Informal learning recognition through a cloud ecosystem

摘要

Learning and teaching processes, like all human activities, can be mediated through the use of tools. Informationand communication technologies are now widespread within education. Their use in the dailylife of teachers and learners affords engagement with educational activities at any place and time and notnecessarily linked to an institution or a certificate. In the absence of formal certification, learning underthese circumstances is known as informal learning. Despite the lack of certification, learning with technologyin this way presents opportunities to gather information about and present new ways of exploitingan individual’s learning. Cloud technologies provide ways to achieve this through new architectures,methodologies, and workflows that facilitate semantic tagging, recognition, and acknowledgment of informallearning activities. The transparency and accessibility of cloud services mean that institutions andlearners can exploit existing knowledge to their mutual benefit. The TRAILER project facilitates this aim byproviding a technological framework using cloud services, a workflow, and a methodology. The servicesfacilitate the exchange of information and knowledge associated with informal learning activities rangingfrom the use of social software through widgets, computer gaming, and remote laboratory experiments.Data from these activities are shared among institutions, learners, and workers. The project demonstratesthe possibility of gathering information related to informal learning activities independently of the contextor tools used to carry them out.