Developing a Commonwealth Centre for Connected Learning: A Case Study in the Wealth of Networks

Abstract

Putting connected learning into practice requires personal commitment and an ability to activate peer-learning networks for the benefit of the individual learner – even at a ‘cost’ to the institution. The CCCL (Commonwealth Centre for Connected Learning) will need to embrace this ideology to mobilise stakeholders - whether these are teachers, learners, families, economic or social partners. It will need to identify opportunities for change programmes in the Commonwealth and the EU and connect and empower participants through lightweight support systems of institutions and experts, aligned in placing the learner at the centre of more inclusive education propositions. The Centre’s founders and its future partners will need to operate as change agents collaborating towards identifiable deliverables while remaining grounded in the knowledge that education legacy sectors mean that change cannot happen overnight. The emphasis on replicable pilots means that individual visionaries, wherever they may be located, must have the propensity to collaborate and act in concert. Role models are successful groups and institutions that are willing to pilot new, thoughtfully designed approaches. Pragmatic, quick wins will secure support from key stakeholder groups if they are replicable; cultural differences easily identifiable; and ‘red-tape’ eliminated at the outset. // Paper ID 487