ABSTRACT
A quiet revolution in education and information science is unfolding worldwide, affording learners and information seekers of all ages increasing choice and control over their own learning. The centers of this revolution are not traditional educational establishments such as schools and universities, but instead a vast network of free-choice educational entities such as museums, zoos, aquariums, libraries, print and broadcast media, gaming, and increasingly the Internet and other social networking media. Collectively these organizations provide environments and tools enabling a growing number of individuals to customize and take charge of their own learning. This entry describes some of the trends leading to learner-centered education and makes a case for the importance of this kind of learning in a twenty-first-century Learning Society.
