The challenge for Canadian lifelong learners
today is to move past the narrow ideologies accepted by so many
institutions of higher learning in the ‘90’s, ideologies that too
often focused on limited job-skills training and hyper-efficient
delivery at the expense of individual potential for creating personalized
learning paths in a complex, rapidly-changing society. We now know
that we cannot rely solely on our educational institutions, our
governments, and certainly not “our” corporations, to foster this
potential.
The more personal learning becomes, the fewer
boundaries there are. Since individual priorities change over time
- often quickly responding to shifting socio-economic opportunities
- today’s successful lifelong learners are constantly re-interpreting
their own needs rather than accepting the prescriptions of standardized
training programs.
Canadians
need to be – are becoming – more self-reliant in determining their
own quality of life. eLearning technologies continue to increase
our access to the means by which this constructivist process can
be achieved. Opportunities now exist for sustained social engagement
in every realm of interest and learning. Communities of practice,
learning networks, weblogs and user-driven websites, along with
the growing ease with which information and relevant, timely training
modules are accessed all create a model of self-directed learning
far richer and more satisfying than any educational paradigm has
in the past. A networked society gives all Canadians the capacity
for self-renewal, and our country the potential to re-invent itself
as a nation of free-thinkers, an example to the world.
