CERI Eye: NIACE/OECD Landscapes of Learning conference - Report

Tom Schuller reports back from the:

NIACE/OECD conference "Landscapes of Lifelong Learning" held in London on May 10, 2006 

Landscapes of Lifelong Learning was the title of a recent London conference organised  as a joint event between NIACE (National Institute for Adult and Continuing Education) and CERI/OECD.  NIACE is the primary agency for promoting lifelong learning in the UK and brings together a good range of policy-makers, researchers and practitioners..  

OECD presentations came from:
-  Jan Hylèn , on Open Educational Resources (view this powerpoint presentation)
-  Patrick Werquin on Qualification Systems and Informal Learning (view this powerpoint presentation)
-  myself on  Future directions for lifelong learning (view this powerpoint presentation).

For me, the discussion on OER turned out to be the most interesting.  Linda Jones, Pro-vice-chancellor at the Open University,  described how the OU is making materials freely available on the  web as part of its move to OER.  Some of these will be in a ‘Showcase’ site, as free tasters for OU courses; but others will be in a ‘Playspace’ site, from which people can take materials adapt the and return them to the site.  We are seeing the blurring of formal and informal learning – which made Patrick’s intervention all the more relevant:  what role will qualifications play in a system where these boundaries are changing?