Learning And Diversity In The Cities Of The Future

This publication includes the Proceedings of the PLE Conference 2013. The Conference on Personal Learning Environments is now an established annual international, scientific event and a reference point for the current state of the art in research and development in Personal Learning Environments (PLE). The PLE Conference creates a space for researchers and practitioners to share concepts, case studies and research related to the design, development and implementation of Personal Learning Environments in diverse educational contexts including formal and informal education. The 4th PLE Conference in 2013 took place at Beuth University of Applied Sciences in Berlin, Germany together with a parallel event at Monash University in Melbourne, Australia. The PLE Conference 2013 received 75 submissions and welcomed almost 100 delegates from Europe, Asia, Australasia, North and South America and Africa.The papers included in the Proceedings provide rich and valuable theoretical and empirical insights into Personal Learning Environments. Personal Learning Environments (PLE) is an approach in Technology-Enhanced Learning (TEL) based on the principles of learner autonomy, ownership and empowerment. PLEs are integrated, individual environments for learning which include specific technologies, methods, tools, contents, communities and services constituting complex learning infrastructures, enhancing new educational practices and at the same time emerging from these new practices. This represents a shift away from the traditional model of technology-enhanced learning based on knowledge transfer towards a model based on knowledge construction and sharing.

The topic of urban life and the ambient in smart cities, learning cities, and future cities is a timely one, fitting as it does in the world today by responding in an interdisciplinary way across many areas of research and practice. It is essential for researchers to think about and engage with the notion of flourishing in increasingly challenging environments in smarter ways. Urban Life and the Ambient in Smart Cities, Learning Cities, and Future Cities expands upon explorations of urban life to the ambient. As such, perspectives are offered in this work on urban life in the context of smart cities, learning cities, and future cities, enriched by understandings of the ambient, infusing the interactions of people and technologies in 21st-century environments with increased awareness, at the moment. Covering topics such as ambient learning, smart homes, and extended realities, this premier reference work is an essential resource for students and educators of higher education, architects, urban planners, instructional designers, sociologists, city officials, community leaders, librarians, researchers, and academicians.

Demographic change and a growing sensitivity to the diversity of urban communities have increasingly led planners to recognize the necessity of planning for diversity. Edited by Michael A. Burayidi, Cities and the Politics of Difference offers a guide for making diversity a cornerstone of planning practice. The essays in this collection cover the practical and theoretical issues that surround this transformation, discussing ways of planning for inclusive and multicultural cities, enhancing the cultural competence of planners, and expanding the boundaries of planning for multiculturalism to include dimensions of diversity other than ethnicity and religion – including sexual and gender minorities and Indigenous communities. The advice of the contributors on how planners should integrate considerations of diversity in all its forms and guises into practice and theory will be valuable to scholars and practitioners at all levels of government.

In The Future of Diversity , distinguished academic leaders, heads of universities and foundations as well as faculty with valuable research and personal experience, discuss the next stage in the pursuit of democratic diversity and excellence on our campuses across the country.

The interwoven futures of humanity and our planet are under threat. Urgent action, taken together, is needed to change course and reimagine our futures.

The Routledge Companion to Professional Awareness and Diversity in Planning Education engenders a discourse on how urban planning as a discipline is being made attractive to children and youth as they consider their career preferences. It also provides a discourse around the diversity challenges facing the institutions for training urban planning professionals. This Companion is an impressive collection of initiatives, experiences, and lessons in helping children, youth, and the general public appreciate the importance of, and the diversity challenge confronting, the urban planning profession and education. It comprises empirical, experimental, and case study research on initiatives to address the professional awareness and diversity challenges in urban planning. It has uniquely assembled voices and experiences from countries in Africa, Asia, Europe, and North America. Contributors are educators, practitioners, and activists of urban planning as well as policymakers in their respective countries. This Companion is intended as a resource for urban planning schools and departments, foundations, non-profit organizations, private sector organizations, public institutions, teachers, and alumni, among others to learn and consciously drive efforts to increase planning education awareness among children, youth, and the general public. Chapter 6 of this book is freely available as a downloadable Open Access PDF at http://www.taylorfrancis.com under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives (CC-BY-NC-ND) 4.0 license.