Title update: (LMP1) Live mini-paper on informal learning, connectivism, e-learning 2.0, Elgg and Moodle
Let´s listen to what a member of this social network, Jay Cross, which is a friend of mine and and expert on informal learning, has to say about it:
Here's the link to the original video.
He has posted a very good Intro to Informal Learning as well in his Infoml Learning Blog.
Jay coined the term "e-learning", and wrote the famous, good, old, E-learning FAQ. So, a few months ago, I participated in one of his revolutionary Unworkshops and agreed with his vision on this. Right now, the Unworkshops are evolving into the "Uncommunity", that will be based on the current Internet Time Wiki. Both, the wiki and the blog are excelent resources for those interested in informal learning. Jay has also created an Informl Learning Community in this social network. I am a member of it.
Jay is a friend of George Siemens , also a member of this social network, and the father of the Connectivism Learning Theory, a revolutionary theory for the Digital Age, that says that "The pipe (connections) is more important than the content in the pipe". You can see an excelent introduction to George and his Connectivism theory here. It includes a video of himself explaining the key concepts (it's in Real Media, so, I cannot link it here directly, you will have to follow the link to see it). You will find links to George's sites there as well. Perhaps the most important site owned by George is the Knowing Knowledge Wiki, he wrote a book also, based on it. George created the "connectivism" Community in this social network, too. I am a member of it.
Here's an interesting conversation podcast between Jay an George, exchanging their points of view.
Elgg is an excelent open source tool to implement connectivist strategies for organizations, businesses and e-learning.
I am sure that informal learning, connectivism and social networking tools like Elgg will be the foundation of the revolution of "e-learning 2.0". 
I am currently working on creating our own Spanish Social Network on "Society and Technology", based on all this stuff, but it is still in its very early stage, less than alpha. Of course, it is powered by Elgg, the best social networking software for me.
By the way, it has been an excellent idea to change the name of this Social Network on Education to "Eduspaces.net", it is much more clear than the former name (Elgg.net). :-)
Keywords: business, connectivism, davidds, e-learning, e-learning 2.0, elgg, informal learning, live mini-paper, moodle, social networks, video
Comments
Plus you get to increase your network :-)
Great to see you back to blogging, David.
Hi, Harold! Nice to see you here.
We got a good "Unworkshop 2" experience, didn't we? Do not worry, I will keep on bloggin' here (in English) and in our own Social Network at work (in Spanish). I hope I will increase my personal social network in both sites.
By, the way, I did a mistake, I said it was Jay who created the Informl Community here, but he was not, it was you who created it for him. Sorry about that. Now it becomes clear. Anyway, everybody knows you are something like Jay's "left hand".
Hi David, thanks for offering some dissent on Elgg and Moodle over at my blog.
I came here off the link you posted and what has been a befuddling couple of days has only become more befuddling. Basically, I keep guzzling the Kool-Aid and nothing's happening.
I drink two cups of the stuff and I still I don't understand how connectivism is going to help students learn math. I can point my students to a connected pool of resources and let them bounce between them, but most students are going to fail without direct instruction. Maybe it's just a math thing.
I drink two more cups of Kool-Aid and even still, I come to this post, and all the jargon, all the capitalized words just feel alienating. I don't get it.
Don't get me wrong, this issue isn't restricted to your post. I've been looking around for months now. Me, a young, tech savvy kid, and I still don't. get. it. Depressing times, especially now that I've volunteered to explain It to my school.
Thank you for comming Dan!
I told you in your blog it's a cultural change: from centralized to distributed learning. Students love it, but teachers are afraid of it, because they loose the control over what their students learn: they just learn what they want. 
They get knowledge from the PEOPLE and COMMUNITIES they LIKE.
Anyway, it does not mean you have to quit Moodle... it just means you can offer your pupils more than what they get from "e-learning 1.0", you keep your existing resources, but allow your students to distribute and manage their own knowlege! It is pretty new, but I can assure it students LOVE it and it just works!. And you do not have to care too much for the sistem, it is DISTRIBUTED over peers, it is something like a "Peer to Peer e-learning" P2P. That is why it involves a BIG cultural change, and Connectivism and Informal learning help a lot with that.
You can know more about all this stuff in one of my "personal connectivist environments":
http://del.icio.us/davidds
Hi David, I think we need both, formal and informal learning processes. Im working with SME and schools. For both groups its a great step top go from most time formal learning to informal learning.
SME know that informal communication is the glue that makes the company go. All the discussions in the staff restaurant or the tea kitchen is a very good informal communication. Informal communication about the boardes of departmentents or locations need other strategies and tools. Monthly meetings are such a tool traditionally. But in a flatter and faster world we can't wait for the next monthly meeting.
All this informal communication is also learning. I get some new information I can use at my job. After I got the information, I verify it and try to use it at the job today, tomorrow or next month. With the new experience I can say I have learned. Today knowbody should learn things he/she didn't use in the next time.
But in the same way it is usefull to learn formal in a group at one time time together online or face-to-face. There's a company placing a new product. The service people need all the knowledge about it in a short time. Or there are complete new technologies and you havve to learn it in a short time. Its economic to set up formal learning processes in this case.
I'm wondering about discussions like: informal learning is the future. Informal learning was a part of the reality at each time. But discussions that formal learning was yesterday and only informal learning is tomorrow are not correct.
There is a big hurdle for informal learning processes. Informal learning needs active people, starting the learning process with energy and own motivation. And it is a big cultural step in organizations to build such a internal culture. Its no problem to find 10% or 30 % of the employees to use such tools supporting informal learning, but whats with the rest?
If we are thinking about informal and fornal leraning we can connect to the concepts of constructivism and spec. social constructivism. What happens if we are teaching with this concepts in formal learnings. I think we come to a point where students gets teachers and teacher get students.
And I see just an other topic. There are lot of people that wish a small community and not a world wide or company wide discussion and collaboration room. Just yesterday I got a message from a guy reporting about big trouble in his company about one of his postings in a business community. He asked me to delete his postings.
I think we need also a discussion about public informations and privacy.
I'm with you to use moodle and elgg and other tools together. But we don't need only open and public communities. We don't need all the time the world wide discussions. We need also the small privat group for discussions and for learning.
And we need lucidity about places and tools.
Ralf Hilgenstock
Dialoge Consulting (Germany)
http://moodle.de
Ralf, I DO agree with you: we do not have to lose formal learning. It is perfect for courses and workshops, where students get the foundation of their knowledge. "E-learning 2.0" is not only a revolution in learning processes, it is also an EVOLUTION of education. Once they get the foundation, and also while they get it... why do not learn from them?
Faculty is always trying to teach. As Jay says, "somebody can teach you, but nobody can LEARN you". Let's allow our pupils to build their own knowledge and let's learn from them, because 40 simple thinking heads are much more powerful than the single head of the smartest man. Are we afraid of our pupils? Not me!
Long life to Elgg, and peer to peer e-learning: "E-learning 2.0".
So, since, Elgg does not allow me to talk with "Nobody", let's keep on talking on this LIVE MINI-PAPER:
"E-learning 2.0 = Web 2.0 + Informal learning + Connectivism", and can be implemented with Elgg.
It is just a proposal. ¿What do you think?
http://static.flickr.com/109/252157734_9e6c29433b_b.jpg
http://www.slideshare.net/Downes/understanding-learning-networks