Article Summary 2: Seamless Learning

This is a summary of the article Seamless Learning written by Chee-Kit Looi; Hyo-Jeong So; Wenli Chen; Baohui Zhang; Lung-Hsiang Wong; and Peter Seow.

This article can be read here.

Seamless Learning

Authors: Chee-Kit Looi; Hyo-Jeong So; Wenli Chen; Baohui Zhang; Lung-Hsiang Wong; Peter Seow

Definition

In this article, the authors indicate 3 primary terms that need to be understood to demonstrate their key points: Formal Learning, informal Learning, and Seamless Learning.

Formal Learning, for the purposes of this article, is learning that takes place in a structured environment at a pre-set time, with a curriculum, assignments, and forms of assessment.
Informal Learning, for the purposes of this article, happens outside of structured environments and is often student-led or investigated and occurs as a result of curiosity rather than prompting by a teacher or authority.
Seamless Learning is a bridge between these two types of learning. It is often added by the use of technology and attempts to afford opportunities for interest-led learning to happen across time, setting and context.

Key Points

Mobile technology has the ability to facilitate seamless learning because it is a medium which can move with ease between informal and formal learning environments. It allows the student the freedom to pursue knowledge about topics they find to be of interest.
With seamless learning, students are engaging in learning on many different levels and different contexts. Learning takes place on an individual level, on a group interaction level, in between learning environments, across time and place and through various mediums and contexts, using a variety of learning-aides such as mobile technology, online systems and internet-based learning tools.
Different learning tools should be implemented in both formal and informal settings in order for seamless learning to take place. Often this will look like students learning contextually and through technology about a subject before adding to that knowledge in a formal learning environment.

Further Research

Seamless learning research should focus more on the educator, the tools they are using and how/if they are using those tools to the maximum capacity for the maximum benefit to the learner.
International collaboration of academics and students is needed to proceed the research in seamless learning forward.