One Response to “contact us”

1. Paul Jones, on July 31st, 2008 at 7:34 am Said:

   Hi Michael:

   Thanks for your comment on my blog, The Learner’s Guild. With regard to ‘learning what’s out there’ I would say I look forward to the same from you.

   One suggestion: Drill down a little on informal and nonformal learning.

   We all learn informally, although the exact numbers on how much learning is formal vs informal are exceedingly fuzzy. The range goes from 60-80 percent or more. But when you look into it they all seem to be guesstimates. Still, it seems clear that the plurality of learning that everyone does is almost certainly informal/nonformal.

   Your first reaction when you think about that tends to be: “if only we could formalize informal learning.” In fact, according to the National Center for Education Statistics it works the other way around: it is the highest educated who are the most likely to learn informally.

   The rich in learning use informal learning to maintain and advance their standing socially and economically.

   Moreover a German time use study determined that the best educated continued to learn informally largely because they just loved to learn. I read your bio on the website and it appears that this is your case.

   The real challenge, from where I stand, is how to get people to love to learn. Because with that love you can play a lot of catch-up, even if your formal education was desultory or inferior.

   My best to Professor Christensen. I heard him deliver a sponsored lecture at the University of Utah a few years back and he was dynamite.

   Warm regards,
   Paul Jones

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