Blogging for Informal Learning: Analyzing Bloggers' Perceptions Using Learning Perspective

This study defines a blog as a contemporary web-based environment that can make a difference in adult informal learning practice. An online survey with 70 adult bloggers in Korea was undertaken to understand the nature of adults’ blogging and its meanings in terms of learning. This study investigates (a) adults’ blogging experiences related to learning, (b) bloggers’ perceptions of the usefulness of blogging in terms of four perspectives on learning processes (i.e., learning as an acquisition process, a reflection process, a practice-based community process, and an embodied co-emergent process), and (c) the link between adult informal learning and blogging. The findings show that the majority of participants became aware of positive changes, including learning experiences, in everyday life after blogging. Among the four perspectives on learning processes, bloggers perceived blogging mainly as acquisition and/or reflection oriented learning process. Also, adult bloggers identified the characteristics of learning through blogging as ‘self-directed,’ ‘practical,’ ‘situative,’ ‘unlimited and accessible,’ and ‘self-regulated,’ which are distinguished from those of formal education in schools. This study therefore implies that the blog can be a meaningful learning environment and the blogging can be a significant factor in having the informal learning for adults more enriched and fulfilled.