Let’s get the big news out of the way: my work with P2PU is wrapping up. I have spent the past three and a half years with P2PU developing learning circle programs with hundreds of public librarians and educators around the world. What a journey it has been! It has truly been one of the…
Want to receive this monthly newsletter in your inbox? Sign up here! 🌞 Planning for 2021 As many communities face changing job markets, unreliable access to basic needs, and tumultuous political climates, free high-quality education is more important than ever. 2020 asked for improvisation and creativity from those running accessible public programming—efforts that have empowered…
Want to receive this monthly newsletter in your inbox? Sign up here! 🌞 Courses, of course! Learning circles are a valuable way to connect people with similar needs or interests around a topic, typically guided by a free online course. Sometimes the perfect course inspires a learning circle. Other times, the need is clear but…
2016 was a formative year for P2PU. We wrapped up our learning circle pilot with Chicago Public Library (CPL), marking a conscious move away from building online courses and towards a new in-person peer-powered education model. By the fall, we had completed about 40 successful learning circles, created a community of 20 CPL library professionals,…
Building a strong community of practice lies at the heart of P2PU. In order to collaborate effectively and reliably with our community, we are announcing a new monthly virtual event schedule and big changes to our newsletter. Monthly Public Calls Starting in July, we’re hosting 3 virtual meetings open to all: Community Call (1st Wednesday):…
Hi hello, nice to meet you! 👋 I’m Becky, and I joined P2PU in April as the Production Lead. I’m here to explore how we learn from people’s experiences in learning circles and uses that knowledge to support our community, improve our tools, and share our work with the world. Admittedly, a global pandemic is a…
I was scheduled to lead a 1.5 day learning circle training workshop for Portuguese librarians in March as part of our three-year project with the European Union. When this trip was canceled due to the pandemic, I had to consider how to approach this workshop in a virtual environment instead. I had some hesitations: while…
While learning circles are happening in-person around the world (maybe not right now), these aren’t the only communities that we are fostering. Part of what we’re building with learning circles is a global community of facilitators that share their lessons and best practices. Over the last two years, a small group of facilitators have been…
Last night, I joined my first online learning circle. It was hosted by Sebastien Vigneau of BosLab, a Boston-area nonprofit organization that supports community-based biology programs. The topic at hand was coronavirus, and we were going to be working through FutureLearn’s online course COVID-19: Tackling the Novel Coronavirus, developed by the London School of Hygiene…
About a year and a half ago, I wrote a blog post about the state of online learning and how P2PU could take a stronger position in ensuring that there were high quality, open-access courses for the learning circles. We are thrilled that this idea is now a reality, thanks to Kansas City Public Library…