VIRTUAL LEARNING ENVIRONMENTS: FORMAL ENVIRONMENTS VS INFORMAL ENVIRONMENTS

Society is constantly evolving and has so many repercussions on a social level as well as within personal and professional life. Information Technology (IT) has an increasing impact, bringing new challenges and paradigms to Education, by combining formal and informal environments in the communication that takes place between teachers and students, as well as between themselves. Nowadays, in education, the use of a an informal communication environment is increasingly verified in parallel with the formal environments already implemented. Teachers present challenges in the Learning Management System (LMS), but give students the freedom to use tools in less formal environments, as long as they meet with the stated objectives. The synergy between these two tools promotes learning environments with a social and interactive presence, one that is able to promote student success in virtual environments. This article presents an exploratory study of the use of platforms to support traditional teaching, such as social networks and LMS, using methods and pedagogical approaches that value the experimentation, discovery, research and integration of knowledge and skills. The purpose of this article is to identify the functionalities of each of the tools that promote the improvement of these environments in both formal and informal learning situations. The methodology used to reach the objective, besides the review of the literature, is based on an exploratory study, using research and interviews.