Jeremy Hiebert links to this article looking at informal learning as it develops in Slashdot. The author approaches the subject with what I think is the right perspective, observing, "Systems function, at times, in ways that cannot be attributed to any of the individual parts of the system separately. Such systems are termed emergent systems..." And more, he argues, such systems are self-organizing systems. This is a hard concept to imagine, but ask yourself: how is it possible for a tree to grow without management telling it how to organize itself? Slashdot and the tree - same phenomenon. "In what is essentially a self-directed learning effort, Slashdot participants organize their own learning around authentic, real-world problems which they choose."
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