In-Between Learning

Most of what we have learned in life, we haven’t learned in formal settings but through a variety of experiences, mostly random ones while playing with friends, meeting a stranger or stumbling on a book. This informal environment, however, has changed dramatically in recent years, as did its effect on learning processes. The project aimed to learn about the same learning processes in informal digital environments and AI’s impact within those environments, with a focus on youth. The research included a literature review and contextual learning on learning, combining learning technologies and various related design practices, alongside field research that included in-depth interviews with experts and users and making various prototypes to arrive at a product concept. The project focused on reflection and sought to explore how it can be amplified within digital environments in order to empower learning opportunities. The product is a concept of a service called Folded, which uses advertising real estate across digital environments and offers the user reflective windows designed to enhance the learning that can be generated from digital environments. Beyond creating the concept, the project reexamined the effect of the growing digital presence in teenagers’ life from a less critical standpoint, in order to develop tools that will preserve its positive qualities.