Learning Life’s credocalls for a different understanding of education – as an ongoing practice rather than a passing period in one’s life, an incidental phenomenon as much if not more than a deliberate one, and most importantly for our purposes in this article, a process that should never be bound strictly inside school walls. This understanding directs our attention to a new frontier of public education, beyond schools, into everyday life.
In charting this new educational frontier, the challenge is both theoretical and practical. Theoretically, the challenge is in part to define what distinguishes this new frontier from previous ones. Accordingly, in the first article in this series on local learning infrastructure (LLI), I distinguished between what a citizen and a consumer learns about their community, and briefly defined LLIs as tools for developing more citizen knowledge and engagement. Practically, the task at hand is in part to figure out just what LLIs look like and how they do and could work. This article starts us on this path.
As noted in the first article, a LLI consists of the local means for informing and engaging people about all that matters to their lives, from emergencies to school programs to regional economics on a local level all the way to information about climate change, demographic trends, technological innovations and alternative ways to think and live across the world. This significant information or signiacontrasts with trivia – less important information about, say, who is dating who in Hollywood, who is beating who in sports, etc. – that can be very entertaining, but that does not typically help ensure people’s safety, feed or clothe them, or otherwise assist them to better understand and shape their world.
In well functioning modern societies, LLIs commonly consist of brick-and-mortar structures like schools, libraries, town halls and community centers as well as printed or electronic means of communication, like newspapers, newsletters, leaflets, posters, email lists and websites. Some of these structures are government-run since democratic governments are charged with educating and engaging local residents. But businesses, nonprofits and voluntary associations (e.g., professional associations, universities, community foundations, political parties, advocacy groups) often also have an interest in creating, sustaining, expanding or innovating LLIs. Sometimes the information these organizations disseminate is more partial or partisan, but so long as it is signia rather than trivia, as defined above, it forms part of LLIs.
Importantly, considerable local learning infrastructure – like schools, universities, libraries, after-school educational programs and adult education classes – is largely devoted to deliberate learning, that is, signial education (learning signia rather than trivia) the learner more or less intended. But there is ample need for incidental learning, or signial education the learner does not intend, since many people learn only that signia which they are required to learn in school or at work.
Infrastructure for incidental learning already exists in many cities and towns in the form of free outdoor installations devoted to telling the community’s story, like Philadelphia’s outdoor history museums and memorials, or Boston’s pedestrian “Freedom Trail.” But many surfaces of everyday life – like napkins, placemats and cup sleeves as well as exterior building walls (for projecting important information), neighborhood bulletin boards and book exchanges, and electronic tickers and screens in public places – are less often used to engage people in incidental learning.
What if these everyday surfaces were used not just periodically but systematically to inform and engage people on local to global levels? Governments could install tax, sponsor or advertiser-funded e-tickers, radios or screens at popular marketplaces, parks, walkways, bus and train stops to run text, audio or video about development plans, budget debates, school issues, and upcoming events. Nonprofits and businesses could partner to create a steady stream of sponsor or advertiser-funded napkins, placemats, coasters and cup sleeves that invite people to learn about everything from local volunteer opportunities to global economic and environmental trends, and connect them to further information online as they eat or drink in restaurants, bars and cafes.
Democratic societies work better when they have more everyday citizens than periodic citizens. Periodic citizens restrict themselves more or less to voting in periodic elections. More informed citizens are more likely to become everyday citizens, and everyday citizens are more likely to report local problems as they arise (e.g., car break-ins, broken street lights, corruption and incompetence) in part because they know who to speak to and what to say. They are more likely to voice their issues and values, and do so in a tolerant and sophisticated ways. They are more likely to become involved locally to globally because they know more about local to global needs and problems, and how to address them.
Everyday surfaces can help nurture everyday citizens by spreading learning beyond the walls of traditional LLI structures like schools and libraries, to the restaurants, markets, parks and bus stops where people more often congregate. Better LLIs use everyday surfaces to nurture better citizens and stronger communities local to global.
This is the first of two profiles of Learning Life’s fall 2015 student interns. This fall, our two bright and capable interns, Samantha MacFarlane and Ian Thomas, are drafting new quizzes, five facts and big questions for Learning Life’s website, assisting with community research, and helping in other ways for which we are grateful. To learn more about interning with Learning Life contact us atemail@learninglife.info.
Where were you born and raised?
I was born in Miami and raised in South Florida, splitting weekends between the beach and Disney World.
What is your school, year and major?
I’m a senior at Georgetown University, studying Culture and Politics in Georgetown’s School of Foreign Service.
What do you like to do in your free time?
I like to listen to music and walk around the neighborhood or city, especially in the fall. I’m also a big fan of Netflix and watching documentaries with friends.
What is the most beautiful place you have seen on Earth, and why is it so beautiful?
Last Christmas, I was abroad in Morocco with an American friend. We had our own makeshift Christmas Eve with hot chocolate and Christmas music on his laptop as we sat in the backyard of our hostel in a small mountain town. Miles away from major cities, I saw more stars that night than ever before and got to make lots of shooting-star wishes.
Is there a particular life experience you have had that has shaped you as a person? If so, what was it, and how has it shaped who you are?
I studied abroad last year in Morocco and Senegal, which was the longest I’d been away from my friends and family in the United States. Stripped of the comforts of familiarity, and even my native language, my experiences and friendships were genuine and eye-opening. I learned a lot about myself and about how things work in other parts of the world, which has also given me a new perspective on the US since I’ve gotten back. I’m still working on it, but my year abroad showed me how to slow down, spend time with friends and family, and not get so caught up in the process of working, studying, and chasing money.
Why did you choose to intern with Learning Life?
Learning Life is driven by values that resonate with my own beliefs. The importance given to empowerment through education is lacking worldwide, and this internship allows me to work for that cause while gaining valuable research and writing skills.
What are your career plans?
I would eventually like to work with NGOs (non-governmental organizations) in developing countries, particularly in Sub-Saharan Africa addressing issues of education or human rights. For the moment I’m looking at opportunities for service abroad before starting real life.
International Migration
People move across national borders for various reasons, including the pull of family and economic opportunity, and the push of violence or the threat thereof. The following five facts offer a quick take of current migration dynamics and trends worldwide.
Thanks to Learning Life intern Samantha MacFarlane for her assistance in researching and writing these facts.
Top five immigrant countries
The five countries with the largest number of immigrants in 2015 were:
The USA has 5% of the world’s population, but 20% of the world’s migrants, and is the only industrialized nation in the world where over 25% of its migrants are illegal.
Since World War II, substantial improvements in communications (especially the internet, social media and cell phones) and transportation as well as the expansion of human rights have facilitated international migration.
The number of refugees, those displaced by war, or seeking asylum has reached an all-time high: nearly 60 million people worldwide at the end of 2015, compared to 51 million in 2013, and 38 million in 2005.
The main cause of the growth is the war in Syria. Those fleeing conflicts in Syria, Afghanistan and Somalia comprised 53% of refugees worldwide in 2014. Lebanon, Jordan and Nauru (an island nation in the Pacific) were the top host countries for refugees in 2014, by proportion of their countries’ populations.
Small businesses and volunteer associations have long been engines of the local community dynamism for which the United States is known. In recent years though, an inchoate movement has emerged nationwide to act locally driven in no small part by growing consumer desire to eat locally. In an age of globalization and social mobility though, this movement raises three important questions worth addressing:
1) How much do people actually know about their local communities?
2) What should they know?
3) How might local learning be nurtured?
I don’t profess to know all the answers to these questions, but as a sociologist, a long-time community organizer and the founder of Learning Life, I have some ideas.
To the first question, I suspect that most people know more about their communities as consumers than as citizens. Consumers need and want products and services of all kinds, and businesses have a vital interest in attracting consumers. Community non-profits and volunteer groups likewise desire to engage residents, but they don’t typically have the resources businesses have, nor do they usually so directly aim to meet people’s material needs and wants. Thus, we are likelier to know where to find good food, clean our clothes and fix our vehicles than where to mentor and tutor children, care for the elderly, or just learn local history. Similarly, when it comes to engaging with local government we are likelier to know where the public parks and playgrounds are, how to call the police, or get a license renewed or replaced than who our local government representatives let alone how to participate in government.
This matters because there is ample evidence linking knowledge and engagement. That is, people who know more about a given topic are more likely to be interested and involved in that topic, be it astronomy, politics, or their local community (e.g., on the connection between political knowledge and political engagement, see, for instance, Delli Carpini & Keeter 1997, Galston 2001 and Torney-Purta et al. 2001). Also, as I noted in a previous post, cognitive research shows that the more one knows about a given topic, the better one remembers, comprehends and problem solves on that topic. Thus, people who know more about their local communities are more likely to be better local citizens: more active, interested, intelligent and better problem-solvers.
To the second question, accordingly, local citizens should know more about local history, avenues for government participation, and the local individuals and groups that make their communities better places to live. Local citizens should also know more about the economy (e.g., what are the major local industries, who are the largest employers, how does local government constrain and enable the local economy?), environment (e.g., where does our water come from, what is the quality of the air we breathe, and how do business and government affect these?) and demographics of their community (e.g., what is the ethnic, racial and religious make-up of the community, what are the most common languages spoken at home, what are residents’ income and education levels?). Such local knowledge strengthens residents’ capacities to understand, appreciate and help their communities.
To the third question, I propose that community advocates and stakeholders need to think in terms of building a local learning infrastructure (LLI). Such infrastructure consists of a community’s means for informing and engaging its residents about things that matter locally, from emergencies to public meetings to local history. Currently, municipal and county governments provide much of that infrastructure with varying degrees of quality and quantity. In many if not most localities there is plenty of room for improvement, and partnerships with local businesses and non-profits can help.
Twenty years ago, Carol A. Twigg, current President of the National Center for Academic Transformation and former Vice-President of Educom (now EDUCAUSE), declared “The Need for a National Learning Infrastructure” in an essay by that name. Responding in part to the Clinton Administration’s call for an “information superhighway,” Twigg’s essay correctly identified a then nascent movement toward more online, networked and independent learning that is now revolutionizing higher education. She concluded her essay with the following statement: “It is time to move beyond the walls of our individual colleges and universities to join forces with other institutions, with corporations, and with public policy makers to revitalize American higher education.”
A similar call can and should be raised in communities across the United States and the world: given the dominance of consumerism over citizenship, and the ways globalization and mobility can distance people from their local communities, it is time for governments, non-profits and businesses to work together to systematically develop local learning infrastructures. LLIs can help inform and mobilize more residents to address community issues, whether these be environmental, economic, political, and/or social.
To this end, Learning Life partners with government agencies, businesses and nonprofits to spread signia or significant information on napkins and coasters in restaurants, bars, cafes and other eateries in metro D.C. This work follows on my belief in the strength of “big bits,” that is, bits of information that can effectively inform and engage people. It also advances our mission to inform and engage more people by spreading knowledge on everyday surfaces, whether these be phones, tablets and PCs, or napkins, posters and placemats. Such work is not a panacea, but we hope it becomes part of a wider creative effort to develop local learning infrastructures in communities in the United States and abroad.
Infrastructure for incidental learning already exists in many cities and towns in the form of free outdoor installations devoted to telling the community’s story, like Philadelphia’s outdoor history museums and memorials, or Boston’s pedestrian “Freedom Trail.” But many surfaces of everyday life – like napkins, placemats and cup sleeves as well as exterior building walls (for projecting important information), neighborhood bulletin boards and book exchanges, and electronic tickers and screens in public places – are less often used to engage people in incidental learning.
