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“It’s not enough to simply live your life and hope the learning comes along. You must go out there proactively and structure that teaching and embed it in a deeper way.”
To many in the education field, Sir John Daniel's name has become synonymous with lifelong learning. Over his nearly five-decade career he has been the Assistant Director-General for Education at UNESCO, held posts at more than a half-dozen universities in Canada and Europe (including the presidency of Laurentian University), and is currently the president and CEO of the Commonwealth of Learning, a Vancouver-based organization that promotes technology as a way of boosting educational opportunities for developing countries. His tireless commitment to improving the state of learning around the globe, particularly in the fields of open and distance learning, has earned the British-born Daniel 30 honorary doctorates, fellowships and professorships from universities and professional bodies in 16 countries over the years—not to mention a knighthood from Queen Elizabeth II in 1994.
But despite his reputation in the upper realms of higher learning, Daniels is quick to admit that university can only teach you so much. According to him, there’s still a lot to be learned by simply remaining curious, imaginative and open to learning opportunities.
“I can’t really imagine not being a lifelong learner, because the fact is I’m rather curious by nature,” he says. “I believe it is helpful to know something about the theoretical underpinnings of a discipline before you dive into a new area.”
Daniel, who is generous with his life stories, is quick to point out that his perspective on learning has been shaped by his experiences as a lifelong student as much as by his teaching and career credentials. In fact, his openness to new ideas is largely responsible for a critical career shift that ended up shaping the rest of his adult life.
As a youth in England, Daniel's chief goal was to become a metallurgical engineer and then devote the remainder of his working life to teaching metallurgy at the post-secondary level. The former, he did. The latter, he never quite got around to.
After receiving his undergraduate degree at Oxford and a PhD in metallurgical engineering from the Université de Paris in the late 1960s, Daniel accepted an unexpected teaching position at the University of Montreal. At some point, it occurred to the young professor that in order to be an effective teacher he needed to know more about the taxonomy (or the technique behind) education.
The position led to his enrolment in a Master’s program in educational technology at Sir George Williams University (now Montreal's Concordia University), and an internship at The Open University; the only university in the United Kingdom that is dedicated to distance learning. What Daniel witnessed there led to his conversion.
“What I saw astonished me. There was a terrific level of dedication and idealism because the institution embraced people who for many reasons would be unable to attend conventional universities.”
During his time there, Daniel learned how educational technology—such as the use of non-traditional media—can enhance students’ access to information and curricula; a concept that was literally years before its time.
“I realized that this educational idea represented the future of learning—and that I wanted to be a part of it.”
Shortly after returning to Montreal in the early 1970s, Daniel heard about a group of enthusiastic educators who were in the process of creating Québec’s answer to The Open University: the Télé-université. In short order, he signed on as the Directeur des Études (or Superintendent) at the fledgling university and has never looked back since.
Open and distance learning eliminate educational barriers such as university prerequisites, distance issues and problems that arise when students cannot attend university during regular school hours.
“They increase access to education,” says Daniel. “Open and distance universities embrace those people who for many reasons would be unable to earn post-secondary degrees.”
“So this master’s program which was supposed to have supported my work as a metallurgical engineering academic, led to a completely unrelated field," he recalls. "If I had not taken the courses my life would look very different today.”
In a way, the recognition Daniel has received as an educational innovator is incidental. He stresses that he has never been one who believed in plotting out a career path in order to accomplish a series of ambitious goals. Rather, his success has largely stemmed from his general interest in lifelong learning and his openness to embrace new opportunities—even if they don't specifically “advance” his career.
Some of these moves include, a departure from a teaching position at the well-respected University of Montreal to work at the intriguing yet highly-experimental Télé-université; exiting the comfortable bustle of Montreal to become President of Laurentian University in the Northern Ontario mining town of Sudbury; and, most recently, leaving his position at UNESCO in 2004 to take the reins of the relatively diminutive Commonwealth of Learning.
“Every time I’ve left one job for another, the people I was leaving behind thought I was stark raving mad," Daniels says. "To move from these solid positions to try out flaky new ideas was considered very odd and not at all career oriented—but I don’t regret a single move. The point is that one thing leads to another. The opportunities I’ve had, have come about because I was open to possibilities and to continuous learning.”
It's because of this that Daniel insists of enrolling in courses at every university where he's worked. His decision is based on the belief that to study is the best way to learn how well—or how poorly—an institution of higher learning functions.
The courses he’s taken have given Daniel a distinct advantage as his career has meandered about the field of educational technology and open and distance learning.
When Daniel joined UNESCO, for example, he could have learned the essentials of international development fairly quickly through mere osmosis. Instead, he took a course at The Open University to learn about the key authors and trends in the field.
As Daniel puts it, “There is a huge advantage in doing something to formalize your learning whatever that learning is.” In fact, he takes exception to the adage “live and learn”. It’s too passive an approach for Daniel. He prefers the UK Open University’s motto: “learn and live.”