Educational Innovations Beyond Technology: sustainable change through nested networks of learning and innovation

Abstract

The belief that developments in our societies should be reflected in education and in the organization of learning is widely accepted. The implication for an information society is that learners have to acquire 'productive' (as opposed to ‘reproductive’) skills, problem solving skills, independent learning skills and/or skills for life long learning. This is only possible when schools enable learners to become more active and to make them more responsible for arranging their own learning process. However, learning in schools has traditionally been organized such that the learner receives support in the form of well-adapted subject matter content, learning activities organized by a teacher, adequate curriculum materials and technical infrastructure. While ICT can be and is widely applied to enhance education using a traditional pedagogy, to bring about the learning outcomes desirable for an information society requires important changes in pedagogy, a key aspect of the implemented curriculum.