Can serendipitous browsing lead to serendipitous learning?
Jim Gritton, GB Learning Consultancy Have you ever found yourself aimlessly browsing the web only to stumble across something of value that you weren’t actually looking for? I call this serendipitous browsing: it acknowledges the fact that the search for knowledge may occur by chance, or as a by-product of the main task. For example, a search for information may launch the user on a tangent that ends up being more productive than the original search query. Whilst many people support the contention that the internet challenges existing pedagogical paradigms, few people seem to have given serious thought to the possibility that real learning may occur as a result of aimless browsing. For many people, browsing and surfing (for the purposes of this article I shall treat both terms as synonyms) are perceived as little more than idle, time-wasting activities, as recent reports of widespread ‘wilfing’ (what was I looking for?) in the UK have suggested. This article aims to kindle debate about
