by Professor Nick Eastmond, Ph.D. 

Q1: What 2-3 key experiences in your background led you to develop your
current theory?

Interesting that you present Learning Without Frontiers as a theory. I think of it as an ongoing discussion, a concept in development. It is based on the idea that learning is a process which is not always completely predictable. More often than not, learning is unintentional, the result of unplanned circumstances.

While I should see myself as the product of a University which is very much rooted in the Instructional Design tradition (University of Twente, the Netherlands), I have always felt that learning is not a process which can be designed from beginning to the end in all cases. As a student, studying the literature, reading the theories of instructionaldesign and the theories on learning, I did often find, in those theories, confirmation of this idea.

So, to answer your question in retrospect, I should mention the experience of my education in Enschede. It provided the foundation for my intellectual understanding of learning as a very multi-dimensional process, of which some aspects are under control of the instructional designer, but many are not.

Especially my experiences with the World Health Organization in Amman, Jordan and with UNESCO in Paris gave me the hands-on experience which confirmed this idea, and which gave me the opportunity to put learning without frontiers into practice.

In Jordan I was involved in the design and development of a comprehensive manual for environmental health workers in Palestinian refugee camps in the West Bank, Gaza, Jordan, Syria and Lebanon. Due to travel restrictions, I was not able to know the environments in which the manual was to be used, and we had to deal with complex and varied circumstances (e.g., nearly illiterate workers in camps that have existed for nearly 50 years in crowded Amman; different political and organizational structures in the different camps). In addition, the content to be covered was complex, ranging from how to deal with leaking taps, to recognizing signs of epidemics, finding breeding places for flies and knowing how to count how many people live in a small place. We in the environmental health office were forced to make decisions without all the required information available, and it made me aware in a big way how difficult it can be to control the circumstances in which people learn things.  I was required to take a LWF approach avant la lettre in allowing a certain level of uncertainty to be present in the process.

One experience, while with UNESCO, also shaped my thinking. It is actually described in the article as one of the cases: the teacher trainers in Zimbabwe. In contrast to the project in the Middle East, we from the start deliberately underdesigned the learning environment. Merely providing computers and Internet connectivity, and some triggering workshops, we allowed the small group of teacher trainers to develop their own learning environment. We started the project about 4-5 years ago. When I see how things have developed, I know that such an approach can work perfectly well.

Q2: How have you been involved with UNESCO in developing it?

I worked in the Learning Without Frontiers team In UNESCO for two years. Apart from the project in Zimbabwe and a number of other activities, I was responsible for the LWF website which played an important role in promoting the discussion around the LWF concept.

Q3: What led to your collaboration with Jan Visser?

When the opportunity arose to join the Learning Without Frontiers team in Paris, I did not have to think very long. An open minded director, in the person of Jan, and a challenging mandate for the LWF team were just two factors which made the choice easy.

Q4: What events have transpired since you wrote the article?  How would those affect your present position on these matters?

I left UNESCO to teach in University for a year. Since then, I have taken up assignments as an independent consultant based in the Netherlands. One experience which fitted perfectly well in the LWF thinking was my work as project coordinator with the Amsterdam Faculty of Education last year (the expedition towards a more dynamic concept of curriculum has been presented at various conferences as well as at AECT).  This teacher training school has given students the responsibility for constructing their own learning experience towards becoming a competent teacher, extensively using the possibilities of ICTs in the form of an online Portfolio system as well as explicitly stimulating students to look for learning opportunities outside the school. Last June, the first results became visible when freshmen students had to prove their competence to a team of external assessors using their Portfolio. The stories I have heard until now are very promising: students find it a motivating way to work and become much more aware of the fact that learning is a process one can actively shape into a challenging, relevant and positive experience.

Q5: What trends do you see on the horizon that our international readers should be aware of?

A. When it comes to media, ICT, ... I believe that the communication and information devices which we use will become more and more invisible. Not merely because they become smaller and smarter, but mostly because we will not have to struggle so much with them anymore.

B. When it comes to learning, ... the main challenge for us, instructional designers, will be to let go of our need for control of the learning environments we create, in particular, trying to avoid the idea that we can or should preconceive all the choices people will want to make in a learning environment.
 

Q6: What additional thoughts would you like to add?

Understanding challenge B, above, is a precondition for trend A.
 

Q7: What questions would you ask of our readers?  What challenge(s) would you like to pass along to them?

During the last AECT conference in Long Beach, we held a session to explore which questions the instructional design field should ask to further develop learning Without Frontiers. The contributions to this meeting made me realize that something in our being is yearning to be recognized: the need for recognition, the need for relevant and positive experiences. And maybe, without wanting to become too moralistic, the need for a safe environment (love and respect) and recognition of passion.

Many of the learning stories (see also the Learning Development Institute web site) indicate these factors to be of importance for true learning to take place. My challenge to the reader is to reflect on a learning experience that really meant something for him or her. What were the discriminating factors that made this learning experience meaningful? How can you, as an instructional designer, create learning opportunities like that one? 

David Berg, MSc
Interactive Media and Communication
berg.imc@planet.nl
31 26 370 4474
31 6 2930 3365 (mobile)