Canadian Council on Learning | Conseil Canadien sur l'Apprentissage

Announcing a partnership between the 21st Century Learning Initiative (Canada) and the Canadian Council on Learning

Paul Cappon, CCL President and CEO

Sept. 13, 2005
Toronto

Those of you who were with us last evening and this morning will already have developed a sense of the value to us in Canada of a partnership between the 21st Century Learning Initiative and CCL.

For us, the essential question encouraging a joint initiative with the 21st Century Learning Initiative is: how can we systematically harness the integrated thinking and learning which 21st Century Learning Initiative brings for our consideration?

Beyond John Abbott’s crisscrossing the Atlantic to speak to many captivated audiences from Bona Vista to Vancouver Island, are there means by which Canadians might appropriate his methods of enquiry? And if we do, how might we use this inquiry in reference to our particular contexts, challenges and issues? For, as I mentioned yesterday evening, the synthesis in learning provides a set of challenges and a framework, together with some examples of outstanding practices and models; it cannot specify how each society might use it.

Each country must create its own conditions to use the 21st Century Learning Initiative model.

As we have considered the 21st Century Learning Initiative in Canada, then, there are three purposes which drive us to establish an initiative in this country. The first is to make widely available the nature of the enquiry about learning which John Abbott disseminates. This is information of interest to broad Canadian publics, which have a thirst for such perspectives in the context of their own personal lives and that of their society.

Secondly, we wish to take advantage of each of John Abbott’s visits to Canada – to coordinate those visits – to facilitate in-depth exposure of educational leaders to the synthesis which the 21st Century Learning Initiative provides. Their will be supported by a range of supplementary documentation and educational videos from the 21st Century Learning Initiative which will be made available in Canada through the joint initiative.

Thirdly, we will want to engage Canadian educational leaders and a broader public in on-going dialogue about the meaning and the use of this analysis in our particular context. The 21st Century Learning Initiative provides a prism and a framework.

Since it will be up to Canadians to decide how to move forward in using the framework which integrated knowledge provides, we must think about an on-going forum in which such a dialogue may occur.

The purpose, then, of the partnership which we are announcing today is to create a strategic program of work in Canada to ensure that the 21st Century Learning dialogue takes place in all regions of the country – as part of CCL’s commitment to knowledge exchange and the improvement of learning for Canadians; and as a component of our envisioning of the shape and character of a distinct Canadian learning society.

More pragmatically, we must provide a kind of infrastructure for the pan-Canadian learning architecture which is part of the mandate of CCL. With respect to working with the 21st Century Learning Initiative, John Abbott will provide presentations and training sessions for 10 days each Fall and Spring for the next four years.

Spring 2006 activities will take place in Toronto, Fredericton and Vancouver. Subsequent presentations and workshops will be in various regions of Canada.

There are five types of activity linked to the 21st Century Learning Initiative in Canada.

1. Large scale and regional events. These events are to ensure the Initiative is available to a broad audience. It is essential that this type of dialogue occur across sectors involving students, teachers, administrators, policy makers, advocates, NGOs, and the private sector. An example of this type of event is a program we are presenting today.
   
   
2. In-depth workshops. Five days, split into two sessions over a period of 6 months. The workshop format will be a series of presentations and discussion led by John Abbott based on seven modules:
   1. Community as the web of learning.
   2. The biological roots of learning.
   3. Evolving ideas about learning.
   4. The new economies’ impact on learning.
   5. Making connections.
   6. The unfinished revolution.
   7. The challenge for your community.
      
      
3. Instructional videos. In addition to the workshops, CCL is creating instructional videos intended to serve as a supplement to workshops, and a refresher for participants; reference for those who are unable to attend a particular session; and for individual study for those interested in the concepts, but are unable to attend the workshops. There will also be a short overview video, which will serve as an introduction to the Initiative.
   
   
4. Presentations to interested groups such as the corporate sector, provincial governments, federal governments or literacy groups.
   
   
5. Resource centres.
   
   

“The challenge now is for communities to begin building new organizations for learning that handle both the skills of the past, and enable the understanding and coordination of constant change, lifelong learning, diversity, and complexity.”
John Abbott, 21st Century Learning Initiative

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