific ended outcomes
“Informal learning” is both a broad category and shorthand for a more complex combination of organized activities in face- to-face or online settings other than formal schools in which particular features are especially salient.
Key definition of how the paper defines informal learning.
what works in informal learn - ing and what doesn’t
We also have to define success before we can start to measure it.
knowledge base of science 2 Introduction learning in informal environments (Bell et al. 2009
I need to go and read this.