Connected learning for young people in the context of formal French-speaking education

Abstract

Connected learning is a growing educational practice that was identified by EDUsummIT2019 delegates as a theme for their examination of the relationship between curriculum/pedagogical practices and learning assessment. This paper focuses on how connected learning has been interpreted and implemented in the French and Francophone cultural context, and suggests that border "crossings", which reflect its dynamism, enhance formal education, especially in cases of disadvantaged students or classes (isolated rural classes). This interpretation is based on historical benchmarks as well as on the notions of agency, interaction, and connection. The scope and implementation of this concept is illustrated by the case of the networked (remote) school, an innovation that adapts to different contexts, including that of COVID-19, by going back and forth between local and delocalized learning activity. Two questions emerge, one concerning the recognition of learning outside the context of formal education and the other, the management of misinformation.