Give me a place to stand and I will move the world! Life-long learning in the digital age / Dadme un punto de apoyo y moveré el mundo: el aprendizaje permanente en la era digital

Abstract

Research on ‘digital natives’ indicates that today’s youngsters interact with one another, and the world, in ways that are different from the ways we did growing up. At the same time, ‘millennials’ are not unique in their attempts to cope with so-called twenty-first century skill requirements. Adults too are on a treadmill. They too qualify as life-long learners. This paper stresses the ways today’s learners — and those in charge of their upbringing — navigate, position, p[l]ace themselves in the settings they inhabit, however shortly or permanently. Learning everywhere all the time is not a new idea, especially among progressive educators. Yet its unexamined promotion calls for a pause. To be viable, our schools will be ‘edgeless’ but they cannot be place-less! Students will be connected (online) yet in touch (grounded, centred, sentient). Tools-at-hand may be smart but shouldn’t take over. Lastly, educational institutions will need to rethink their raison d’être within a broader range of initiatives, platforms and programs, all brought to the attention of masses of [lifelong] learners in search of [short-term] options in a sea of fleeting opportunities.