1.
Lifelong learning is an old concept and trend in education, especially in adult education. The
idea is one can and should acquire and hopefully apply knowledge all throughout a person's life.
Continuous change requires continuous learning especially now that a set of changes is
occurring rapidly that the cycle may repeat itself several times within a single lifetime.
Since lifelong learners are assumed to be self-directed, the emergence of Massive Open online
courses attracted many adult learners. MOOCs are easily available platforms that allow learners
to customize their learning considering their time, financial status, life-responsibilities, and
location. Online courses can either be provided by foreign institutions or by local colleges and
universities.
Lifelong Learners are assumed to be Problem-centered. So as problem-centered learners , we
should be able to direct our learning with the problems we face everyday. We should have the
intention of addressing problems in our society in terms of our economy, politics, social
injustices. We should not just accept things that are coming through because of globalization,
but also be critical about it.
With the emergence of knowledge-based economies, human capital has been a significant
source of wealth. The knowledge and skills which people bring to their jobs as a result of their
education and training, should be regarded as a form of capital which is capable of providing
returns and therefore requires investment to develop.
Adult education today constitutes the indicator of accessing lifelong learning services like
certification in a unique marketing system taking place as an individual's responsibility. So, in
order not to stay out of the economic order, individuals are forced to compete in the name of
proving their learning qualifications more than ever.
Individuals feel obliged to be part of a lifelong learning system in order to gain new qualifications
and so increase their chances of finding jobs when opportunities are limited. Some perceive it
as a guarantee for employment or promotion. For example, the CPD Act of 2016 here in the
Philippines. With its intentions to adapt for globalization, making Filipino professionals globally
competitive and aligning with the concept of lifelong learning, it sounds relevant. But making it
mandatory contradicts the assumption of self-directedness for lifelong learners.
Professional teachers, for example, argue that they actually engage in daily self-directed CPD in
the form of class preparation, conducting formative and summative assessments. Other adult
learners or professionals can certainly speak of similar things they do everyday in constantly
improving their skill. Moreover, it adds to inequality because of the cost of seminars
professionals need to attend in order to gain the points.
Collaborative Learning
Collaboration is a promising mode of human engagement that has become a
twenty-first-century trend. It is one of the more established strategies to promote peer-to-peer
and active learning.
It is a term for a variety of educational approaches involving joint intellectual effort by learners.
It's usually done by assigning students to work in groups as they mutually search for
understanding, solutions, or creating a product.
It promotes critical thinking and self-reflection skills on the part of the learners, students work in
teams so they have the opportunity to identify and correct misconceptions about the topics.
Learners are also less isolated so they have better learning experience and ultimately greater
academic achievement and it promotes teamwork skills like in terms of communication,
negotiation, and conflict resolution.
For online collaboration, it promotes a diverse student cohort, learners are able to collaborate
with learners from different places and backgrounds. It is more flexible in terms of time since
there is asynchronous mode. The web also records the interactions of the students and this
promotes transparency and accountability. Online tools also allow access to the differently
abled, to those who would not normally participate in the class.
But, from a critical point of view, we should also consider that learners learn at different speeds.
We should know how to make sure there is equal participation. There are instances that
individual needs are more dominated by the needs of the group so in designing collaborative
activities, these things should be considered.
Remember from one of our reading materials, it was mentioned how Wikipedia shows power in
forming collaborative learning and knowledge from diverse opinions. It has its strengths in terms
of its completeness and accessibility but its reliability and credibility is suspicious because of its
accuracy and everyone can edit it. But rather than trying to convince students not to use
Wikipedia, educators can come alongside students and teach them how to use and evaluate
such sources properly.