Lifelong Learning Contexts
Although the term is widely used in a variety of contexts its meaning is often unclear. A learning approach that can be used to define lifelong learning is heutagogy.
There are several established contexts for lifelong learning beyond traditional "brick and mortar" schooling:
- Home schooling involves learning to learn or the development of informal learning patterns.
- Adult education or the acquisition of formal qualifications or work and leisure skills later in life.
- Continuing education which often describes extension or not-for-credit courses offered by higher education institutions.
- Knowledge work which includes professional development and on-the-job training.
- Personal learning environments or self-directed learning using a range of sources and tools including online applications.
E-learning is available at most colleges and universities or to individuals learning independently. There are even online courses being offered for free by many institutions.
One new (2008 and beyond) expression of lifelong learning is the Massive Open Online Course (a MOOC), in which a teacher or team offers a syllabus and some direction for the participation of hundreds, sometimes thousands, of learners. Most MOOCs do not offer typical "credit" for courses taken, which is why they are interesting and useful examples of lifelong learning.
Read more about this topic: Lifelong Learning
Famous quotes containing the words lifelong, learning and/or contexts:
“If Americans could understand what a painful, searing experience it is when Negro children first begin to realize that the mere color of their skin is to be the source of a lifelong discrimination, it might do more to end our cruelty toward the Negro than all the preaching on justice and equality.”
—Agnes E. Meyer (1887–1970)
““Miss C_____’s father,” says Betty, “had much better have bred his daughter a housewife, and then, mayhap, she might have got her a husband, which with all her fine learning she has not yet been able to do. And no wonder, for what man would be plagued with a slattern?””
—Sarah Fielding (1710–1768)
“The “text” is merely one of the contexts of a piece of literature, its lexical or verbal one, no more or less important than the sociological, psychological, historical, anthropological or generic.”
—Leslie Fiedler (b. 1917)