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June 21, 1999 ICDE 99 - Panel on Lifelong Learning and New Technologies
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LIFELONG LEARNING IN AN ENVIRONMENT OF
DISTRIBUTED RESOURCES
Jan VisserLearning Development
Institute
http://www.learndev.org
Learning Without Frontiers UNESCO
http://www.unesco.org/ education/lwf/
June 21, 1999 ICDE 99 - Panel on Lifelong Learning and New Technologies
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Major discussion points
Why lifelong learning and what does it mean?
The learning environment as an ecology. Technology, a resource among many in the
learning environment. How do we best use limited resources to
optimize learning?
June 21, 1999 ICDE 99 - Panel on Lifelong Learning and New Technologies
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Major challenges of today’s world
EXPLODING CHANGE
COMPLEXITY
June 21, 1999 ICDE 99 - Panel on Lifelong Learning and New Technologies
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The mind boggles at an exponential curve…
(Koestler, 1967)
Global population patterns from 1600 B.C. to the present Reproduced from Sakaiya, T. (1991). The knowledge-value revolution,or, a history of the future(p.111). New York, NY: Kodansha America, Inc. (Original source: Jean-Noel Biraben.)
June 21, 1999 ICDE 99 - Panel on Lifelong Learning and New Technologies
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Generations and change
A critical point is reached when information and technology become obsolete faster than the approximately 20-year timeframe in which the leadership of one generation is taken over by the next one. “At that juncture the experience of the older generation is no longer all that helpful” (Abraham Pais, 1997).
June 21, 1999 ICDE 99 - Panel on Lifelong Learning and New Technologies
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Learning is more than acquisition of knowledge It is a process. It is disposition to engage in that process. The process is a dialogical one. The social dimension of learning is thus essential. It allows us to engage in constructive interaction
with change. Taking courses is only part of it. It involves the mind and the body. It is a process of continual construction,
deconstruction and reconstruction.
June 21, 1999 ICDE 99 - Panel on Lifelong Learning and New Technologies
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Learning is one
It is unhelpful to stress the distinction between learning in the distance education mode and in face-to-face contexts.
It becomes increasingly irrelevant to try to draw lines between such domains as formal, non-formal and informal learning.
We attend insufficiently to incidental learning as opposed to intended learning.
June 21, 1999 ICDE 99 - Panel on Lifelong Learning and New Technologies
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Lifelong and lifewide learning Learning is pervasive. Learning is lifelong. Learning is essential ingredient of sustainable
human development. However: The creation of the conditions of
learning at societal level tends to concentrate on limited segments of the learning needs: intentional learning in formal settings closed and static learning spaces acquisition paradigm (Sfard, 1998).
June 21, 1999 ICDE 99 - Panel on Lifelong Learning and New Technologies
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Rethinking the learning environment Perspective on learning requires
broadening diversification.
The learning environment requires greater integrity, completeness, and inclusiveness.
Any distance education event must be conceived as an integral component of the learning environment at large.
The learning ecology must reflect different levels of organizational complexity different timeframes different connotations of space.
June 21, 1999 ICDE 99 - Panel on Lifelong Learning and New Technologies
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Learning entities and the learning environmentLearning entities (individuals/communities) live in the learning environment use resources present in the learning
environment are themselves resources that make up the
learning environment behave like complex adaptive systems.
June 21, 1999 ICDE 99 - Panel on Lifelong Learning and New Technologies
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Technologies
Technology is resource in the learning environment.
Technologies must therefore satisfy the same criteria as those discussed for the learning environment as a whole, i.e. they interact with each other interact with human/social components reflect different levels of organizational complexity,
timeframes, and connotations of space.
June 21, 1999 ICDE 99 - Panel on Lifelong Learning and New Technologies
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Learning in a not so networked world
Huge discrepancies across regions and circumstances in availability, accessibility, usability of technologies development of learning.
How do we share in just ways the resources of the global learning environment?
“Providing access” is only minor part of what is at stake.
Tinkering with technology creates a dysfunctional learning environment.
June 21, 1999 ICDE 99 - Panel on Lifelong Learning and New Technologies
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References
Koestler, A. (1989). The ghost in the machine. London, UK: The Penguin Group (Originally published in 1967).
Pais, A. (1997). A Tale of Two Continents. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
Sakaiya, T. (1991). The knowledge-value revolution,or, a history of the future. New York, NY: Kodansha America, Inc.
Sfard, A. (1998). On two metaphors for learning and the dangers of choosing just one. Educational Researcher, 27(2), 4-13.
June 21, 1999 ICDE 99 - Panel on Lifelong Learning and New Technologies
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Use of these slides
Use of these slides In the interest of dialogue and the growth of understanding,
use of these slides is permitted, provided that clear attribution be made to authorship (Jan Visser) and the Learning Development Institute (LDI) <http://www.learndev.org>.
