Reflections regarding changes in the learning landscape and their implications for the (lifelong) learner are placed against the backdrop of an ecological perspective on learning. Learning—individually and as a feature of social behavior—is defined in relation to constructive interaction of complex adaptive systems with their wider environment. Human existence involves more and more that people interact online. Consequently, such interactions have increasingly become a crucial dimension of learning. Adapting to life—and thus also to learning—on the Net poses a certain challenge to those whose major life experience predates the digital era. However, more important than the changes brought about by technological innovation as such are the challenges posed by increased complexity of the world in which we live, the nature and scale of the problems it faces, and the changed nature of our productive and transformative presence in the world. The latter challenges require a fundamental rethinking of the purposes for which we learn, given the complex thinking educated individuals must be capable of. They also call for a strategic reorientation of the processes and environment that afford such learning. Tentative answers will be offered and questions will be raised regarding the implications of the referred challenges for today’s learners and the learning ecology in which they operate.
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Visser, J. (2008). Constructive Interaction with Change: Implications for Learners and the Environment in Which They Learn. In: Visser, J., Visser-Valfrey, M. (eds) Learners in a Changing Learning Landscape. Lifelong Learning Book Series, vol 12. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4020-8299-3_2
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