Fostering Cultures of Intentional Informal Learning & Mentoring

[Pamela Meyer]

We invite you to continue the conversation we began at our "learning encounter" on 2.29.12. Several provocative questions were asked as we discussed how we can foster cultures of informal learning and mentoring. A few are listed below. Please consider responding to any of these, or ask additional questions and share any other responses you had to the collaborative learning experience:

• What does informal learning and/or mentoring look like in your practice setting?

• What conditions or practices seem particularly effective in fostering informal learning and/or mentoring?

• Are there any questions you are asking in your practice about informal learning and mentoring that you’d like to offer to the group?

• Why did you choose the learning stations you did and what aspects of the experience did you find most engaging?
• What conditions, activity or processes enable you to ensure that your experience or encounter becomes new learning?
• What practices are you or might you employ to ensure that cultures of informal learning and mentoring are inclusive and do not unconsciously reinforce exclusive power and authority structures?

• What lessons have we learned from our shared experience and discussion that will help us foster cultures of informal learning, mentoring, and advising in our practice settings?

• As you view Brandy Agerbeck's map of the discussion below (also attached below as a downloadable jpeg), what additional insights or responses come to mind?

[carol semrad]

I appreciated hearing how the focus on the individual learner can impact the group. While the leader is learning, the participants are also learning.

The event was fun and I did learn some new ways to interact with technology in a learning environment.