The Creating Learning Communities Online Resource Center and Network by Claudia L’Amoreaux
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The Creating Learning Communities Online Resource Center is the web companion to the Creating Learning Communities book. The book's original chapters are presented in web-enhanced versions so people can delve more deeply into ideas presented. Authors are adding greater detail to their chapters through the use of hyperlinks, letting people choose particular topics they’d like to explore further. The chapters in Sections I and II present case studies of several Cooperative Community Lifelong Learning Centers (ccl-llcs). Section III offers different perspectives on learning, technology and the Internet. The chapters in Section IV explore the concepts and philosophies that are involved in the design of ccl-llcs and present the necessary changes involved in the evolution of new learning systems. All the authors’ emails are given, so visitors to the site can easily contact authors with whom they’d like to connect.
Mirroring Section V of the book, the resource section offers brief descriptions of community learning centers, and services and materials that support self-directed learning, with contact information and links to websites. We expect this will become a lively and rapidly growing part of the website—it’s an online directory of working Community Learning Centers, Learning Communities and related organizations all over the world. We envision that eventually you’ll be able to search these resources by location and/or type and probably a few other categories we haven’t dreamed of yet.
We’ve added a section for additional chapters so the book can continually evolve, reflecting new developments in the community learning center movement and a broader perspective on models, philosophy and how-to strategies. A Coalition for Self-Learning welcomes contributions. As with the chapters in the Creating Learning Communities book, new contributions are submitted to A Coalition’s members through the LearningCommunities listserv and then are posted on the listserv website where they can be downloaded by members for reading. Submitted chapters are then discussed and reviewed by the learning community members to determine if the subject matters fits with A Coalition’s themes. If yes, the chapter will be added to the New Chapters section of the online book.
Visitors to the online resource center can participate in the Creating Learning Communities Network by joining the "LearningCommunities" discussion list. This is the heart of A Coalition for Self-Learning. The original Cooperative Community Lifelong Learning Centers list (CCL-LLCs) was started in February, '99. Helen Hegener, publisher of Home Education Magazine writes in the first post to the list, "I believe community learning centers are an important step in the ongoing evolution of education, and I also believe they could be a key bridge between the homeschooling community and other forms of public and private education. I'm looking forward to some thoughtful discussion on this list."
Bill Ellis, list facilitator and editor and publisher of the online journal TRANET, A Chronicle of the Emerging Gaian Cultures, writes (2/12/99): "Homeschooling, alternative education, and life-long learning have been one of the areas of TRANET interest for the last 20 years. I have had growing interest in the concept as an example of spontaneous self-organization. And as a model of how the future may be shaped not by the trends of today, but by ‘flapping butterfly wings,’ small unnoticed phenomena that break radically with the status quo…There is no time in the history of humankind that a radical transformation of society was needed, and was happening. I hope this listserv will lead the way."
The original discussion list has now branched into two lists -- "LearningCommunities" and "CCL-LLCs." The "LearningCommunities" list hosts discussion about the future of society, with an emphasis on making the necessary transition from a human-centered to an ecocentric worldview, and from what author Riane Eisler calls a "dominator society" to a "partnership society." The members of A Coalition for Self-Learning call this new paradigm, Gaian, and put it forward as the basis for future life-long learning systems, grounded in evolutionary cultural change. The concepts and philosophy of creating learning communities are explored here in depth, as are the practical concerns and issues. Members exchange stories and experiences about creating model learning centers all over the world (from Denmark to Ukraine to New Zealand to Canada to Mexico and the U.S.). Autodidactics, charter schools, restorative justice, micro-credit, local currencies, and their respective roles in the new learning system are among the wide range of topics explored on the list.
If the "LearningCommunities" list is the heart of A Coalition, the "CCL-LLCs" list is the nerve center. It’s where the day-to-day and ongoing work of the learning community gets done. Here members design and evolve the website, plan events, and strategize for communicating the visions of A Coalition for Self Learning. Both lists are open to anyone. Discussions are archived and accessible through the online resource center.
Individuals and groups wanting to participate in or start learning centers in their communities will find working models for inspiration on the website and ongoing support on the discussion lists. As the online resource center grows, we plan to add photos, progress reports, and interviews, especially with young people involved in these learning centers. Hot discussion threads from the list will be featured as well. The online resource center also serves as A Coalition for Self Learning's media hub for coordinating efforts to let more people know about this powerful model for cultural transformation.
In the future A Coalition for Self Learning plans to host online conferences with individual authors and list members offering dialogues and workshops on specific topics. These and other related events will be announced on the listservs and on the website. Stay tuned! If there are particular topics you’d like to see covered, join the list and let us know your interests.
The Creating Learning Communities Online Resource Center was originally hosted by network member Ib Bang on his website in Denmark. As the project expanded beyond the original book, a small team of A Coalition for Self Learning registered the domain name CreatingLearningCommunities.org and created the current online resource center, hosted by ValleyNet, a Vermont non-profit web hosting service. Four Coalition members now share the role of webmaster. Both discussion lists are hosted on the eGroups ONElist website (originally separate discussion list-hosting websites, eGroups and ONElist merged in February 2000). You’ll find the LearningCommunities list at http:// www.onelist.com/ group/ LearningCommunities and the CCL-LLC list at http:// www.onelist.com/ group/ CCL-LLCs.
The Creating Learning Communities Online Resource Center and Network is difficult to predict—that’s one of its most exciting features. Its future shape will be determined by some of you reading this book. We look forward to meeting you online at http://www.CreatingLearningCommunities.org.
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© Copyright 2000. Claudia L'Amoreaux - All Rights Reserved.
cl@haven.net
http://www.haven.net