Lifelong Learning | Patrick Blessinger

In a hyper-connected world, dawns a new age of hyper-learning

In a hyper-connected world, dawns a new age of hyper-learning Patrick Blessinger Two of the most important questions facing higher education today are: how should higher education institutions respond to the dramatic changes occurring in the world today? And, since the consumption and production of knowledge (that is, the learning process) is at the center of all educational institutions, how can higher education adapt and transform their teaching and learning practices and processes to best address these changes? To help answer these questions, it may be helpful to first understand the factors driving the emerging trends in the world today (politically, economically, socially, technologically, and environmentally) and how these trends are impacting higher education. The real-time instantaneity of ubiquitous digital interactions (for example, the integration of social media with wireless, GPS, and mobile technologies), as well as the development of new inventions, discoveries, and innovations, has fundamentally altered our reality [...]

Patrick Blessinger2023-04-16T12:36:57+00:00March 10, 2022|Tags: Learning Ecosystem, Learning Futures, Lifelong Learning, Patrick Blessinger, V8A3|

Shaping Learning Futures with Lifelong Learning

Shaping Learning Futures with Lifelong Learning Patrick Blessinger and Filipe de Castro Soeiro For the past 12 millennia, humanity has undergone a series of revolutions that have allowed it to dominate every aspect of the planet. Beginning with the First Agricultural Revolution (Neolithic period) around 10,000 BCE, humans began transitioning from hunter-gathers to permanent farming settlements based on animal domestication and plant cultivation for human food production and consumption. This revolution was likely triggered by climate change (end of the Paleolithic Ice Age) as well an increase in local populations (urbanization). This transition represents a radical change in humans’ survival strategies where humans began to adapt the environment to fits their needs rather than simply adapting to the whims of the environment as all other species do. For instance, through domestication, humans created artificial environments where selected livestock and plants were separated from their wild counterparts in order to serve [...]

Patrick Blessinger2022-02-26T15:28:18+00:00February 24, 2022|Tags: Filipe de Castro Soeiro, Learning Futures, Lifelong Learning, Patrick Blessinger, V8A2|

Rethinking Higher Education for the Future

Rethinking Higher Education for the Future Patrick Blessinger Over the past several decades, the democratization of knowledge has spread rapidly around the world as a result of political, economic, social, technological, and environmental forces. These forces have helped global higher education experience unprecedented growth in student enrollment and institutional diversification. Global higher education enrollment is expected to reach nearly 600 million by 2040. In the future, certain countries in Africa and Asia are expected to experience the largest increases in participation rates. What was once an elite higher education system just a few generations ago has quickly emerged into a massified higher education system. Today, in some parts of the world, higher education has even reached universal access. Not only are there now many types of degree-producing formal learning options available to people but there are also many types of open education and non-formal learning options such as OpenCourseWare and Khan [...]

Patrick Blessinger2022-02-25T23:42:27+00:00January 31, 2022|Tags: Higher Education, Learning, Lifelong Learning, Patrick Blessinger, V8A1|

HE institutions must learn to adapt to innovate

HE institutions must learn to adapt to innovate Patrick Blessinger, Enakshi Sengupta, and Mandla Makhanya Humanity stands on the precipice of an emerging revolution. This new revolution is brought about, in part, by the integration of biological, technological and social systems. For instance, we have seen remarkable advances in cybernetics, artificial intelligence, mixed reality, quantum computing, neural interfaces and genetic engineering, among others. Development of human intelligence This new revolution is just one in a long line of revolutions in human history over the past 10,000 years. The first major revolution was the Agricultural Revolution (also known as the Neolithic Revolution), which occurred in the Middle East around 10,000 BCE. This transition marked a turning away from nomadic hunting and gathering to stationary agricultural societies. During this period, humans established non-nomadic societies centred on crop and animal farming. Humans domesticated both plants (for example, wheat, lentils and flax) and animals [...]

Patrick Blessinger2020-03-07T17:29:12+00:00January 29, 2020|Tags: Enakshi Sengupta, Innovation, Lifelong Learning, Mandla Makhanya, Patrick Blessinger, University World News, V7A1|

Higher education for a sustainable future

Higher education for a sustainable future Patrick Blessinger, Enakshi Sengupta, and Taisir Subhi Yamin St John’s University, New York City, USA, The American University of Kurdistan, and The International Centre for Innovation in Education For much of human history people used renewable resources to provide the basic energy needed for eating, trading, transporting and simple social development (for example, wind and water for milling and seafaring as well as biomass for heating, cooking and shelter). In other words, in pre-industrial societies, humans, out of the need for survival, learned how to adapt their ways of life to fit the natural rhythms and conditions of their environment. Then, with the advent of the industrial revolution, societies began to use fossil fuels (coal, oil, natural gas) on a large scale to drive the growth of mass production systems and international trade. With the advent of post-industrial societies over the past 200 years, [...]

Patrick Blessinger2019-02-24T17:07:34+00:00December 8, 2018|Tags: Education for Sustainable Development, Enakshi Sengupta, Lifelong Learning, Patrick Blessinger, Taisir Subhi Yamin, University World News, V5A11|

Towards higher education in service of humanity

Towards higher education in service of humanity Patrick Blessinger and Mandla Makhanya St. John's University (NYC), USA and University of South Africa The growing importance of education at all levels and the inclusion of more stakeholders in the educational enterprise has sparked debate about the fundamental nature and purpose of higher education (that is, what type of good is education?). Traditionally, viewed from an economic perspective, higher education has been treated largely as a public good. Since the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights was adopted in 1948, this public good view has been reinforced by the view that education is also a human right. These factors, together with the increased demand for higher education to meet the economic development needs of the post-World War II economies, resulted in a huge increase in government support for higher education. This factor further solidified the notion of higher education as a public good. However, [...]

Patrick Blessinger2018-02-18T23:18:36+00:00February 18, 2018|Tags: Common Good, Inclusion, Lifelong Learning, Mandla Makhanya, Patrick Blessinger, University World News, V5A1|

Transforming higher education’s creative capacity

Transforming higher education’s creative capacity Patrick Blessinger St. John's University (NYC) and International HETL Association It has been nearly 20 years since UNESCO issued its World Declaration on Higher Education for the Twenty-First Century. Since its publication, global higher education has undergone dramatic change and global higher education enrolments have increased at a rate of about 5% per year. Today, higher education is in the midst of an academic revolution and many countries have now reached universal access status. The World Declaration on Higher Education promotes several important principles regarding creativity in higher education: Creativity should be used to integrate local/indigenous knowledge with advanced scientific knowledge, Curricula, teaching-learning and research should be organised in such a way as to continually foster creative thinking at every grade level, and Creative thinking and critical thinking should enhance and complement each other. Why creativity is important In the book, Creative Learning in Higher [...]

Patrick Blessinger2017-10-15T15:13:21+00:00April 30, 2017|Tags: Creative Learning, Lifelong Learning, Patrick Blessinger, University World News, V4A3|