Digital Portfolio
The Digital Portfolio and the different type of learning
The Digital Portfolio is a specific tool developed to support the identification and valorisation of informal and non formal learning. It arises from the need to show a new conception of learning that is much more complex than in the past.
Learning is considered as a part of the human behaviour linked to the different situations to which all people take part.
There are three different types of learning relation to the contexts in which the learning takes place: formal, non formal, informal.
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Formal learning takes place in specific institutional contexts and, regarding its contents, it refers primarily to disciplines (e.g. School).
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Non formal learning is intentional, based on a free choice made by an individual (in cooperation with the person responsible for his/her training). It refers to specific activities (e.g. learning how to dance or to play an instrument); the knowledge acquired is mainly connected to an action - implying an aim - and its results are easily visible and recognisable (the person becomes skilled to do something that initially was not skill to do, by committing him/her self).
- Informal learning results from daily life activities and from activities related to work, since it is intrinsically connected to the participation in situations in which an individual feels him/her self completely involved and of which understands the reason: this is what normally happens when human beings act. The contents of informal learning are not systemised nor organised: essential characteristics are that knowledge is connected to tailored actions, and to the solution of problems.
