A virtual presentation. Prof Fryer challenged:
Thriving in ??Risk?? society ?? Challenges and possibilities for e-enablement
How can eLearning and e-enablment help people navigate their way through a very difference world?
What kind of learning society is emerging ?? what kind of people will we need?
Many references to the UK eLearning Strategy ?? many of the diagrams and quotes in his presentation came from that document.
Presented lots of research to show that there are widening gaps between groups in society regarding who has the skills and capabilities to navigate life in the ??risk society??
Key Message = ??Put The Learner at the Centre of Learning!!!

Notes from Prof Fryer??
Those who live in a learning culture
Learning culture will exist everywhere ?? work, home, school, everywhere
What will learning society be like?
– changes in family structures, roles, aspirations,
– restructuring of work
– people wanting to exercise more choice
– information and knowledge revolution
ref. ??Living at the crossroads?? ?? Bauman, The individualized society, 2001
What is going on in work?
– demand for new skills
– challenges of greater competitiveness
– new technology
– flatter structures
– boundaries between organizations ??fuzzier??
– decline in trade union influence
– inter-generation unemployment and under-employment
– need for workers to be much more flexible
Towards ??Risk Society?? (Ulrich Beck)
– uncertainly
– multiople and contested knowledge
– old structures no longer hold good
– unsustainability
– unreliability
– rules unclear
??Turbo-capitalism?? ?? an age of uncertainlty and insecurity ?? Sigmund Bauman (Postmodernism and its discontents)
Emergent model of learning
– Education to learning
– School ?? everywhere
– Teacher centred to student centred etc
– Move towards a ??constructivist theory of learning??
Key finding form UK study ?? high correlation between level in socio-economic scale and opportunities for learning. This, in the knowledge economy they are aiming to challenge the existing situation where success in the ??risk society?? is limited to those who are already demonstrating learning behaviours.
Fryer??s big focus ?? ??let??s put the learners, their needs and their hopes, aspirations etc at the centre!!!?? Personalised learning.
A framework for what e-enablement offers digital learners
– Email, web access
– Virtual classes
– Self paced ??bite??
– Self paces course
– E mentoring
– Peer-to-peer collaboration
Big problem ?? deepening digital divide
– who has the online skills, access, high levels of engagement? = the well-off, male, European etc.
ref Mossberger et all with seven point test for e-engagement ?? showed that the low income, etc are under-engaged.
In a time of extreme change in society we give learning to people for three reasons
– for making sense of change
– for adapting to change
– for shaping change (not become mere victims of change)
This is what e-enablement must do for citizens
The promise of eLearning ?? to make learning normal
– beyond fear and dread
– based on confidence and self esteem
– promising achievement and progress
– linked to own life??s priorities
– where, when and how you like
– woven into everyday life
– supported by advice and guidance
– driven by new methods of credit and funding