Using Network and Mobile Technology to Bridge Formal and Informal Learning

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Networked lives for learning: digital media and young people across formal and informal contexts

Solveig Roth and Ola Erstad

Abstract:

Much educational research focuses on classroom learning and reveals the struggle with using digital media as part of school activities. Studies describe how formal and informal digital media practices differ. The interconnections between these two life-worlds experienced by young people present a challenge to researchers. To investigate such networks, the authors have used a learning ecology methodology to make explicit contexts found in physical and virtual spaces that provide opportunities for learning. Each context comprises ‘funds of knowledge’ or social and cultural resources. The authors asked: how ...