Presented during the RESDAC-CLLN Learning Communities Conference in Ottawa, June 10-12, 2012
This workshop presentation provides an introduction to the concept of learning communities and offers participants some tools for using this approach in their own communities.
Learning communities are defined as places that utilize the resources of all sectors, not just the formal education system, for learning. In such communities, lifelong learning is used as an organizing principle and social/cultural goal.
This document is part of a special issue of “À lire en ligne,” a journal published annually by the Fédération canadienne pour l’alphabétisation en français (FCAF). The author served as guest editor for the 2010 issue, which was devoted exclusively to place-based learning communities.
This document is part of a special issue of “À lire en ligne,” a journal published annually by the Fédération canadienne pour l’alphabétisation en français (FCAF). The author served as guest editor for the 2010 edition, which was devoted exclusively to place-based learning communities.
The author offers a brief history of the world-wide learning communities initiative, starting with a conference sponsored by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) in Gothenburg, Sweden, in 1992. By 2005, an Australian survey of learning cities and towns around the world identified over 300 such initiatives in every continent but Antarctica.
The South Island Learning Community (SILC) Project was carried out between 2005 and 2008 in the Greater Victoria area of British Columbia. The goal of the project was to create and test a model for building community capacity, both individual and organizational, to enhance the development of adult literacy skills through the use of information technology.
The author describes learning cities as being distinguished by their explicit use of the concept of lifelong learning as an organizing principle and as a social and cultural goal.
In this article, the author describes the emergence of a new model of learning communities based upon the concept of lifelong learning as an organizing principle and social goal. He points to three forces driving the move: expanding globalization; increasing use of information and communications technologies; and exploding knowledge, especially in the sciences and technologies.
This article appeared in the 2010 issue of “À lire en ligne,” a journal published annually by the Fédération canadienne pour l’alphabétisation en français (FCAF). The 2010 issue was devoted exclusively to the concept of place-based learning communities, defined as places that utilize the resources of all sectors, not just the formal education system, for learning.
This document is one of a series the author prepared for a special issue of “À lire en ligne,” the annual journal of the Fédération canadienne pour l’alphabétisation en français (FCAF). The issue focused solely on place-based learning communities, defined as places that utilize the resources of all sectors, not just the formal education system, for learning.
