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Top1. Introduction
Learning does not only take place within formal educational institutions. People learn throughout their lives, from experience, from reading or research, from conversations or observing others, from meetings, etc. (Garcia-Peñalvo, Colomo-Palacios & Lytras, 2012). Either due to simple curiosity or the need to solve a problem, people are always seeking for information and answers that can help them with specific issues. Nowadays this search is easy and fast. The distinction between formal, informal and non-formal learning started being fostered in the middle of the last century (Conner, n.d.; Marsick &Watkins, 1990; Mosher, 2011). According to recent studies, informal learning (IL) can account for over 75% of one’s continuous learning throughout life (Conner & Clawson, 2004; Cross, 2007). Even though most of IL methods have always been used, the awareness of these methods, as contributors to learning and enhancers of competence development, is more recent (Mosher, 2011). IL happens anytime and anywhere. People are nowadays more dependent on technology in order to solve any ordinary problems and/or challenges and so ICT tools are contributing to this paradigm change.
For the purpose of this work, two main IL contexts will be considered: the academic (institutions for higher education) and the professional (companies) environments. Peoples’ goals in these contexts can be considered different. Most companies still focus solely on formal learning programs, thus losing valuable information on the know-how employees develop informally (Conner & Clawson, 2004; Marsick &Watkins, 1990). However, many professional practices have been reported in the literature as being equally or even more effective, such as informal meetings or simply coffee breaks (Cross, 2007). In fact, it can be considered paradoxical (Conner, 2008) that companies spend 80% of their budget to re-qualify their employees by means of formal learning workshops and courses, while 80% of what their employees are really learning, is learned through informal learning activities.
Regarding educational institutions, Digenti (2000) notes that one of the ways that eLearning can help students to learn more effectively is by creating informal learning environments. However, most schools still focus only on formal learning programs, and in doing so fail to draw on know-how students develop by themselves (Conner, n.d.).
Cross (2007) argues that since the initiative for IL lies with the learners, they become more responsible, which makes the learning process more effective. The author states that employers should create a supportive organizational culture helping employees to develop and improve their skills, by facilitating IL processes within companies. In fact, this is in accordance with what is known as intrinsic motivation to learn (Deci & Ryan, 1985) and self-regulated learning (Boekaerts & Minnaert, 1999; Dabbagh & Kitsantas, 2012). In order to really develop competences on a deep level, learners must be intrinsically motivated to do so (otherwise they simply cover the subject in order to fulfill the necessary – imposed - requisites). In this sense, it becomes important to watch and harness the more informal methodologies students are using to develop their competences and expertise (Mosher, 2012). On the other hand, learners should not be considered passive in their developments but rather active learners, since they seek for information and knowledge because they want to (or feel the need to) which can make learning much more productive (Dabbagh & Kitsantas, 2012).