Learning Individuals and Learning Communities: Informal Learning in 2025

Résumé En

This Paper presents the Learnovation vision within and around the area of informal learning, and more specifically it concerns three eLearning territories: individual development through e-Learning, nonprofessional learning communities, and communities generating learning as side effect. What these three territories have in common is that learning is not organised or structured, nor necessarily intentional from the learners perspective. A key assumption to understand the Learnovation Vision of ICT for informal learning is that the internet is no longer seen a medium for learning, but rather a learning playground where people can search for the tools and contents they prefer; and, more importantly, with the aid of web 2.0 technologies people can create, share, exchange, remix their own contents and learn through knowledge and experience exchange and sharing. Peer-learning and changing roles of who teaches whom are also typical for these three territories. The roles of providerconsumer are altering: learning isnt anymore about consuming the learning products but about collaborating in an exercise where each learner can create his/her own knowledge patrimony and learn within the aid of tools and peers. Also, these territories are characterised by the speed of development and adaption of new technologies and trends. Furthermore, adoption, and even participation in the development of new tools and services is faster here than in formal learning settings. The Vision Paper is structured around three main blocks: state of art of innovation, expected future, and recommendations to reach the desired future scenario, the latter being composed of long term recommendations for 2025 and short term agenda on urgent actions to be taken starting from 2010 to let the desired scenario(s) come true.