Blogs

Lara Pugh, Project Leader Learning City for Wollongong City Council, NSW, Australia, a member of the Australian Learning Communities Network, is keen to learn about running a local learning festival. Lara recently interviewed members of the LearnWest Learning Network about how they went about organising their recent Learning for Earning Festival.

In early January, at the 107th annual Indian Science Congress held in Bengaluru, the Department of Science & Technology (DST), Government of India shared its draft policy on Scientific Social Responsibility (SSR), inviting discussion. As a leading country with a strong base of modern science and its institutions, India’s efforts to prepare a framework of social responsibility of science is really very meaningful and important.

Many congratulations to Prof Balazs Nemeth, Associate Director of PASCAL in Europe, who has been elected to become president of the European Universities Continuing Education Network (EUCEN). This is a very well-deserved honour and PASCAL looks forward to continuing to work with EUCEN under the leadership of Professor Nemeth.

The recent PASCAL and PIMA report on Good Active Ageing, which I edited with Denise Reghenzani Kearns, discussed the implications of the convergence of the demographic and technological revolutions. The demographic revolution with ageing populations is occurring at a time when revolutionary changes in digital technologies associated with artificial intelligence, robotics and biotechnologies are impacting on society with this impact certain to increase. How soon superintelligence arrives is a matter of lively discussion.

We are delighted to announce that the 16th PASCAL Conference, New Rural Horizons: Adult and intergenerational learning as catalysts for supporting resilient rural futures, will be held from 13-15 March 2019 in Ireland at University College Cork, and in Cahersiveen, Co. Kerry, Ireland. Further details of the event will be available at this site very shortly.