Smart learning environments for a smart city: from the perspective of lifelong and lifewide learning

Abstract

In the perspective of lifelong learning, lifewide learning and learning society, learning environments have expanded from schools to a more broader space, and even to the whole city. School, family, community, workplace, and museum can be regarded as typical learning environments in a smart city. But few research about learning environments had been found on the combination of schools, families, communities and other learning situations. The purpose of this paper is to describe and analyze the characteristics of typical learning environments in smart cities, as well as the relationship of these learning environments. A mixed survey was carried out, a secondary analysis of statistical data of 68 cities was conducted, and a telephone survey with a sample of 13,600 people in 68 cities was used for data collection. It was found that there were significant differences in the development levels of five typical learning environments in smart cities, i.e., school, family, community, workplace, and museum learning environments. Some relations among the five typical learning environments were found.School had high relationship with community and museum learning environments. Family was strongly correlated with workplace and museum learning environments. Community was associated with museum, family, and school learning environments, but no significant relation existed between participation in community activities and workplace learning. As a public learning space, museum was related to all other learning environments. Further research should be taken to explore the reasons behind these correlations and their influencing factors.