Learning circles have come a long way in 2016. When the year began, we were working with a dozen or so librarians in Chicago Public Library, supporting them as they facilitated the delivery of online courses in their library branches. Throughout the year, we saw the program in Chicago continue to thrive, in a large part thanks to the hard work of adult services librarian Kate Lapinski. We also had the honor to begin working with many new communities, including Detroit, Kansas City, Boston, Providence, Portland, Paris, and the wonderful group of librarians in Nairobi and Nakuru, Kenya, pictured above.
Regardless of where we work, one thing that all our projects share is a deep conviction that community-based online learning can challenge the hierarchy and exclusivity of traditional educational institutions and support inclusive, empowering learning experiences around the world. In order to reach a wider audience and continue to improve the learning circle model, we're pleased to announce that we've just posted a job opening for a full-time project coordinator role. Please share (or tweet) this widely to ensure we draw from as diverse a candidate pool as possible!
What we were up to in 2016:
Kansas City
KC all-stars Wendy Pearson and Shaka Myrick helped us start learning circles across the Kansas City Public Library system. They recently remixed some digital literacy resources to create a six-week learning circle entitled "Making the Internet Work For You". They launched this course at two branches in the fall and will be expanding the program next year.
New England
We just began working with World Education in Massachusetts, Maine, and Rhode Island to run learning circles for adults who are on waiting lists to begin English language literacy programs. Before this project, some people needed to wait 6 months just to enroll in an English class!
Detroit
In Detroit, we worked with Libraries without Borders to start learning circles at Detroit Public Library. We owe a great deal of gratitude to Kenny Andejeski and Qumisha Goss for all their support in getting this started. To the left, you'll see Marion and Stella - two women who attended a learning circle on user innovation and entrepreneurship. They'll be facilitating a learning circle on this same topic early next year.
Paris
Edgar Ornelas, an EdTech Master's Student at Centre de Recherches Interdisciplinaires, is spending the second year of his program getting learning circles started in libraries and other public spaces across Paris. Through this collaboration, we'll also be deploying French language learning circles resources in early 2017. C'est magnifique!
Kenya
We worked with eIFL and the Kenya National Library Service to launch the first learning circles outside of the US, and couldn't be happier about the results. Learners in Nairobi and Nakuru worked through online courses in HTML/CSS, storytelling, Excel data analysis, English grammar, and resume writing. The Nakuru HTML/CSS learning circle finished with 27 participants - our largest learning circle yet.
We're grateful to the Knight Foundation, Open Societies Foundations, and Dollar General Literacy Foundation for the new commitments they made to our work this past year. If you're interested in starting learning circles in your community in 2017, we encourage you to reach out to us, pitch an idea, or just get started!
