Innovation in lifelong learning

Learning and innovation go hand-in-hand; while learning is characterized by a change in behaviour, innovation involves a change in the thought process. Both imply a change for the better. Today, as information and communication technologies are increasingly part of the educational landscape, new means of accessing, sharing, and collaborating with knowledge have challenged us to reflect how we foster learning and innovation in both formal and informal education.

The 21st issue of the eLearning Papers proposes a broad approach to the theme of innovation in lifelong learning. In addition to looking at how innovation transforms current educational practice, this issue also considers how educational practice can support innovation in the greater socio-economic system, especially within the context of adult education and training.

With a growing amount of technology available, coupled with an increasingly diverse range of learning settings, the roles of educator and pupil are changing. Teachers nowadays do not merely impart knowledge but rather offer informational strategies for learning, guiding pupils in a quest for locating information, questioning it, understanding it and converting it into knowledge. Appropriating the learning environment and curriculum in this manner invites students to begin learning to learn.

By detailing promising advances and, in other instances, critically analysing progress in certain areas, the research presented here looks at our capacity to learn in different circumstances and elucidates the challenges and potential of ICT for improving our ability to develop as lifelong learners.

Today, to be successful, students and professionals need to continually enhance their knowledge and skills in order to address immediate problems, making them participants in a process of continuing vocational and professional development. This issue addresses this reality by looking at new learning strategies and technologies.