guerilla learning, eh? Well, here comes heretic learning

For the past 5 years I have worked as an instructional designer. As cool as it sounds, I haven't actually been making stuff in Flash or even HTML myself - i have been describing what to make to other people. They say "copywriter" although my writing normally doesn't have much to do with advertising. Before that I worked as a teacher for a while. And before that I went to school myself. So, my works have always somehow got something to do with educat... I mean learning. (Some of it might actually run in the family.) And while doing my work, I have often discovered or developed interesting ideas about learning. Learning in general, e-learning, formal learning, you name it. Some of it might snugly fit into official theories, some of them might not. I really don't care. (Having gone through formal university training one-and-a-half times, I have learned that I kinda suck at academic writing.) Some of those ideas I have been able to apply in my work, some not. But I sure have a buttload of bookmarks stashed away for myself!

The shadow-of-an-idea that has fascinated me the most is how learning happens when you don't quite mean to. How you inadvertently learn or pick up something when all you meant to do was to have fun. Or do something else. Or have your thoughts process something. Or procrastinate. I have come to strongly believe that most learning happens regardless of actual teaching (or even despite it). And yesterday I came up with the idea that all this could be rounded up under the vague and elusive keyword of "guerilla learning". As in - hidden acts of learning and realization that sneak up on us, that hide in the bushes everywhere and when you least expect it, they stirke and "BOOM!" you suddenly have learned something. Figured something out. Come to an understanding. Mastered a skill. Reached new level of comprehension.
[Second edition edit: a few posts later, it turned out that "guerrilla learning" is already a real term, such a blog name was actually already taken, and that I had only been able to take the name for my blog because I had misspelled it. More on that later.]

So, to wrap up (I'm getting hungry), I shall be attempting to offer a base camp for those sneaky buggers here. I have never tried keeping a blog before. Some of this interface and the options I have been able to figure out. Some I have not. I'll be trying things out, tinkering, tweaking, and above all making mistakes. And naturally - learning in the process.


ED: here we go... I don't know why some of the text shows up as if it was highlighted. Weird. --> aha! Clearing formatting from the text altogether did the trick.

ED2: I also forgot to add a link to the most inspirational TED-talk ever. (Okay, there's actually a bunch of those. But still.)