Why Cities of Learning?
In all of my work for the last 8 years I have operated with a simple design principle: the how must come from the why. As we embark on year two of the Cities of Learning initiative it seems necessary to step back and consider why. How we do this work must be inspired by that answer.
We are already busy working to create a functional and beautiful technology platform, to connect organizations to the effort, to train educators, and—most importantly—connect with learners. It is easy to lose the purpose amidst the jargon and the road maps.
So, why?
Learning Happens Everywhere
More than anything, the purpose of Cities of Learning is to reclaim and recognize the value of learning experiences outside of school. The very fact that we have to argue for “learning everywhere” highlights a failure. Of course we learn everywhere! Of course we learn both in and outside of schools. The work to validate and showcase the breadth of our learned experiences is basic and imperative.
In addition to an unfortunate discounting of non-school learning, we have reared generations who often equate “learning” with “boring.” The branding agency helping City of Learning to appeal to youth has mentioned that it might be best to remove the word “Learning” from the name. “Learning” has an image problem. We wouldn’t name it “City of Boring,” would we?
Our work, it seems, is not only to validate all of learning, but to redeem learning itself. Our work is to give learning a context throughout life: in our schools, in our play, in our friendship, and in the woods. This requires much more than the re-branding of “Learning.” It requires an authentic shift to experiences that let learners pose problems and find solutions for the issues of their lives, rather than the issues of school. We must let learners engage with the actual work of building the world they live in, rather than 18 years of mere preparation.
The “City” context for City of Learning, of course, is completely arbitrary. The place in which we live is necessarily the place where we learn. If we reclaim the meaning of “Learning,” I think, we arrive at something like “the act of improving our ability to live in a place.” For an increasing number of people, this place—the context for learning to live better—is a city, but also the country, or the suburbs, or the corners of the internet.
As mentioned, this problem is not a new one. Thoreau’s journals observe the following:
“As some give to Harvard College or another institution, why might not another give a forest or huckleberry-field to Concord? A town is an institution which deserves to be remembered. We boast of our system of education, but why stop at schoolmasters and schoolhouses? We are all schoolmasters, and our schoolhouse is the universe. To attend chiefly to the desk or schoolhouse while we neglect the scenery in which it is placed is absurd.”
In the end, the purpose of City of Learning and the digital badges it uses to mark learning experiences is to expand the schoolhouse further into the universe, beyond the walls of the school itself. Although learning happens everywhere, we struggle to count it everywhere. Open Badges fill this need by providing the mark of legitimizing data. With them, we can begin to count, and therefore value, learning experiences across our lives. Badges are a mechanism for exploration.
Learning Should be Personalized and Interest-driven
In first grade, my father was reading at a fifth grade level. To make sure he wasn’t bored, his teachers moved him into the fifth grade reading class. He had great teachers, loved the challenge of it and enjoyed the books they read. Unfortunately, because his school only went up to the fifth grade (and he wasn’t ready to skip ahead in all grades) he had no option but to stay in that fifth grade reading class as he went through grades 2, 3, 4, and 5 in his other courses. He was stuck for 5 years in the same class, reading many books multiple times.
Like so many others, everyone really, my father needed the freedom to exercise his ability and interests by pursuing learning beyond what his school provided. Even the most excellent schools with the best teachers have these limitations. While his case is an extreme example, every teacher recognizes the limits of what they can offer, and every student, regardless of proficiency, can participate in learning beyond the walls the classroom. Where do we send the student who is inspired by their teacher to love robots but whose school just has one robotics course? What about the student who loves his science class, is fascinated by the water cycle and wants to explore the rivers? How can we empower teachers with local resources to help extend learning beyond the classroom for their students?
In the past, the work required to personalize learning for each student amidst the distributed sea of opportunities was overwhelming. The ability to personalize is directly related to each educator’s access to resources and the time and energy available to connect students with those resources.
Through collaborative, data-driven learning networks, more diverse and personalized learning pathways are now possible and accessible without such a heavy burden on individual educators. But first, we have to build the network.
Through the City of Learning and digital badges, the act of documenting learning wherever it happens is possible. Notably, this is not an attempt to control more of a student’s life, but less. In a sense it is an act of faith believing that, given a certain freedom, students will seek out that which interests them. Let us integrate the great resources of our schools with the opportunities in the world beyond: apprenticeships, videos, service work, mentors, digital courses, workshops, meetups, games, etc. Through this, we can enable learners to use their schools not as the alpha and omega of their educational options, but as a home base for their life as a learner.
While it is possible for schools to offer a lot for their students, it is wrong to assume they should offer everything. Even if resources were unlimited, the interests that a learner should pursue will often require a different context and a non-peer community.
Access to Resources
The City of Learning initiative is, in many ways, a technology project. Because of this, there has been a lot of thoughtful criticism around issues of access. If we build a tech platform for accessing learning resources, what about learners who lack the tech to make use of this?
Right now, Pittsburgh City of Learning does not have the resources to pursue a one-to-one initiative, but we are equipping partners with technology, working with the public libraries, and focusing on mobile design and sms integration so that anyone with a cell phone can utilize City of Learning resources.
The issues of access that we hope to address in this work go beyond the technical requirement of having a device to log-in. Rather, we hope to address issues of access and equity by creating new out-of-school-time data sets, expanding learning networks, and complementing school resources.
New Data
Current data in the out-of-school-time education space is extremely limited. Because of this, it is difficult to identify disparities between students and resources and issues of quality, outcomes, and breadth. By creating a distributed network for out-of-school learning resources, City of Learning will create a lot of powerful data that can start to answer questions like:
- Do the kids from this low-income north side neighborhood have immediate access to any robotics workshops? If not, are they making the trip across town to an affluent neighborhood that does offer these workshops?
- Do the number of resources in neighborhoods adequately match up to the quantity of learners in those neighborhoods?
- Are there areas of the city that are completely lacking certain categories of learning opportunities?
- Which neighborhoods are not attending out-of-school time learning events with much frequency?
We hope that, by creating data to answer these questions, funders and educators can begin to direct resources more appropriately.
Expanding Learning Networks
A basic fact about learning communities is that they are relational and, often, limited by who you know or where you live. This is great if you live in a wealthy neighborhood and have immediate relational connections to the organizers of good quality learning programs. Kids are often whisked off to whatever learning programs are easily found by themselves or their parents. This is bound by their network and, to some degree, whatever social capital that learner has. By capturing the entire network of learning resources within a city (and, hopefully, online) the City of Learning can empower learners (and their families) to identify and sign up for opportunities outside of their relational networks.
Complementing Schools
As mentioned above, schools can provide a great home base for learners, but often have limited resources. By networking learning opportunities city-wide, City of Learning can come alongside schools not just with one or two out-of-school-time partnerships, but with an expansive map of resources. And, by using data-rich open badges and the City of Learning tools, these learning experiences beyond school can matter and be counted in entirely new ways. Students who only have access to schools with very limited resources could complement those resources with resources from the City of learning network. This complementary network can even be driven by the school. The school, functioning as a home base can provide the structure and relational support needed for students to use the entire city as their campus.
So, why Cities of Learning?
Because education means learning to live better in every place we find ourselves.
Because learning should be driven by interests, not limitations.
Because access to great learning should not be limited by fragmentation, social capital, or isolation.
I earnestly hope that, through City of Learning, schools can become home-bases for us as we explore our cities and learn how to live better in all places. Our whole lives and our whole places must be contexts for learning. We are all schoolmasters and our schoolhouse is the universe.
