Die Strategie für das Lebenslange Lernen ... - EUROlocal

116 NEW LEARNING WORLDS
New Learning Worlds
New learning worlds require innovative forms of study and
learning arrangements. In a changing educational landscape
whose structures and forms focus on Lifelong Learning,
these will differ in many respects from established forms of
teaching and learning. While real rooms such as classrooms,
libraries etc. form a rigid organisational setting for communicative
relationships and processes in traditional learning
worlds, new learning worlds also have a virtual dimension
and allow flexible teaching scenarios which are independent
of time. Organisational, economic, technical, thematic
and educational/didactic problems therefore have to be solved
with a view to creating individualised, self-managed,
modularised and customised forms of learning in different
locations.
Innovations in teaching and learning methods are currently
being driven forward by the opportunities represented by
new media and e-learning. Within just a few years, new
media have become an integral element of knowledge and
skill transfer, particularly in the field of further training and
education, because their various services accommodate the
new needs of students for suitable methods and flexible learning
environments. The workplace as a “new learning
world” is also gaining importance. Even locations previously
only associated with leisure activities are becoming places of
learning. But completely new places of learning are also
emerging, such as self-learning centres – as “fitness centres
of the mind” – which add another dimension to the concept
of learning worlds.
In this context, regional education networks as cooperation
models between different players can introduce particularly
suitable structural prerequisites for the sustainable development
of the “new learning worlds” within the framework of
lifelong learning. Particularly from an economic point of
view, but also in terms of learning quality, small and
medium-sized education suppliers can benefit in networks
from the possibility of combining traditional, new and virtual
learning locations with innovative didactic concepts such
as Blended Learning Approaches according to their requirements
and in a suitable and study-oriented way.
In the self-learning centres, which have emerged within the
framework of the Learning Regions, the possibilities and
requirements of network players are brought together. The
students receive advice and suggestions about further activities
via the network. Other examples, such as how the Learning
Regions develop new learning worlds, concentrate on
cross-border networks of new learning places, intercultural
learning, blended learning and computer-based training.