CONNECT is designed to facilitate access to upskilling pathways. The overall objectives of the project are a) to build and pilot an urban ecosystem of lifelong learning, that helps to leverage the educational impact of European learning cities and b) to develop a learner-centered approach to learning, which harnesses the assets of a city and transform them into a network of seamless pathways of learning experience. At the heart of CONNECT lies a digital learning hub, which by citizens can be used to set up personal learning projects and share their learning journey with the local community. The role of CONNECT is to build and facilitate access to networks that can support a person’s learning goals and career development over a lifetime. CONNECT builds on the assumption, that in a society where existing educational pathways no longer guarantee opportunity, and with a growing gap between the haves and the have-nots, networks can open up new entry points and pathways to opportunity in particular for those who are distant from learning or disadvantaged. Learners who have peers and mentors who share their interests, can make a better connection from learning outcomes to real world opportunities. Moreover, it has been demonstrated, that education works best when it connects with and builds on other initiatives, like community issues, and when it links learning to opportunity creation, like jobs and skills needed by the wider community. Last but not least the project aims at facilitating access to upskilling pathways by encouraging learners to develop a sense of ownership for their learning, along with a change of attitudes towards learning, so habits of lifelong learning can take route. Moreover, CONNECT builds on the assumption that the outcomes and impact of adult education in the digital age can be significantly improved, when shifted from siloed to open learning architectures, from consumptive to participatory learning and, from institutions to learning in networks. The project supports this shift by encouraging adult educators to take on new roles, such as becoming facilitators of personal learning projects and brokers of learning within networks. CONNECT will guide adult educators on their way to the digital learning society, and equip them with the skills needed in order to guide and support the adult learners of the future. CONNECT in this sense extends and develops educators' competences on the effective use of ICT. CONNECT supports the open education and innovative practices in a digital era by building city-wide digital platforms, that enable adult learners to set up personal learning projects based on their passions and interests; build connections with learning that appears across multiple contexts of the city; collect, mix and remix local learning resources and, with the help of peers and facilitators leverage their skills and competences; share learning outcomes with others, get feedback and ideas for improvement and gain recognition of their learning. Ubiquitous technologies nowadays allow for learning anywhere and anytime, which causes a shift from education to learning in open learning architectures. Moreover, learning which was previously based on consumption of information now shifts to participatory learning. Learning happens best when it is rich in social connections, especially when it is peer-based and organized around learners’ interests, enabling them to create as well as consume information. Finally, learning in institutions shifts to learning in networks. In the digital age, the fundamental operating and delivery systems are networks, not institutions, which are one node of many on a person’s network of learning opportunities. People learn across institutions, so an entire learning network must be supported. However, while the Internet over the past decades has put the focus on distance education and on collaboration among people that are geographically distributed, CONNECT seeks to bring again into the picture local issues, recognizing the critical role of technology-enhanced learning, supporting not only interactions with others around the world, but also and, perhaps more importantly, with people and organisations nearby. CONNECT brings together 7 partners from 5 EU member states, who contribute to the project through profound expertise on learning cities and regions, community development, neighbourhood learning, local education management, lifelong learning development and technology-enhanced learning.
The aim of the CONNECT project was to apply the concept of connected learning to adult education and to test it in an urban context. Digital and urban learning resources should be linked in a blended learning approach. The target cities were Munich (Germany), Dublin (Ireland), Bucharest (Romania), Valencia (Spain) and Kallithea (Greece). During the development and testing phases, the partners worked together with local cooperation partners, including municipal and private educational institutions in the field of adult education, local action groups, migrant communities, non-governmental organizations and sports clubs. In the first phase of the project, a system model for the implementation of connected learning in the context of the city was developed, based on analyses of research publications and empirical field studies that were carried out in all participating cities and countries. The focus here was on informal learning. The results were summarized in a research report, which is available as an Open Educational Resource. In the next step, based on the model, the partners developed and tested urban platforms for self-organized, connected learning. The learning formats, activities and content differ in some cases significantly, as the initial situation in the participating cities or districts is very different and different target groups were addressed. In addition, tests have shown that connected learning can have different functions depending on the context in which it’s applied. In parallel to the piloting of the platforms, various learning topics were tested with regard to their suitability for networked learning. We started from 5 basic topics, which were then varied or supplemented on the basis of the test results. The results were summarized in "Scenario Reports". During piloting the facilitators played an important role. Their task was to support the learners in building personal networks and to accompany the learning activities of participants. The project partners for this purpose have developed a corresponding training concept and training materials and hereafter tested them with moderators. Finally, each partner institution created a good practice guide in which the good practices identified in the course of the project were documented. One assumption was that by expanding their networks and opportunities, learners not only acquire new knowledge, skills and competencies, but also identify themselves more strongly with the local community. It has shown that learners are ready to share their own experiences and knowledge if they have the impression that this knowledge also serves the common good. Learners from Kosovo, for example, who had acquired a coaching license in a sports club, spontaneously shared their experiences with others and, with the help of the “facilitators”, placed learning materials on the platform. Another example is the Irish platform, which has developed into a contact point for full-time and voluntary people in the NEIC district. The participants networked on the platform to exchange experiences and knowledge and to work together on upgrading their neighborhood. The CONNECT approach aims to change educational practice, from isolated forms of learning to learning in distributed networks. Teachers are at the same time moderators of personal learning projects and mediators of learning interests in and between learning networks. CONNECT has conducted “Facilitator” training courses for 32 people, equipping them with the skills needed to support adult learners in networked learning. For educational partners such as the state capital Munich and its affiliated educational institutions, but also for the Greek training provider IDEC, CONNECT serves as an experimental field to test connected learning and gradually integrate it into educational practice. According to the partner organizations, the CONNECT approach should also be used to attract new groups of learners who cannot be reached with conventional educational offers and forms. The department for education management in the education department of the city of Munich wants to take over the German platform as a permanent learning facility for its citizens. The Irish partner wants to use CONNECT as part of a national empowerment strategy, adressing uneducated target groups, such as "Traveler Communities". With the CONNECT approach, the Romanian partner has a new instrument with which informal learning communities in selected urban districts of Bucharest are to be addressed.