Designing Vibrant and Purposeful Learning Communities

About

About

A consensus is emerging that education and learning need to become “everyone’s business”, and that the more connected, intertwined and interdependent societies become, the greater the opportunity to leverage our collective efforts to address learning gaps and societal challenges.

Learning ecosystems bring together diverse providers – not only schools and universities but also non-formal learning institutions, private sector organizations, and government institutions – creating new community-based learning opportunities and pathways to success, both for learners of all ages and for communities.

  • This model, however, challenges conventional education hierarchies and decision making.
  • How do learning ecosystems emerge and evolve?
  • What enables or prevents their development?
  • How do they impact a community and to what extent can we measure that?

This is the first of a series of special focus collections that will be released as part of the WISE Learning Ecosystems Living Lab Program launched in 2020.

This collection on designing vibrant and useful learning communities will seek to better understand the potential of place-based learning ecosystems in helping communities address critical education challenges and meet societal goals such as resilience and sustainability.

Find out more in articles highlighted below

Article
Learning Ecosystems and Leadership

Learning Ecosystems – Designing Vibrant and Purposeful Learning Communities

In the past months, the notion of “learning anytime, anywhere” turned into an everyday reality for millions of learners who found themselves locked out of schools and universities due to the coronavirus pandemic. This global crisis also made the world realize that effective learning doesn’t only happen in schools. In fact, it relies on an […]

December 15, 2020
Sébastien Turbot
Article
Learning Ecosystems and Leadership

The Future of Learning is in Your Community

We tend to believe that teachers are responsible for children’s learning with strong support from parents. Teachers and parents are essential, but since Bronfenbrenner introduced the Ecological Systems Theory to explain how the inherent qualities of children and their environments interact to influence how they grow and develop, we have known that children’s development and learning is […]

December 15, 2020
Bo Stjerne Thomsen
Article
Learning Ecosystems and Leadership

Everyone a Changemaker Ecosystems: a new framework for the growing up years

Over 300 years, human society has been moving toward a new reality: where everything is changing with greater speed and is becoming more deeply interconnected. With this, comes a risk of a new divide between those who cannot adapt to change and those who do have this ability. This evolution poses the question: how can […]

December 15, 2020
Diana Wells - Flavio Bassi
Article
Learning Ecosystems and Leadership

How John Dewey got his first job—and why it matters for the future of learning ecosystems

A school community is a precious and fragile ecosystem. Teachers and leaders must constantly perform a balancing act: build a healthy school-wide climate and culture, while also attempting to cater to each individual students’ academic strengths and needs. These twin values—of community and individual—have been around since the dawn of the Progressive Education Movement itself. […]

December 15, 2020
Julia Freeland
Article
Learning Ecosystems and Leadership

Cities as Learning Opportunities

In a world where sustainable growth is the ultimate lever or hack to being in the big lists, cities have begun to recognize the importance of education & learning as one of their top priorities. The value of Human Capital over Financial Capital has never been more evident for cities that want to stand the […]

December 15, 2020
Akshay Chaturvedi
Research Studies
Learning Ecosystems and Leadership

Managing Innovation Environments and Ecosystems Capacity-Building Initiatives in Latin America

In 2016, the International Association of Science Parks and Areas of Innovation (IASP) adopted the concept of “Areas of Innovation” as places that bring together infrastructural, technological, institutional and cultural facilities that attract entrepreneurially-minded people who have new ideas and capital and are focused on innovation and enhancing the development of the knowledge society. This […]

December 15, 2020
David Julien
Article
Learning Ecosystems and Leadership

Reclaiming the Learning City: Mobilizing Every-day and Expansive Learning for Urban Transformation

  Cities are at the forefront of humanity’s responses to widespread and disruptive change. Within fifty years they will be home to over 50% of the world’s population. How cities respond to a warming climate, whether they enable transition to low carbon communities or continue to extract and exploit natural resources, how they relate to […]

December 15, 2020
Helen Manchester - Keri Facer
Article
Learning Ecosystems and Leadership

Learning Ecosystem of Medellin

Medellín is a Colombian municipality, capital of the state of Antioquia. It is the second-most populous city in the country. The municipality is territorially organized in 6 geographical areas, which are made up of 16 Communes (275 official urban neighborhoods) and 5 Townships. With a population of 2,550,000 inhabitants, Medellín has a territorial extension of […]

December 14, 2020
Alexandra Agudelo
Article
Learning Ecosystems and Leadership

Planning a City as a Living Lab for Learning

With the rise of developments in old cities and new cities, an emerging trend of maximizing the benefits of such developments at multiple levels includes economic, social, security, safety, and other benefits. Although this might not be a top priority for developers, one key element that should be considered when planning new developments is to […]

December 14, 2020
Alexandra Agudelo
Article
Learning Ecosystems and Leadership

A Letter to School Leaders

Dear School Leaders, I hope this letter finds you well in this challenging time we are all living. First of all, we want to recognize you and the entire school community for the amazing efforts displayed to keep the learning going through this pandemic. The COVID-19 pandemic has turned into a global crisis with holistic […]

December 14, 2020
Jordi Diaz - Alan Daly

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