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…
If you’re like me, you probably grew up thinking that serious learning only happened in school, college and university. The consequence of this belief is that it devalues, denies, and discriminates against how most of the world actually learns, which is outside of formal education. If we’re serious about achieving education for all, then we…
What do you think? Should libraries replace universities as centers of education and learning? Universities are increasingly expensive and commodified, offer a top-down curriculum, and reinforce the status quo. No thanks! Wouldn’t it better to have a ‘university’ that was free and that had a mission to serve everyone? A university for the people and…
P2PU Gathering started by introductions held, not surprisingly, in a very large circle. On May 17th, 43 educators and librarians descended on Kansas City for two days. There was a lot of active learning, a lot of strategizing and a lot of BBQ. But what really happened? Here’s an overview of the whole event: Intention Two…
Last month we spoke with eleven public libraries who started running learning circles in 2017. For most of them, this was a brand new library pilot initiative and we wanted to know what was working, what needed to be tweaked and if libraries were, in fact, planning to run learning circles in the future….
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…
We just completed the first round of learning circles in Detroit, in partnership with Libraries Without Borders. Two learning circles were held at the Parkman Branch of the Detroit Public Library (DPL) and one was held at The Matrix Center. In addition to running the three learning circles, P2PU and LWB trained 18 librarians and library…
15 CPL librarians will launch Learning Circles in their respective branches this April. Courses on offer include some repeats from last year such as Public Speaking, Intro to HTML/CSS, and Fiction Writing, as well as 4 new courses: Pre-College English; Try College 101; Resume, Networking, and Interview Skills; and Finance for Everyone: Smart Tools for…
It started with the kind of problem that hatches romantic comedies: I lost a ring. And not just any ring–one my girl Elena had bought me during a recent BFF-a-thon in Stockholm. Not only was I super bummed, but I felt like I’d let a solid piece of karma escape through my fingers. So I…
Background. P2PU has pioneered the use of badges to recognize skills and projects. We’ve published papers on the subject. Scaled the badge model for a pilot of 500 learners. Won grants for our implementation. But how do badges actually work? And what’s the future of badges at P2PU? Anyone can create a badge, and we…