Perspectives, challenges and opportunities of informal learning

Informal learning, the learning which takes place serendipitously, without a directed curriculum, and usually without a means of evaluation or assessment, is a fundamental, but often overlooked, cornerstone of the learning process. Informal learning is common during everyday interactions, as well as in educational settings, and in the workplace. With the advent of Web 2.0 collaborative technologies, the potential for informal learning has increased, and even enabled the potential for wide-scale and far-reaching informal teaching through social media. This chapter introduces informal learning and discusses some examples of where it has been identified and researched. The chapter then suggests some of the challenges that may face effective informal learning, or integration of informal learning into a wider educational approach. Finally the chapter suggests some ways in which informal learning provides opportunities to educational practitioners, and how these might be adapted