Pragmatic Challenges of Informal Learning Environments

With the numerous benefits of informal learning environments come large pragmatic constraints that may hinder the success and depth of the learning that the setting was intentionally created to support. If certain pragmatic issues including the type of activity chosen, time constraints, and high demands for facilitation are left to chance, then the learning will also be left to chance. By recognizing these challenges prior to fully designing and implementing a curriculum and its supporting technologies, further control over the environment and its correlating goals may be maintained. We present the pragmatic issues confronted with an after-school informal learning environment aimed at students engaging with chemistry through becoming kitchen scientist. Based on this study, we suggest roles that technology may play in KSI and other similar informal learning environments. Author