Towards Glocal Learning Communities
The phrase “Think Globally, Act Locally” is most often used in relation to environmental issues. We should consider the entire planet and take action in our own community. When applied to education, the phrase could mean attempt to act locally to increase local understanding on local issue in relation to, and by using access to global knowledge.
The expansion of digital information and communication technologies (ICT) providing seamless and always available access to large sum of human knowledge is challenging, not only our educational systems, but the whole epistemology on what most of them are based on. The euro-centric educational thinking relies on the importance to master reading and writing, basic math (calculation) as well as memorization of facts and procedures. These skills were crucial in the industrial society, global trade and politics of the time.
A New Approach is Needed
When approaching these skills from the point of view of learning theories — that includes classical conditioning and mechanical route memorizing but also processes of meaning making, creativity and achieving skills to create new knowledge — we may see that they do not reach far. Someone with the basic skills of reading, writing, basic math and ability to follow rules, may today complete our educational system. The requirement to understand or to create something new is very weakly in-build to the contemporary systems.
The conception of learning as memorization of facts and procedures is living strong in our educational thinking and system. The two main supporters of this simplified conception of learning are the industry producing mass products for consumer society and the military organizations training millions of individuals around the world. In both cases the aim is to train people to behave as reliable pieces of the system.
Knowledge is situated in the time and place where it is generated, modified, and exploited. In this way knowledge is local. We learn in time and place where we are collaborating with other people. Just like knowledge is local, so should be learning. If we are interested in to have citizens with higher mental abilities, meaning making skills, critical thinking skills and creativity we should let people to focus primary to and build on their local environment.
Unfortunately in education we too often pay most of our attention to such issues as curriculum, learning content, standards, management of learning and assessment. In education the focus should be on building communities, offering people spaces and facilitating their advances in the community’s area of interests.
Glocal Learning Communities
In Glocal Learning Communities digital ICT can be a powerful tool. The communities can build local wikis — a knowledge repositories on topics that are relevant and important for the local people. They may also have services in “the cloud” that will help people to find other people who are interested in to study same topics (the P2PU and Wikiversity style). The seamless, always on access to the Internet will provide content to discuss about.
What can do to advantage the founding of glocal learning communities? We should promote use of native languages and production of all kind of digital educational content from encyclopedias to documentary films in these languages. Provide affordable on-demand access to the services and the content with mobile Internet and mobile phones. A local library with free internet access would also be useful.
We could educated teachers to facilitate glocal learning communities. We could promote culture of open dialogue that tolerate critics, values transparency and respects individuals. Glocal learning communities will not only contribute to people knowledge and skills but will enhance respect for human rights.
I do not have time today for a detailed response, but you should be aware that local content and discovery are essential parts of the One Laptop Per Child/Sugar Labs approach to education. Just as examples,
* OLPC XOs have built in video cameras. We want to encourage children to record their cultures and environments.
* It is (or should be) obvious that local content is needed in health, agriculture, art, music, history, geography, literature, and much more.
* I have suggested that teachers assign classes to write or rewrite Wikipedia articles in their own languages or in languages that they are studying, beginning with local topics where foreigners do not have sufficient knowledge and experience.
There is far more of this, of course.
Hi Teemu,
Many of the issues you are presenting are already in use. What is more important is to help the education skip the laptop and computer use and go directly into smart phones. They already use the free and open source materials, and apps available for they local needs – at least in many places pf Africa. In my understanding your vision is very European centred.
Best
Merja B.
The site is called "educational technology debate". So, I'll try to debate. 🙂
Mokurai wrote: "local content and discovery are essential parts of the One Laptop Per Child/Sugar Labs approach to education."
Local content and "do it yourself" content are central in the OLPC/Sugar design philosophy. On the other hand the investments to localize / translate OLPC/Sugar UI, for instance, to african languages have been if not nonexistent at least imperceptible. I have a question: in how many local African languages the OLPC / Sugar is available?
Still, I think the OLPC/Sugar approach is better than in majority of educational technology projects where the question of local languages and local content is actively ignored.
Mokurai wrote: "It is (or should be) obvious that local content is needed in health, agriculture, art, music, history, geography, literature, and much more."
It is obvious, I agree. My question is why we are still missing it? Why we do not have health, agriculture, art etc. content in the Web in native African languages? The Wikipedia is multilingual, so the technical platform is in place. What is need is a little push to get this done.
Mokurai wrote: "I have suggested that teachers assign classes to write or rewrite Wikipedia articles in their own languages or in languages that they are studying, beginning with local topics where foreigners do not have sufficient knowledge and experience."
This is a good practice and should be widely taken in use.
Merja: "Many of the issues you are presenting are already in use."
I do not think so. Creation and distribution of digital educational content in languages the majority of people in the world speak as their first language is minimal. More people are getting on-line access because of mobile networks and phones, but this does not provide access to relevant local educational content. The popularity of social network services are helping in this, but as large part of the use in them is links to other content, the lack of local content is an issue in there, too.
I also do not see in teacher training a great paradigm shift from teaching to facilitation of local learning communities. To say that in the majority of the world there is a culture of open dialogue that tolerate critics, values transparency and respects individuals would simply be stupid, or in its best badly informed, opinion.
Merja, seriously, the issues I am presenting are not in use – unfortunately.
Merja: "What is more important is to help the education skip the laptop and computer use and go directly into smart phones."
To enhance local content production we actually need laptops (keyboards). The mobile network is great and so are mobile smart phones for many purposes. What they are not good at is writing. Even in the times of rich media content, for educational content production, writing is a necessity.
Merja: "They already use the free and open source materials, and apps available for they local needs – at least in many places pf Africa.
No. Most of the smart phone industry is driving away from the open Web – the world of open source, open standards and open content. The "apps ecosystem" is an example of it: in it, for an example, I do not own the ebooks anymore, but just rent time to read them. This way I can not, for instance, borrow, sell or give away my ebooks for my friends of children. That is not good.
Merja: "In my understanding your vision is very European centred."
That claim would require a bit more explanation. As a such I consider it nonsense. (this is a provocative comment to generate debate) 🙂
– Teemu
I think we should first and foremost try to succeed using ICT in Education before becoming too ambitious.
Right now practically everywhere it is still blackboard and chalk "technology". When we start to talking about Internet resources, Wikipedia , mobile tech etc etc , it really is not going to work.
We believe we should start to first use ICT in a simple way. Empower the teachers to create their own contents and graduate from blackboard to digital enabled. … Do this first . Then we can talk about OLPC where the students will have computers of their own in classes. Many failed to observe this and went directly to OLPC children centered directions and true enough most do not last.
Look even in deveoped countries most teachers are still blackboard based. LOL