eLearning Hubs and Edu-Business: How Private Companies Can Serve Common Good--The Case of Samsung School
Author: Dell'Acqua, Silvia
Date: 2015-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Lifelong Learning,Educational Attitudes,Positive Attitudes,Electronic Learning,Problem Solving,Thinking Skills,Creative Thinking,Social Responsibility,Corporations,School Business Relationship,Technology Uses in Education,Educational Technology,Foreign Countries

&quot;You are never too old, too young or too busy to learn&quot;. This means that you can be a lifelong learner, truly enjoying your learning experience. This has been quite an interesting change of perspective in learning, which is worth investigating. Both in environments primarily thought for education and during &quot;ad hoc&quot; experiences Edu-tainment is the leading star to perform at best and enjoy the deepening of your knowledge and skills. The theoretical aspect of Education and Learning is no more detached from the concept of &quot;being able to apply notions&quot;. What it matters today is not only the pure knowledge, which still constitutes the basis of the knowledge society. However it is &quot;simply&quot; the first layer, on which others should be put: in modern society skills and competences are fundamental, when it comes to Education and Innovation, considered by a lifelong learning perspective. They span different domains, which were not traditionally part of the educational field: digital competences, social and civic ones, sense of initiative and entrepreneurship, cultural awareness and expression. Education is and remains a common good by all means, however it is no more an abstract and a stand-alone concept, rather it is considered more valuable if it serves a precise purpose in our society. Skills-based knowledge is what makes the difference today. It is no more the notion that is at the centre of the learning process, rather its links with the real world and the degree of impact that what you have learnt and experienced can make in the society, is what counts. Education is more and more considered by learners as a permanent status in their life: sometimes it comes up, other times is in sleep mode. What is meaningful is that it is by all means a life experience, where the attitude of the learner means more than everything: &quot;Learning to learn is the ability to pursue and persist in learning, to organise one's own learning, including through effective management of time and information both individually and in groups&quot;. As the Recommendation of the European Parliament and of the Council of 18 December 2006 on key competences for lifelong learning states. What is more, in the Recommendation we read: &quot;a positive attitude includes the motivation and confidence to pursue and succeed at learning throughout one's life. A problem-solving attitude supports both the learning process itself and an individual's ability to handle obstacles and change&quot;. In other words, the learning experience is not something which is accomplished just in school, on the contrary it permeates the life of the learner, as skills and competences should be used to cope with challenges which belong to the world outside the classroom. As a concrete evidence of this, we can refer to e-Learning as a mean to build thinking skills: when you help learners build this kind of competences, you enable the workforce to quickly adapt to changing conditions. Each lifelong learner needs to face different circumstances: what makes the difference is not the theory, rather, what matters are problem solving skills; such as creative thinking (generating new ideas) and critical thinking (analysis and evaluation). This is just an example, on how non traditional transferable skills can enhance the employability prospects of a learner. Outlining this scenario is fundamental to pave the way to the analysis of the Copernican (R)evolution we are witnessing in the (educational) world: social benefit and private investments are now part of the same life-cycle. In my paper I will focus on the principles, reasons and consequences that are implied in this new phenomenon, which has already affected other domains (i.e. Eco-business). In my opinion, the &quot;mix&quot; between public and private investments will be increasingly relevant in the future of education, for two basic reasons: resources availability is more and more scarce; competitiveness is becoming stronger. It is extremely important to underline that in investigating this (R)evolution we need to be rigorous and distinguish among experiences, singling out the virtuous patterns that can be transferable and applicable to different contexts, ensuring that common standards are respected and that the nature of learning is not distorted. The participation of private actors in the (e)Learning process should not be considered as a way of relinquishing the inner nature of Education and Learning, rather, if well-conceived and managed, the final result proves to be completely the opposite. What should be always granted is the fairness of the processes, namely solid and sound policies have to be in place in order to provide the precise framework, in which a private actor can then intervene, complementing and integrating what the public authority has to assure to its citizens. In the paper the investigation of such a phenomenon will be complemented by the focus on a case study, with the purpose to shed light on the practical implications that this new educational scenario can lead to. Namely &quot;Samsung School and Labs&quot; will be under scrutiny. The purpose of innovation, in each domain, is to open up new scenarios: in Education and Learning fields it is particularly true that creativity is inspiring and, if well managed, can be revolutionary.