"Jay Cross, the author of the seminal work on informal learning, defines informal learners as follows
"....informal learners usually set their own learning objectives. They learn when they feel a need to know. The proof of their learning is their ability to do something they could not do before. Informal learning often is a pastiche of small chunks of observing how others do things, asking questions, trial and error, sharing stories with others and casual conversation."
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that sees learning less as a product (filling a learner with knowledge) and more of a process of continually staying current and connected (learning as a process of exploration, dialogue, and interaction).
As these learners enter higher education, they may not be content to sit and click through a series of online content pages with periodic contributions to a discussion forum.
"A variety of informal, socially-based tools comprise this space:
(a) blogs,
(b) wikis,
(c) social bookmarking sites,
(d) social networking sites (may be pure networking, or directed around an activity, 43 Things or flickr are examples),
(e) content aggregation through RSS or Atom,
(f) integrated tools, like elgg.net,
(g) podcast and video cast tools,
(h) search engines,
(i) email, and
(j) Voice over IP."