My name is Anna Draves, and as one of the Reader Services librarians at the Boston Public Library, I facilitate our creative writing Learning Circles. A little bit about me, I’ve been writing fiction for most of my life and though I haven’t published anything yet, I have taken many creative writing classes and have…
Here’s an update from Matt Tucker, our business development fellow. He’s been working with P2PU since September to help us articulate revenue models to support learning circles. By the end of February, we’ll begin testing some new concepts that we hope will bring us consistent and unconstrained funding. Our values of peer learning, community, and…
Mission sustainability is as important as financial sustainability, if not more so. Without and Executive Director, we need to set up internal tools and resources to help maintain our focus and provide reflection points throughout the year. One primary tool we use is called ‘Work in Progress’; a 6-week long cycle that the team meets…
FOR IMMEDIATE NATIONAL RELEASE For further information contact: Grif Peterson grif@p2pu.org Libraries adopting innovative model for community learning Libraries are making online education more accessible and interactive by adopting “learning circles”, librarian-facilitated study groups for people who want to take online courses together and in person. This November, 15 public library systems in…
Learning circles have been running across 15 public libraries in Kenya over the past year with support from EIFL, OSF and the Kenya National Libary Service (KNLS). EIFL’s story about the first group of Learning Circle participants in Kenya is worth reading for context, as well as their notable achievements: 246 learners – about three times more than…
In September 2016, the Providence Public Library launched its first Learning Circle for students who were on a waiting list for English classes. Since then we have offered a 2nd English Learning Circle, 3 Learning Circles for adult immigrants who are studying for the U.S. citizenship exam and a literature learning circle for adults immigrants….
I recently defended my dissertation which focused entirely on Learning Circles. Coming from a Ph.D. program in Communication, Rhetoric, and Digital Media, I had many opportunities to look at the intersections of learning and networked technologies through courses, readings, workshops, conferences, lectures, etc. Having this background made me eager to start my own explorations. I…
During our expansion (from Coast 2 Coast), we sent out a survey to 40 new library facilitators about their interests and concerns about learning circles. According to our survey results, their greatest worry about learning circles is that learners won’t show up or stay engaged. “The only challenge I’m worried about is low attendance, which…
And we’re off! Thanks to a grant from the Knight Foundation, we’ve started to expand learning circles across the United States. Learning circles are lightly-facilitated study groups for learners who want to take online courses together. We started running learning circles as a pilot with Chicago Public Library in 2015 and after a year and…
Well, what can I say? Hello! This is me! I joined P2PU as the Community Lead, and fitting with my colleagues’ fun and clever titles, I declare myself Town Crier (although Community Whisperer was a close second). My focus will be coordinating the learning circle program, with some big help from the Knight Foundation. We’ll…