4 - Serendipitous Learning
Last updated: 08 February 2010

Accidental & Serendipitous Learning is when individuals learn without consciously realising it as a result of doing other things(aka incidental or random learning).  Although this kind of learning is not generally of interest to organisations as it can't be identified and measured, individuals often like to take advantage of the possibility of serendipitous learning through social media.

Many are realising the benefits of spending time on Twitter or Facebook as this can yield unexpected and useful results.  Here are some examples:

tscheko writes

"I just spent about 5 minutes on Twitter and pulled out what caught my eye for further investigation." (A few minutes on Twitter yields hours of exploration, Brave new world, 20 January 2010)

Harold Jarche writes:

"Would it be better to 1) take a generic classroom workshop on information management or 2) spend a few hours serendipitously learning on Twitter."  (Social Learning is real, 15 November 2009)

Michelle Gallen, an e-learning consultant from Belfast, Northern Ireland, writes

"I use Twitter for serendipitous learning when I don't know where to go for something to do - it's a lucky bag."  (Michelle Gallen's Top 10 Tools for Learning)

Gregory writes in his blog:

"I’ve learned more from idle blog reading in the years after college as I did in the years I spent sitting in those lecture halls at UCLA."  (Serendipitous Learning, Gregory Go, 25 August 2009)

To what extent serendipitous learning is viewed as an acceptable learning strategy differs, as Jim Gritton points out

"For many people, browsing and surfing .. are perceived as little more than idle, time-wasting activities ...

"There can be little doubt that anything which encourages exploratory behaviour and leads to learning should be encouraged, but whether serendipitous browsing is a sensible or prudent learning strategy is another matter. Like a lottery, the rewards can be high for very little outlay, but the reverse can also be true. Serendipitous browsing does, however, have the potential to reveal connections between ideas that may otherwise go unnoticed, to stimulate ‘out-of-the-box’ thinking, and to challenge our mental models so that new learning can take place. In this regard, serendipitous browsing can lead to serendipitous learning in my view. (Can serendipitous browsing lead to serendipitous, Jim Gritton, Futurelab, September 2007)