Next Step:  I see my next step is to develop learning outcomes for the first workshop. Once I've got this done I will start the actual workshop development.

The impact on my classes has been tremendous -- both for the creators of the illuminated texts, as well as the rest of us who get the chance to see them.  I have taken some of these presentations and put them on a website entitled www.awaytoteach.com.  The website is new, but growing -- in addition to the presentations there are some lessons that I've created.  The entire website is dedicated to the idea of centering the teaching of literature on the actual text being studied.

There is one presentation, I believe, that stands out.  Cat in the Rain.  It is based on the Ernest Hemingway story of the same name and was created by a student who saw the potential of the medium before even I did.  If you have a chance take a look and let me know what you think.

<blockquote>Informal or Self Directed Learning
Informal learning is by definition unsystemized and depends upon learner’s self motivation to direct their own learning. Sometimes referred to as autodidactism, informal learning is the most common type of learning, in fact it is so common that many participants do not even recognize that they are learning when they investigate or research a topic of interest. In a self-reported survey of 1562 adults in 1998, Livingstone (1999) found that Canadians were averaging about 15 hours a week in informal learning activities. Self-directed learning is however rarely credential zed or recognized by accrediting bodies, professions or employers. The recent and continuing availability of learning and information resources on the Net has created opportunities for very significant improvements in the capacity to engage in informal learning (Candy, 2004). Proponents of Self-directed learning often hold antagonistic attitudes towards formal education systems which they see as monopolistic, coercive and inefficient. This sense was captured by Alberta Einstein’s famous quote that “The only thing that interferes with my learning is my education.” </blockquote>

I remember being startled to discover that "autodidact" was sometimes used as a term of derision. To me, someone who actively learns, not so much on their own as by finding others willing to share their knowledge in an area the "autodidact" is curious about and/or needs to know more about, someone who uses and follows their own curiosity, - this is someone whom I see as admirable.

When the institution I was teaching in went "mobile", that is, when about half the programs required students and teachers to use laptops, I knew I needed to learn more about computers. When the chair of the PD committee associated with the implementation of laptop-use invited me to join the committee, I did because I saw that those already on the committee knew more than me. I could learn from them, informally. I benefited, the committee benefited as I learned and passed on my knowledge, and the institution benefited.

To my mind, informal learning is central. Training and education have their place, but without the support of a community of practice and a demanding enough (as in stimulating but not always overwhelming) environment, learning is pointless, except as an elitist, competition-driven game. Learning, ultimately, should be pleasurable, purposeful, and not without a struggle that can be shared. It's social; it needs to be social.

Which opens for me the question of whether I blog to learn, or blog to learn how to blog;-> The so-called Web 2.0 is interactive and the source of much knowledge. Web 2.0 can be seen as a community of practice, but only if you know how to navigate to find out about what you want to know about. This, to me, is the new litracy: how to learn informally using the Web.