Problems and opportunities in the use of technology to manage informal learning

There is a mismatch between the enthusiasm of policy makers and other actors for initiatives to support the validation of informal learning, and the lack of adoption of systems in practice. This problem is explored, with reference to the creation of the Informal Learning Collector in the European Commission TRAILER project. It is proposed that formality in learning can be usefully understood as a measure of the degree of managerial control over the learning process. It is then argued that the use of managerial tools, such as validation and competence catalogues, runs the danger of constraining the scope for informal learning. Analytics techniques offer the possibility of providing insight into practice by examining documents, without the need for formal description or tagging. However, these methods raise problems of surveillance (by companies and the state), confidentiality, and security of data. A prototype system is described which tests the feasibility of the approach.