The multitude of changes and challenges confronting the world today calls for renewed thinking on the means and ends of learning. As the world enters the 21st century, many of the fundamental assumptions that have shaped and guided past thinking about the nature of work, social relationships, the environment, cultural diversity, political participation, religion, etc. seem increasingly inappropriate. In order to cope with these transformations and facilitate them in a constructive manner, it is vital for learning to take on a broader meaning and role: in assisting people in their struggles; in providing them with the tools to make sense of the changes taking place around them; and in encouraging them to contribute to a world of socially just and peaceful development. On-going learning will be increasingly critical for meaningful participation in society.

Yet despite the concerted efforts of schools around the world, it is becoming evident that present learning systems are ill-equipped for taking on the challenges that lie ahead. Today, there are still nearly one billion illiterate people in the world, 130 million school-aged children out of school, and very few options for supporting the continuing learning needs of those who have dropped out of schools or who have no possibility of joining them. Barriers to learning are varied, from time, age, circumstance and socio-economic status but the problem that confronts us, however, runs much deeper than simply inadequate delivery mechanisms. The formal education system, can often, in itself, constitute a barrier to learning.

Models of education have predominantly focused on building a culture of schooling rather than on enabling a culture of learning. In many cases attention has been given to building schools and trying to get children into them, rather than on what happens inside the classroom and when children leave. Learning goals have, often, been conceived narrowly as highly formalistic means for passing examinations and obtaining qualifications in preparation for employment. Education is seen as an activity for the early part of one's life, a stage to prepare for life ahead, rather than a lifelong endeavor.

Furthermore, many school systems around the world are limited by outdated structures and approaches which contradict much of what is known to be beneficial in learning. Separations between levels of education, and biased different tracks of learning, such as academic, vocational or technical, are sometimes to the detriment of learners. Compartmentalized knowledge, irrelevant curricula, and rigid methods of teaching have shaped a process in which learning is primarily conceived of as a transmission model w here the 'empty' learner is forced to memorize facts and skills. The school teacher continues to be viewed as the primary source of knowledge and information. In drawing strict boundaries with the informal and non-formal domains of learning, mainstream schools are often isolated from their surroundings, cut off from the community. As a result, they have difficulty, not only in legitimizing other learning communities, other partners, other learning experiences, or other systems of knowledge, but in also dr awing from these for new ideas, energy and relevance. There is, without doubt, a need to look for further solutions and the means for doing things differently, rather than doing more of the same. This means rethinking and transforming existing learning environments as well as creating new ones.

The emergence of powerful new information and communication technologies (ICTs), such as those based on the use of computers and multimedia, digital compression and satellites, fiber- optics and wireless networks, artificial intelligence, and virtual reality, dramatically expand our options for engaging in teaching and learning at the individual, community, and societal levels. New opportunities are also emerging for better optimizing technologies (e.g., that expand the range, interactivity, local control ) that have been previously underutilized (i.e., radio, television, photography, blackboard, textbooks). In all sectors and industries, discussion around new technologies, however, tends to stir up a whole range of emotions from optimism and hope to skepticism and anxiety. The history of technology shows a disappointing repetition of instances of predicted revolutions that failed to materialize. Samuel Morse, for example, had predicted that the telegraph would ensure that the world communities enjoy a peaceful co-existence in the future by "annihilating space and time" and thus "bringing mankind into a common brotherhood." Reflecting on these failures and analyzing opportunities, several important concerns have been raised around the use of technologies in education in both industrialized as well as developing countries. Those involved in supporting learning must confront several difficult questions such as:
do benefits justify the costs involved;
how can one ensure that different socio-economic and cultural groups have equal access to technologies and information;
what can one do with all of the previous under-utilized technologies that institutions have already invested large sums of money in;
what types of "training" is required to fully utilize the potential of these technologies;
how can we develop appropriate multichannel approaches for effectively using these technologies -- is there are "right" mix;
what is the role of human facilitation, particularly teachers, vis-ã-vis the various technologies;
how do technologies transform the way in which individuals and groups interact with each other;
how to produce and adapt meaningful content that is consistent with and responsive to the needs, interests and aspirations of individual learners and their local contexts/ communities;
how can the various technologies be humanized?

The possibilities for using different combinations of technology to directly facilitate learning processes and to enhance the capacity of existing learning environments, while creating new ones, are infinite.

Technologies make it possible to visualize creating and linking up diverse learning communities. More immediately, these technologies, and their breaking down of barriers, present us with a window of opportunity to question fundamental assumptions and goals, to re- think existing approaches, to conceptualize and generate new ideas and even sometimes, albeit more rarely, catalyze social and institutional change.

Several fundamental questions appear vital in the shaping of learning contexts by technology:
What would learning systems look like if they were constructed from the perspective of each learner, sensitive to their learning needs, style, pace, local culture, interests, and aspirations?
What would learning systems look like if they were constructed and managed by communities and linked to identifying and realizing their development priorities?
What would learning systems look like if they were comprised of dynamically inter-connected diverse learning communities which shared information, culture and experiences and allowed learners the flexibility to move in and out of them?
What would learning systems look like if they tried to engage in their own organization learning?

These concerns are driving the concept of open learning communities. The term open learning communities, while including environments that may continue to be called schools or even be in schools, is deliberately used to challenge the reader to think beyond the traditional school-teacher-textbook model of supporting learning.

Philosophically, open learning communities are concerned with re-linking learning to broader development issues and trends such as globalization/localization, the emergence of technological and information societies, growth of informal economies, changes in political systems, transformation of social relationships, environmental conservation, social justice and equity, etc. The concept is based on a convergence of thinking and experiences that has been taking shape around the world, such as different ideas concerning learning (i.e., lifelong learning, multiple intelligences, multichannel learning, knowledge construction, collaborative learning, transdisciplinarity, notions that everyone can learn), complexity and systems thinking, cultural pluralism and communities, people-centered development and participation (in conceptualization, planning, implementation, research, evaluation). The ability to adapt to and generate change and participate in society is central to the concept of open learning communities. They are deeply committed to respecting each human being's need and right to self-expression, self-definition, self-realization, their capacity to reflect on their own conditions and the situation of others.

Practically speaking, open learning communities have existed for a long time. Many diverse examples can potentially be located: television talk shows, distance learning courses, Silicon Valley, women's collectives, schools, family and home, learning organizations, income-generation groups, religious communities, learning cities, and Internet-based environments for dialogue. What is new is not only the recognition of these diverse environments as valuable learning spaces but also the desire to strengthen them as learning entities. Stimulating local and global processes towards the conceptualizing of a new system of diverse and inter-connected open learning communities which attempts to go beyond the boundaries of formal, non-formal and informal education constitutes a huge challenge. The future of open learning communities is still in the making, being conceptualized and piloted by many individuals and institutions around the world. Technology has the potential to play a critical role in this process. Several specific aspects and applications of technology should be considered in the context of open learning communities such as:

Communication and information technology allows for the sharing of ideas and information. It supports interactivity. This provides a key source of support and motivation for the learners. It provides an opportunity for diverse groups of people to communicate while at the same time potentially altering the nature of communication. Technology also allows us to construct, analyze, store, look at, and share information in different ways. It creates the opportunity to move towards building distributed (as opposed to centralized) inform ation networks.

Learning technology provides flexibility to cater to different learning styles (through aural, visual, pictorial, oral, physical means, etc), learning needs, and learning styles. It is capable of engaging individuals and communities in different kinds of learning processes. It also provides the opportunity for greater relevance and socio-cultural specificity to content and activities. It can be used to support the development and legitimization of local knowledge systems. It opens up learning to any time and any place. It allows learners to be given a greater role in planning their own learning programmes and producing their own learning materials. Technology can support the development of local knowledge systems and cultural diversity.

Technology can create spaces for questioning existing policies, institutions. It can support the presentation of ideas differently, create new avenues for reflecting on current, future and past realities, and allow people to work with others in different ways. It allows for create new avenues for reflecting on current, future and past realities, and allow people to work with others in different ways. It allows for non-linear thinking and processes. Technology can support processes for re-defining traditional roles and relationships (e.g., teachers/learners, gender, rich/poor, majority/minority). It allows for non-traditional actors to enter into dialogue over decisionmaking. It can engage individuals to change their perceptions or attitudes about themselves or others. For technology to truly assist individuals and communities in identifying and meeting their learning goals and to support society in building and connecting open learning communities, strong efforts will need to be made in applying the technologies with an equal amount of vision and innovational commitment as was used to create them.

Effective and sustainable change to learning systems can only come from a broader vision of learning and the courage of those who wish to turn it into practice, by stimulating innovation and exploring alternative pathways/partners/technologies for the provision of lifelong and lifewide learning opportunities, particularly, to those who are currently underreached by or excluded from conventional modes of educational delivery. In addition to trying to meet traditionally unmet learning needs, and addressing learning demands that are emerging as people struggle to make sense of, interact with, adapt to and fully participate in this world which is increasingly overwhelmed by rapid change, uncertainty, information overload and conflict. There is also a necessity to question and focus on some very fundamental assumptions around the nature of learning; the content of what should be learned (including an understanding of the changing nature of knowledge and information and an understanding of how different types of knowledge and belief systems, experiences, etc. are valued/devalued); the relationship between learning and socio-cultural contexts; the modalities by which learning is facilitated/constructed/supported.

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