Formal to informal learning with IT: research challenges and issues for e-learning

For the purpose of clarity and consistency, the term e-learning is used throughout the paper to refer to technology-enhanced learning and information technology IT in teaching and learning. IT depicts computing and other IT resources. Research into e-learning has changed in focus and breadth over the last four decades as a consequence of changing technologies, and changes in educational policies and practices. Although increasing numbers of young people have access to a wide range of IT technologies during their leisure activities, little is known about this impact on their learning. Much of the research evidence, to date, of students' informal uses of IT is about the frequency of use in different educational settings and the different types of IT uses occurring among learners at school and in the home. There is little evidence of the interrelationship between them.