Learning Through Life

I've just started catching up on my 'holiday reading' and feel most remiss in that I have not previously read 'Learning Through Life' despite it having been published last year. On almost every page there are profound observations which, when added together, create a storm of conscience. It is the well-know scenario of "The rich get richer and the poor get poorer." or in this case, the educated continue to learn more, and thus enhance their lifestyles, whilst the less well-educated find themselves falling further behind. Is this really the right response to the Leitch Report?

I particularly like the abiguity of the title - ie Learning Throughout Life, or Learning From Life.

However, as regular readers will recognise, I keep on feeling a sense of frustration in that, in my opinion, the solution to many of the issues raised is THE EPORTFOLIO ! It talks (p5) of 'Local Learning Exchanges' but fails to recognise the place of virtual communities and thus the place of ePortfolios as supporting 'Communities of Interest'.

I cannot find any references to 'Learning Styles' or 'Multiple Intelligences'. This, again, is important. We need to understand how people not only of different 'attitudes' or life-styles learn but how age might influence learners' preferred learning styles.

RAPEL The Recording and Assessment of Prior and Experiential Learning appears not to be considered. Again, the ePortfolio is an excellent way of encouraging a learner to document a wide variety of experiences and accomplishments that a mentor might recognise as worth recording and submitting through one's ePortfolio in order to get a foothold on the 'Learning Ladder'.

Above all, I get the feeling that the authors still feel that institutional teaching and learning is the only solution. We read (P8) of the 'personalisation' of learning, ie as delivered by the institution, but not of 'personal learning' as devised by the individual. - See Wendy Drexler's article.