Blogs

A Zero-draft of the Outcome Document for the UN Rio 10+20 Conference on Sustainable Development (June 2012) has been circulated. The Rio 10+20 Conference is a follow up on the 1992 Rio Conference on Sustainable Development and will be significant in showing what has been learnt since the first Rio conference and how far countries are prepared to collaborate in addressing key sustainability issues.

Traditionally Learning Cites and Regions concentrate on the first of the two words, often with the prefix ‘lifelong’ and it is generally acknowledged that the provenance of the term ‘Learning City’ lies within the context of the growth of interest in lifelong learning throughout the world. However, successive projects and interpretations since 1998 have enlarged the scope of a learning city to include concepts not normally associated with formal educational terminology and structures. This paper shows how the span of learning city and region understanding has, in the past 13 years, expanded into many other realms of place-making activity, referencing programmes and projects initiated by the European Commission.

Full paper follows...

I have just received information from Peter Mayo about a new book by Brian Findsen and Marvin Formosa - Lifelong Learning in Later Life : A Handbook on Older Adult Learning* (here on Amazon).

*Selections from the opening chapters are featured below.

The following announcement has been made at the AUCEA website.

Universities Australia recently commissioned consultants to undertake a major study on the public perceptions of Australian Universities. In this request,  the consultants are seeking to ensure they have access to the most relevant literature to inform their work.  Please support this work in any way you are able, in particular by providing the Consultants as soon as possible with any relevant literature and/or studies you are aware of or think will assist their work.

The request

Gerry White’s stimulus paper has given us a useful introduction to the work of the Digital Education Research Network (DERN) in highlighting and disseminating research into the use of digital technologies and media in schools, training, higher education and lifelong learning.  He concentrates most on formal education settings, but he emphasises that ‘the distinction between formal and informal learning has become artificial in a networked world’, and that the there is a ‘convergence of formal and informal learning’ in the face of high levels of use of the internet for educational purpo