Haverhill Online Learning Community

The torch is coming!
 (Olympic Torch along Haverhill High Street)

21st Century Learning:  Open, Online and Innovative

Online Learning Communities (OLCs) is a new area of learning experience.  We are all familiar with the traditional role of instructor and student carried out in a classroom.   We all have our own experiences of what worked for us and what did not.  We may have had the elation of receiving a certificate followed by the question what happens next?  Is the learning over?  What if I am still no longer clear about the bits I understood and the bits I did not?  How can I keep in touch?  

The questions may be applied to all stages of life.  Leaving school and entering work or further study, working and growing personally in your chosen area of life, then making the transition into well earned leisure time of retirement all have challenges that  may be helped by community of learners.  The challenge today is that of Life Long Learning.  Online Learning Communities are a way to do this as you pass through the three ages of man.

How can you do this?  I am setting up an Open Learning Community for the Haverhill area.  An Open Online Learning Community.  It is in it's crawling stage at the moment and seeks to appeal to learners from 13 to 99.  I am in discussion with various local Haverhill Groups seeking to establish a 21st Century Learning Community that is both innovative and flexible to move with the vast changes we see happening around us.    A community moulded by and by inspired by it's participants. 

A few scenarios that demonstrate some of the benefits of being involved I have been blogging about in recent months.     

The Everlasting Class:  When did you last speak to your teacher? Did you still have learning questions unanswered on your road to the better lifestyle?

A Personal Reflection on Online Learning Communites:  A personal experience of Life Long Learning within an Open Learning Community

Education in the Third Age:  Ideas on how to keep connected and pass on experiences.

So how to move towards creating a Participatory Learning Community. Some ideas behind establishing the Open Learning Community taken from my own involvement with participating an Online Learning Community (see blogs for details). 

 1.With relatively low barriers to artistic expression and civic engagement2.With strong support for creating and sharing one’s creations with others3.With some type of informal mentorship whereby what is known by the most experienced ispassed along to novices 4.Where members believe that their contributions matter5.Where members feel some degree of social connection with one another (at the least they care what other people think about what they have created).
Not every member must contribute, but all must believe they are free to contribute when ready and that what they contribute will be appropriately valued.

If you would like to express an interest or make a comment visit the Facebook page .  As we gather more interest and other parties become involved the intention is to establish a Haverhill Online Community presence.  Regular updates will be posted