Global Development

A Summary Statement

The Higher Colleges of Technology are meeting identified manpower needs of the business and industrial communities of the UAE. The graduates are competent in the use of the English language and they possess the necessary computer and scientific skills for the technology-driven times we now face. They are often referred to as the graduates of choice by the region's employers. Continuous emphasis on quality and relevance has provided a variety of program offerings which attempts to meet increasing and ever changing requirements. The system's focus on quality and its measurement has kept the HCT as a leading institution in the Gulf region and the unwavering leadership of HE Sheikh Nahayan Mabarak al Nahayan with his commitment to building a world class

institution has given the UAE a place of reputation in the post secondary systems in the world today. Originally of Canadian roots, this system has taken the best from the developed countries of the world. It has hired faculty and managers from these countries and benchmarked against their programs. This has led to a success of which the UAE can be very proud today.

References:

1. 
   UNESCO Statistical Yearbook, 1997
   
2. 
   Al-Sulayti, Hamad, "Education and Training in GCC Countries: Some issues of Concern" p275, Education and the Arab World-Challenges of the Next Millennium, ECSSR, 1999.
   
3. 
   Higher Colleges of Technology - Student Enrollment Overall Summary to Date: http://mis.hct.ac.ae/css/csasnew/stats/enrltodt.htm
   
4. 
   E-ducation without Borders conference website,
   

http://www.e-ducation2005.com

5. 
   e-Merging e-Learning Conference website, http://eMerqirlq-eLearning.com/
   
6. 
   Rutland, Peter and Davison, Trevor "The HCT Learning Model",
   

http://mis.hct.ac.ae/ied/insteffec/IEDwebsite/learningmodel.pdf

7. 
   Al Nahayan, Nahayan Mabarak, Higher Colleges of Technology 2002 Conference, http://crm.hct.ac.ae/events/archive/2002/chancellor2OO2.htm
   

MOVING FROM A CAMPUS CENTERED ENVIRONMENT TO A LEARNING VILLAGE

By Coen Free

I The Education System in the Netherlands
Primary and secondary education

Children are allowed to begin school at the age of four, but are not legally requires to do so until the age of five. Primary education lasts eight years of which seven are compulsory, in the last year pupils are advised as to the type of secondary education they should pursue.

Secondary education, which begins at the age of 12, compulsory until the age of 16, is offered at several levels. Four years programmes combine general and vocational education, after which pupils can continue in senior secondary vocational education and training (MBO). Beside that there are five years programmes and six years programmes. These two programmes of general education grant admission to higher education. Pupils are enrolled according to their ability, to these selective types of secondary education. The six years curriculum prepares pupils for the university; the five years curriculum for the university of professional education.
Senior secondary vocational education and training

Senior secondary vocational education and training (VET in English and MBO in Dutch) is offered in the areas of economics, technology, health, personal care, hospitality, welfare and agriculture. VET programmes vary in length from one to four years as well in level (1 to 4). Graduates of four and five years programmes are eligible for admission to VET, Level 4 of MBO programmes qualifies students for access to the university of professional education. You can compare these colleges of senior secondary vocational education and training with the British Colleges of Further and Higher Education.

Higher Education

Higher education in the Netherlands is offered at two types of institution: research universities and universities of professional education. Research universities include general universities, universities specializing in engineering and agriculture, and the Open University. Research universities are primarily responsible for offering research-oriented programmes. Universities of professional education include general institutions as well as institutions specializing in a specific field such as agriculture, fine and performing arts, or teacher training. Universities of professional education are primarily responsible for offering programmes of higher professional education, which prepare students for particular professions. These tend to be more practically oriented than programmes offered by research universities.

KONING WILLEM I COLLEGE
The Koning Willem I College is one of 46 Colleges of Further Education in the Netherlands. Because the Netherlands has national teaching and curriculum standards and diplomas, there is great similarity in terms of the programs, structure and organization of the 46 colleges. With regard to the Dutch situation it is therefore sufficient to describe one college.

The most interesting is the Koning Willem I College in ’s-Hertogenbosch, a city in the south of the Netherlands, halfway between Amsterdam and Brussels. It is the only college with a campus.

The Koning Willem I College is generally recognized as the only Dutch Community College and as one of the best and most innovative colleges in the Netherlands. Among other things it is the founder of ‘School voor de Toekomst’ [School for the Future], founding member and base of the Dutch Consortium for Innovation, a sister organization of the League for Innovation, and founding member of the European Federation for Open and Distance Learning. Another interesting feature is the composition of the organization: a K-12 school with 400 pupils; a High School with 1000 students; a College with 20,000 enrolled students. The College is playing a leading role in the redesign of the European and Dutch education system.
II NECESSITY AND OBLIGATION TO CHANGE
Revolutionary

Change is a fact of life, as is innovation. A number of unique and defining revolutionary ‘moments’ can be identified in our centuries-old history. Take, for example, the invention of the printing press in 1450, which led to the Renaissance, and the concepts of Enlightenment, which led to the Industrial Revolution in 1760. Today, at the beginning of the 21st century, we are also at a juncture in which similar changes are in store for us, some of which are already in progress. Our society is under great pressure as a result of globalization, technological developments and changing competitive relationships between the US, Europe and Asia. Old values, standards and certainties can no longer be taken for granted. Society is constantly evolving. All kinds of familiar systems seem to be coming to the end of their lifecycle. National borders are fading. Governments are working on new laws and regulations. Social and cultural differences lead to a lot of tension, relationships in and with companies are not what they once were. Young people follow fast-paced technological developments closely, use all kinds of new technologies quickly and creatively and feel right at home in the digital age. Many changes are related, sometimes enhancing and sometimes counteracting each other.

Ambitions of the European Union

The generation of young people growing up in this day and age live a very different life than the generations before them; they are stimulated differently, they interpret things differently, and they are engaged in society differently. Today’s generation wants to make its own choices, chart its own course in life and choose its own direction in education, often with its own standards and values.

European vocational education is very close to society and the employment market. Striking changes and shifts in these areas have a significant and immediate effect on vocational education. Therefore the European government has decided to introduce major innovations in European vocational education, the effectiveness and quality of which are under urgent pressure, particularly when compared to elsewhere in the world.

Ambitions of the Netherlands

The redesign certainly isn’t only about an exclusive, internal education process. In essence it is about enabling vocational education to make effective and dynamic links with movements in the outside world. Besides product and process innovation, i.e. innovation of content and didactics (what and how do we teach learners?), innovation in educational theory (how do we deal with learners?) and innovation in educational psychology (how do people learn?), it is also about system innovation, e.g. innovations through which the parties involved can achieve fundamentally different relationships and structures.

In effect the ‘Herontwerp MBO’ [redesign for upper secondary vocational education] is about creating completely new vocational courses based on a number of government and societal ambitions. These ambitions are:

1. 
   Introducing a completely new, competence-oriented qualification structure.
   
2. 
   Introducing new educational concepts centered on learning and developing competences.
   
3. 
   Realizing flexible and demand-oriented upper secondary vocational education, which fits seamlessly and is able to evolve with the regional employment market.
   
4. 
   Creating a strong learning environment in which the student’s career is at the forefront.
   
5. 
   Significantly reducing the number of dropouts and stimulating social inclusion.
   
6. 
   Stimulating the transfer from VMBO (preparatory secondary vocational education) to MBO (senior secondary vocational education) and to universities of professional education.
   
7. 
   Colleges must opt for and work on new educational and advisory concepts, with an emphasis on the educational psychology of social constructivism, as related to problem-based, project-based and task-based learning. The possibilities offered by e-learning should be utilized increasingly.
   

Critical success factors

Personnel are a major critical success factor in this radical renewal of upper secondary vocational education. Organizations are formed by the people who work in them. They ‘create’ the organization again each day, enable it to operate and implement small and large changes. There are inventors and helpers, pioneers and inhibitors, followers and faultfinders. Naturally this colorful palette creates tension. What does this mean for the Redesign in practice?

The human and cultural side of the Redesign require a lot of attention. Staff members need to learn to work in and with new, demand-oriented teaching concepts, which not only fit with the dynamics of professional life, with a dynamic youth culture and difficult target groups, but which also constantly inspire young people to pursue mastery learning, i.e. a healthy desire to perform and to succeed at the highest possible level. Teachers have a very urgent and important role in this. They must serve as professional role models of attitude, of a high degree of expertise and of excellent professional skills (comparable to the traditional master-journeyman-apprentice system). Furthermore, there must be a shift towards wanting and being able to bear responsibility for results, as an individual and as a team. It also involves a shift from vertical department orientation to college orientation, with a great deal of attention for knowledge sharing and horizontal synergy. Finally, there must be a shift from internal to external orientation. In the new system, education and the business community are no longer separate quantities, but are instead complementary to each other.

The Redesign is about a strong College in a strong region. Intensive and effective regional cooperation between the College and all social-economic parties is needed to achieve this. Strategic alliances and covenants are important tools for realizing and safeguarding the regional embedding of a College. In that context it is important that schools take an entrepreneurial approach and develop into social businesses.

The 10 Commandments for the Ideal College

(In accordance with the instructions of the European and Dutch governments)

1. 
   The College functions like a community college, which can and wants to prevent a split in society, by offering effective learning paths in the area of senior secondary (and higher) vocational education and general secondary education for adults, for everyone aged 16 and up, for all social classes and for all racial groups. It also teaches students to function as good citizens in society.
   
2. 
   The College has emerged as a quality conscious college by and for the region, as a real community of learners, where the learners (students and staff) learn together, not for the diploma, but for life. It is characterized by its professional culture, in which educational innovation can bud time and again. It is appealing and stands for innovation, vitality and creativity. The learning paths are individually oriented, attractive, challenging and bring enjoyment to learning and working. There are hardly any dropouts.
   
3. 
   The College envisions a sustainable society and has found a good balance between social, economic and ecological values.
   
4. 
   The College is the axis of ongoing regional, societal and economic renewal.
   
5. 
   The College provides effective learning paths that aim to give students a strong starting position in the employment market as excellent professionals.
   
6. 
   The College educates junior bachelors, young people who can easily move up in higher education. This takes place at a large and constantly growing volume.
   
7. 
   The College provides programs for the associate’s degree in cooperation with higher education.
   
8. 
   The College makes and keeps people socially and economically employable by providing efficient and effective customized learning paths in the areas of integration and reintegration, refresher training, further training and retraining.
   
9. 
   The College contributes to innovation in companies, thanks to well prepared students, who are equipped with the necessary knowledge of languages, technological knowledge, creativity, thinking skills, active skills and the right professional attitude.
   
10. 
    The College acts as a breeding ground for (self-employed) entrepreneurs, who have turned their attention to the world, who have learned to deal with risk and who have learned how to capitalize on their knowledge and skills in the market.
    

In Short

Compared to the 20th century, we can say that the concept of knowledge is changing. And when the concept of knowledge changes, so do the concepts of school, student and teacher.

Technologies are succeeding each other rapidly. This is leading to a flood of information. Learning to find your way in new and ever-expanding fields of knowledge is far more important than memorizing as many facts as possible or being able to monotonously repeat job-specific procedures. The new concept of learning is characterized by the transition from and passive consumption of teaching to active forms of learning.

The innovative use of technology and plugging into the learning skills and learning style of the Internet generation will have a huge influence on the didactics, the educational theory, the content and the structure of education. The school as an institute and as an organization will also have to be redesigned.

The conventional school organization organized all kinds of things, but this did not include the participant’s learning needs. The career of students in the Dutch education system is characterized by repeatedly overcoming the barriers placed before them. The barriers are the exams and exit qualifications which students keep having to pass after a certain period. Instead of development, the focus of Dutch education is on achieving a boundary. From that perspective a College does not yet offer effective and efficient career development. Placing the student’s career and the introduction of competence-developing learning at the forefront has a major influence on the overall organization. It requires a completely different management and direction. Learning processes and guidance should be customized as much as possible. Flexible education demands flexible management. You can only offer students customization if this is supported by the structure and the underlying processes. This requires a great deal of attention for synergy and cross linking in the organization. Services, project agencies and departments cannot and may no longer operate according to an island structure with strictly separated and monitored boundaries. Management must be based on constant change, on external focus and on results. This also has an affect on the organization financially. Therefore there is a great need for systems and indicators to continually test innovations and quality. In short: the Redesign affects the whole operation, in terms of structure, staff, accommodation, finances, ICT and, last but not least, quality assurance.

All of this requires courageous decisions, separated from opportunism, self-interest and party politics. The countries that will flourish in the 21st century and offer their citizens a dignified existence are the countries that adapt their education systems to the placeless and timeless society. Not continuing to build on old concepts, but based on a totally new situation.

III STRATEGY
What can a school organization offer to hold onto in these turbulent times? The answer is: a clear innovation strategy. Because there is no way back. School organizations that do not stop to think about the future now will be left standing on the wrong platform, waiting for the wrong train, with only the past to hold onto. A strong, realistic and challenging innovation strategy that responds to the demands of a rapidly changing society also stimulates and excites parties interested in the school organization. The school can then emerge as an identifiable 21st century learning/working environment and a valued partner in knowledge creation for the region. That is the position in society to which a College should aspire. Koning Willem I College calls its innovation strategy:

The Learning Village.

IV THE LEARNING VILLAGE
From Diploma Factory to Learning Village

“The Dutch prefer to remain villagers.” This was the conclusion of a major survey conducted in the Netherlands on the effects of a performance-oriented society, with trends like globalization and individualization. This is something of a paradox. On the one hand, today’s world citizens actively take part in the hard, fast-paced and modern life, travel the world and lovingly embrace the technological achievements of today and tomorrow, while on the other they have a great need for order, simple comfortable solutions and a return to the safety and security of yesterday. Absolute bliss seems to be: surfing the Internet and text messaging by mobile phone in a sunny, nostalgic village square in the shadow of the rustling leaves of an oak tree.

It is in this spirit that our own Redesign has been given the metaphor ‘The Learning Village’. The old-style diploma factory will gradually disappear in the 21st century. A researcher recently spoke of “business practice in the institution, formerly known as a school.” While it won’t soon come to that, it is food for thought. One of the greatest revolutions, through technological developments, is the creation of new spaces. For centuries the world has only known one kind of space: the physical space; the world of buildings and spatial planning. A space that gradually offered too little room for the discovering person. Two more spaces have since been added: the mental space, the emerging world of thinking and imagination, and the digital space, the world of cyberspace. Although neither is tangible, they do have a considerable influence on our whole lives, our day-to-day lives and on our learning processes. So they also affect the school. Teachers will no longer be nor will they have to be the only source of content and information. For centuries, the physical learning environment was determined by the didactics of teaching verbally to a selected group of students on the basis of a fixed program. Because this form of education was and continues to be bound to a specific location, with specific characteristics, and a specific time. However, a virtual learning environment involves a completely different scenario. It is no longer necessary to bring teachers and students together physically; people and objects can change constantly; reading proficiency is one of the main learning skills; location and time are no longer defined; and the virtual learning environment is never closed.

This is a fundamental shift from a culture of collective transfer of knowledge to a culture of individual learning. Where it is no longer a matter of course that this takes place through lectures at a school. We have to think carefully about what a 21st century college should be in general and what a physical learning environment should be in particular.

An initial suggestion: Such a college is a learning environment with different functions. You go there when you want to develop yourself, want to meet others and when you want to enjoy or experience something. The latter fits in with the trend of the experience economy, which means that today’s consumer constantly wants to experience something, discover something authentic, in order to feel good. So obviously a college must be a place you enjoy coming to frequently. Inspiring learning, working, meeting and leisure environments are preconditions for this. We refer to all of this as our Learning Village. You go to that Learning Village physically or virtually, when you have a need for development, for meeting or for relaxation. There you meet other people, who are attracted to the same atmosphere, who have the same goal or the same interests. You agree to meet there, or you happen to run into people there. On your own, or with others, you explore the possibilities of the physical, mental and virtual spaces of the Learning Village. This is always fun and inspiring, because the Learning Village is appealing, surprising and inspiring. So, rather than a physical organizational concept, the Learning Village is a new learning, working and living concept.
Open the Learning Village

There is no existing example of what we want; the concept has never been invented before. So it will become a collective, undoubtedly exiting, voyage of discovery, in search of the ideal Learning Village. Our sources of inspiration are a variety of organizations such as the University of Cambridge, the Community Colleges in Phoenix Az and Kansas City, Città della Scienza in Naples, and our own K-12 school. What we do already have is a number of basic principles.

Learning Village

The Learning Village is a unique collection of physical, mental and digital spaces. We call it a Learning Village for two reasons. It is a new metaphor for a totally new educational concept; when we talk about a knowledge corporation, about a shopping center, etc., thoughts soon turn in a particular direction. Secondly, from a Dutch point of view, the idea of a College as a large-scale diploma factory puts people off. Yet everyone sees a village of a similar size as cozy, friendly and conveniently organized. The Learning Village should be a flourishing village community, and a true knowledge network.

Didactics

Imagine a teacher from two hundred years ago (when the blackboard was invented) arriving in our education system. He would be impressed by the techniques and the technology. But once in the classroom he would simply start to teach. The only difference is that he would now have to write on a white board with black marker, instead of on a blackboard with chalk. Research has shown that students only remember 20% of what they read and hear. But they remember 80% of what they experience, and as much as 90% of what they explain to somebody else. That is what the didactics will have to focus on. The theory and the teaching no longer occupy center stage. Instead the student’s personality and learning needs are at the forefront. Four forms of education that possess this potential are: competence-developing, project-based, task-based and problem-based learning.

Educational theory

The things that governments, business and industry and educational institutions consider useful are becoming less and less meaningful to students. This gap will likely only grow wider and is one of the main reasons why students drop out. Involvement is a condition for learning. You cannot create involvement automatically by teaching a lesson on a subject, no matter how interesting it is. You create involvement by linking in with the knowledge, ambitions and qualities of the students, and in particular by taking them seriously.

The Dutch professor Monique Boekaerts of Leiden University supports her ‘Leids Didactisch Model’ [Leiden Instruction Model] this way. Everyone has goals in life. Goals that arise from one’s own personality structure have a motivating effect and bring about positive emotions and positive energy (award system). Goals that do not arise from one’s own personality structure usually have a discouraging effect and bring about negative emotions and energy (punishment system).

People draw value and meaning from: needs, goals, motivation and security.

Students draw value from the following three goals:

• 
  meaningful learning (context-oriented, interesting);
  
• 
  personal balance (being successful, self-satisfaction);
  
• 
  social balance (feeling like they’re being taken seriously, being able to make their own choices = autonomy). Students who are frustrated in their learning objectives express this through maladjusted behavior: not actively participating, acting up, pestering, skipping class, and vandalism.
  

Virtually all students are motivated when they take up a course of study. This is based on three needs:

• 
  the psychological need for competences (subject-specific and learning to learn);
  
• 
  the psychological need for social relationships (fellow students, peers and teachers who provide assistance and support);
  
• 
  the need for autonomy (negotiation model).
  

As far as educational theory is concerned, we have largely skipped the developments of increasing independence, increasing diversity and in particular the increasingly changing ability of young people to learn.

We worry about the future of education, look for renewal of content, of design and of didactics, but there is (too) little attention for the most powerful and most crucial renewal factor: the students themselves.

Net Generation

Young people growing up with cable television, computers, the Internet and mobile telephones are developing their own new and unique learning style which contrasts sharply with standard didactics and educational theory. Education is still based on printed texts and standardized methods, is still linear and is still formal and teacher-driven. The way in which the Internet generation learns is just the opposite: learning takes place via monitors, symbols, icons, sound, games, trying things out, asking others questions, and it is not linear but associative.

Children are already experienced at processing information before they start school. They are used to choosing from many sources of information and do not make those choices anywhere near as randomly or coincidentally as educators think.

Sociologist Vinken is convinced that the Internet is nothing less than a wedge between two generations. And the American sociologist Rushkoff even regards the Internet generation as a new type of living being; beings that are capable of thinking associatively as if many different windows are open at the same time, and who are even able to find connections between these different windows. This is in contrast to their parents, the linear thinking television generation, who desperately and often unsuccessfully try to find logic in a flood of information. This Internet generation – the first generation in the history of humanity to educate its parents! – distinguishes itself from previous generations by the frequent and effortless use of three devices: the remote control, the mouse and the mobile phone. What these devices have in common is that they enable the user to decide which information is available and absorbed. By changing channels, clicking and text messaging, children learn from an early age to make their own choices from the many data flows. This freedom to choose has a great influence on the way in which children deal with information and how they learn. From the age of three, they learn through exploratory play with the aid of technology. When a child receives a new computer game, he starts playing immediately and certainly doesn’t waste any time reading the manual. If he doesn’t know something he presses the Help button or goes to a cheat site for a code that gets him to the next level, or he uses his mobile to phone a friend for advice. And with the answer, which he’ll always get some way or another, he can carry on playing and learning. The Internet generation learns by trying things out, by communicating and by networking. MSN Messenger is always on. When communicating they are concerned with the heart of the information, not with the style or the form. This leads to new forms of communication, such as chatting and text messaging, and to new words and concepts. For the Internet generation virtual and physical contacts overlap seamlessly. They can talk in a group while simultaneously communicating with other people by mobile phone. They communicate with anyone, anywhere in the world, whether they know them or not. They have no sense of or respect for distance, nor for authority. The Internet generation lives at home in the triangle of the TV screen, computer screen and mobile phone screen. In this self-created learning environment, they constantly make choices and take decisions on which knowledge and information is useful and which information to delete. And this is really what they want at school as well.

For the Internet generation learning is about playing and communicating, and you do this through playing and exploring. Learning is also very goal-oriented. The Internet generation learns things that will be useful in the future. Essentially, thanks to all their digital voyages of discovery, they have skills and a learning style which are perfectly suited for learning processes and future working environments. The Internet generation also reads in a very different way than previous generations. Actually they do not read, but they scan. This means that they focus on a combination of images, icons, colors, movements, sound and short texts. They mainly focus on the signs that refer to the heart of the information. Often these are words they can click on. As they scan the screen they soon have an idea of the relevance of the information and decide just as quickly to click on the next page in search of more relevant information. In a society in which all information is available in digital form, and in which the role of multimedia will only increase, the ability to scan is important for all knowledge workers.

A second skill developed by today’s children with ease is multitasking. The Internet generation can do everything at once: talk on the phone, watch TV, answer e-mails, chat, send text messages, listen to music, and do homework. Multitasking is a skill that greatly accelerates the rate of information processing and also stimulates rapid knowledge construction.

The Internet generation develops a third skill through watching a lot of TV. This skill is dealing with discontinuous information. On closer consideration their channel changing behavior isn’t so random at all. They prefer to follow three or four programs at once. They see interrupted – or discontinuous – pieces of information from each program. Their brains make logical connections between these pieces of information. This way of thinking and acting enables them to develop the ability to construct a meaningful whole from discontinuous information, as well as the ability to process more information than someone watching a single program could process in the same amount of time. This skill is important in a society in which you have to be able to obtain information from many different sources, use this information to form your own opinion, and do so quickly.

A fourth skill is the non-linear, associative approach to processing information, right across many different degrees of difficulty. They develop this skill through the way they handle playing computer games. A method that is at odds with the scholastic approach, where the systematic, linear and sequential approach is taught from easy to difficult.

The Internet generation applies these four skills just-in-time, just-for-me, just-enough and just-for-fun (J-4 model). Education still underestimates the great skills and power for learning which homo zappiens have. There is still insufficient recognition of idea that learning in the digital age truly does occur differently and can occur through the use of technology and by taking advantage of the screenagers’ skills.
Knowledge workers

Because knowledge is the source of every innovation, creating knowledge, sharing knowledge and organizing it is the core business of every educational organization. When people learn together, each individual learns for himself, but the group also learns collectively. Collective learning with collective processes and collective results is the most ideal situation for an organization. Learning then leads to a change in behavior and in work, and to innovation of processes and products. Learning is simply a matter of knowledge management. This view fits with that of social constructivism which interprets learning as a process of social interaction in which new knowledge is constantly constructed and reconstructed. Knowledge creation within a school is not possible without the full participation of students. In such a view students are not clients, but knowledge workers, who constantly create new knowledge together with other knowledge workers (the school’s own staff and those from professional life). Thus a College can also play a role with regard to the innovation of occupations and operational processes.

Knowledge Networks and Knowledge Workers

A knowledge network is not a committee or a working group. Participants in a knowledge network share a passion, a practice, and face the same worries and issues. A knowledge network is a learning community in which the participants explore questions together, take a look at what they each have to offer and enter into discussions with internal and external experts. A knowledge network does not offer any ultimate answers, but is a powerful learning environment in which difficult matters are addressed. The success lies in the involvement of the participants and the learning friendship they develop with one another. Sincere interest is a precondition, as is the willingness to contribute to the other’s development. Participants do not avoid difficult questions, they make taboos discussable and are able to identify surprise and disappointment. They focus on bearing disappointments and celebrating successes together. Our Center for Teaching and Learning (CTL), our recently formed Innovation Platform, our Central Examination Board and the Advisory Council of the ICT Academy and our Student Success Center (SSC) are existing knowledge networks.

As knowledge workers, students will also have to be used in internal business situations as much as possible, as a form of learning by working within the school; examples of this are Our Restaurant, our Mensa, our Travel Agency. Such a form of learning can also take place by providing services to or for external parties; see our Hairdressing Salon and the Service Center High Tech Metalelektro. Another possibility is mini-businesses set up and run by students, which the community can make use of. There are also many possibilities in the area of social traineeships; for example our Community week; Sports students who provide training sessions and clinics for young children and referee games; Wellness and Healthcare students who organize outings and activities for people with limitations, serve coffee and read aloud in hospitals or nursing homes; ICT and Multimedia students who provide Internet and computer lessons to elderly people and others who are new to the Internet. The Learning Village will bustle with this type of activity.
Educational Psychology

Learning is the process of assigning new meaning to information. In addition new knowledge is constructed. This is an individual mental process, which is stimulated through communication with others. So the aim of learning is to construct new knowledge, and this is also the aim of the knowledge economy.

In the industrial age, educational psychology was dominated by behaviorism. The aim was knowledge, and the student’s brain was regarded as an empty vessel into which the teacher poured ordered and standardized knowledge by means of verbal instruction and the exchange of questions and answers. Social constructivism has led to an educational psychology that does far more justice to 21st century people and processes. Social constructivism regards the learner as someone who activity constructs knowledge and insight in interaction with his environment. Social constructivism says that someone learns by reflecting on his own experiences and then adapting his behavior on the basis of new experiences. Only if you are aware of your own thought processes and actions can you decide to change them. So fitting in experiences always leads to new knowledge.

The names Gardner and De Bono cannot be left unmentioned in this section. The Theories (with a capital T) of Howard Gardner on multiple intelligences, and those of Edward de Bono on the development of lateral thinking and serious creativity, are very useful within social constructivism. Gardner is in favor of a new education system. This should enable the learner to show that he has acquired the required knowledge in his own unique way, by means of his eight intelligences. So away with standardized tests and uniform practical exams, and long live the individual master’s test! De Bono has translated his views on creative thinking in to the CoRT program. This is a program of 64 lessons that introduce thinking as a skill. Through all kinds of assignments children start learning in a playful way from the age of 4 how to use both sides of the brain in their learning processes. Scientific research has shown that the CoRT program can produce a 40% increase in the effectiveness of education. The ideas of Gardner and De Bono are indispensable in the Learning Village, because in order to have equal opportunities children must not be treated equally in education!

All Ages

Optimal knowledge creation and optimal knowledge sharing demand that there is sufficient space in our Learning Village for people of all ages, involved in a lifelong learning process from four to approx. seventy years.

This is why the Koning Willem I College has recently merged with a K-12 school and a High School.
Place and Time

The Learning Village has to:

• 
  have the opportunity to control time, and must therefore always be open virtually;
  
• 
  have the opportunity to manage the physical and virtual spaces optimally;
  
• 
  have the opportunity to register physical and virtual attendance.
  

Different learning environments

In a recent, international study on 21st century learning environments (this includes all conditions that contribute to a learning process) ten spaces were distinguished, some physical and some virtual. These are spaces for instruction, documentation, information, communication, cooperation, research, simulation, multimedia, virtual reality and e-learning.

The SCHOOL FOR THE FUTURE has a special role to play. As a center for research on new learning environments, as well as the design, development and implementation of such environments, and also as an internal and external knowledge and presentation platform, the School for the Future symbolizes the innovation and knowledge creation of the Learning Village. The School for the Future also has a distinct role as the meeting place for staff, where employees can work, take breaks and communicate in the relaxed atmosphere of Route 66, La Cantina, the Cybercafé and Leerplaza [Learning Plaza]. Following in the footsteps of the SSC, the School for the Future School is the Teachers’ Success Center to which employees can turn with all their learning, innovation and professionalization questions. To this end, besides that of the CTL, the School for the Future is also the home base for the Innovation Platform, the Application Expertise Center and the De Bono Expertise Center.