Lifelong Learning IFIP 3.8 Special Interest Group

1. Lifelong LearningIFIP 3.8 Special Interest Group Mike Kendall Vice Chair IFIP SIG 3.8

2. The concept of LLL • Evolved slowly • Changing requirements of employment • Acquisition of new competencies • Adult access to formal courses in educational institutions • Major political issue – developed and developing world • Differentiates learning from lifelong

3. IFIP TC3 and LLL • Recognition of growing social, political and economic importance of ICT and LLL for all people • Identified that LLL through ICT was a growing area of interest and activity that cut across the work of all TC3 Working Groups • Established LLL Taskforce to develop and to produce an initial response • Position paper published in 2002 • Conference stream in Pori, Finland 2003 with invited papers • Book published in 2004 • Updated position paper • WCCE2005 – LLL stream • Special Interest Group established in 2005 • Membership increasing • Working programme being established • LLL theme focus of TC3 Working Groups • AGORA IFIP Initiative for LLL - April 2006

4. IFIP TC3 Working Groups • 3.1 Informatics and ICT in Secondary Education • 3.2 Informatics and ICT at the level of Higher Education • 3.3 Research on Education Applications of Information Technologies • 3.4 IT-Professional and Vocational Education in Information Technology • 3.5 Distance Learning • 3.6 Information and Communication Technologies in Elementary Education • 3.7 Information Technology in Educational Management 3.8 Special Interest Group Lifelong Learning

5. Defining LLL… a continuous process • Lifelong Learning enables each citizen and worker to adapt to the knowledge based society and actively participate in all spheres of social and economic life, taking control of his or her future. • It looks particularly at the interaction between different ways of acquiring and updating all kinds of abilities, interests, knowledge and qualifications. AGORA IFIP Initiative 2006

6. The scope of LLL • Lifelong Learning is an • Economic issue • Social issue • Civic issue • Cultural issue • Personal issue • ICT issue

7. Some characteristics of LLL • From the cradle to the grave • Informal and organic learning • Satisfies multiple learning needs, styles, groups… • Learner centred • Demand driven • For personal achievement • Ability to achieve in real-life situations • Active participation in learning teams and communities • Citizenship • Just in time • Opportunistic and rich environments • Not necessarily the consequence of teaching • And many more…

8. How should LLL be organised? • Not from a teaching perspective • Not from an institutional perspective • Perspectives • Employment • Social or civic • Personal • Learning teams • Learning communities

9. Consideration of the approach to LLL • Formal learning • Non-formal learning • Societal learning • Informal learning • Institutional based learning • Community based learning • Formally validated and accredited • Self and peer validated and accredited • Self-fulfilling • Performance targets

10. Pedagogical opportunities enhanced by ICT • Authentic learning • Any time anywhere learning • Collaborative learning • Increase in resources and ideas available for learning and teaching including suggestions of approaches to teaching • Sharing and discussing ideas and resources • Ability to publish the artefacts developed through learning • Personalising the content and approach to learning – individuals can select their own preferred learning environment LLL Focus Group, Alseund, 2006

11. LLL Focus Group, Alseund, 2006

12. A tension… is it creative or destructive? Known's Formal Non-formal Informal Societal Citizen Unknowns

13. Some starting points • Informal learning community with family, peers, elders, etc • Formal learning communities asserting their role in the life of the learner • Convergence of formal and informal learning communities provides basis for real lifelong learning • Community based learning is active citizenship and vice versa • Opportunities for ICT to: • Removing traditional barriers • Empower communities to create their own learning • Support communities in knowledge building • Increase access across all sections all societies

14. A LLL challenge • To produce content for excluded groups after seed corn projects that will not revert to philanthropic gestures for particular groups rather than mainstreaming good practice • Inclusion often appears to be something you do to people… what about people themselves leading their own inclusion • ICT can • provide access to new content and learning opportunities • offer opportunities to create new opportunities, locally • reduce barriers between provides of formal and informal learning opportunities • support the blending of informal and learning opportunities • Challenge existing views on what is the product of learning (or education)

15. Progression in community based LLL • Emerging • Discreet donations. Problem-driven. Accidental. • Applying • Seeking donations and grants. Parental and community involvement in ICT. • Infusing • Subject-based learning community providing discrete, occasional assistance, by request. Global and local networked communities. • Transforming • Broad-based learning community actively involved parents and families, business, industry, religious organizations, universities, vocational schools, voluntary organizations. Global and local, real and virtual. School is a learning resource for the community – physically and virtually.

16. In learning communities… • “Hence our experience of learning communities, whether formal, non-formal or informal has changed, hence the spaces and times in which community based learning can take place is also changing. Perhaps one of the advantages of informal learning is that activities are not mapped to a formal learning process or qualifications, and are often motivated by fun, or the sense of achievement that comes from completing a project.” Kendall, 2004

17. The role of ICT • From mass media (TV and radio) • To one-to-one (www) • “one-to-one communications is perhaps the best and most natural basis of effective learning.” Dearnley & Feather 2001 • Changing learning communities

18. The BBC is using its… • “…ability to reach very large numbers of people through its television and radio services …to sell the new opportunities for education …to play a major part in the learning revolution in the 21st century [and] if we don’t, millions could be left without an education, and, as result, without a role and without a future.” Dyke, 1999 • The BBC digital strategy allows people to: • explore • participate • learn

19. The digital divide OECD (2000) • Those denied access to ICT skills and knowledge become less and less capable of participating in the economy and a society that are increasingly technology-dependent. • The laptop on which a community keeps its accounts can be loaned to members for their own learning activities. • Governments are only beginning to understand the that technological literacy can lead to greater political literacy and participation, a possibility which warrants active promotion. • Social participation is essential for the successful development of ICT initiatives in education…

20. For young people (and all peoples) • ICT offers opportunities to belong to, or to observe, many more communities and societies, identifying those that may match their interests and requirements, offering participation and opportunities to change that community and society more widely. • ICT also makes it harder to shape and make sense of your communities; hence it will be essential for teachers to support the learning of young people as they are shaping as well as being shaped by their global and local society Mike Kendall 2004

21. Public policy challenge… • “We need to imagine the building of an education system that is flexible, open to all, independent of age or life conditions: a system that guarantees education as a right for life.” • “We need to think of an open system that incorporates all educational resources in the society, including the media and new communication technologies.” (Machado, 2000)

22. Thank you Mike Kendall mkendall@embc.org.uk