LEARN TO LEARN: THE CHALLENGE
Yes, our children should (also) learn to learn. Therefore, it becomes so relevant that adults do so now too.
“The coming of revolution 4.0 also brings the certainty that the world will become increasingly obsolete every decade, and therefore individuals should develop a self-teaching ability during their professional lives, as before in their academic life, in order to be able to continue learning through life without the extreme dependence of having to return to the classroom. “
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Challenge
I’m without internet? And now?
The next minute, when I run out of the Internet, 3.5 million Google search queries will happen; almost 2 million snapshots created in Snapchat; more than 4 million hours watched on YouTube; almost half a million tweets sent on Twitter and more than 16 million text messages sent. Nearly a million Facebook logins and more than 150 million emails would be sent.
And so much knowledge that I lost in just 1 minute!
Should education and training systems be able to prepare young people (only them?) for future jobs, even in a context of great uncertainty? 65% of today’s children will have jobs that have not yet been invented (OECD, 2016).
Prepare them for the future by seeking, as far as possible, to adjust curricula and qualification structures to the skills that are thought to be those needed for the jobs of the future. It is important, but it is very short and this is even pointed out in the recent report of the working group that presented the profile of the student leaving the 12th year and more sharply, the opinion of the CNE-National Education Council on the profile of the student for the 21st century (April 21 pp).
The European Commission, in its recent communication of 17 November 2017 puts the [Life Long Learning] (LLL) at the top “three” of its Education/Training priorities.
Care
In 2017 the [LLL] emerged as a European response in education, training, employment and youth policies enlightened by Industry 4.0 and also because of the terrorist attacks on European soil.
The Faure Learning to Be report (Faure, 1972) advocated education (the use of this word generated several misunderstandings because it was the lifelong translation of the English word “Learning”) as the main concept of educational policies in developed and developing countries. It was seen as a turning point and the beginning of a period of optimism in international educational policy because it recognized that education was no longer the privilege of an elite, specific age group.
Instead, he concluded that education must be universal and lifelong. Essentially, this meant moving to a humanist, rights-based and holistic view of education (Ouane, 2011). With the UNESCO report “Learning: the Treasure Within” (Delors, 1996) and the OECD Report on “Lifelong Learning for All” (OECD, 1996), [LLL] has been linked to economic, social, cultural and environmental challenges that societies and communities face.
There is a strong orientation to the principles of human capital and employability. In the European Union, the [LLL] speech entered a third phase from the year 2000, influenced by the EU objectives of creating the most dynamic knowledge-based economy in the world and ensuring social cohesion. (adaptation from Lifelong Learning: Holistic and Global Education by Ulf-Daniel Ehlers (October 2017).
Here the Government emphasizes that the first of its reforms is the qualification of the Portuguese. The Government’s strategy states that Portugal has an odd opportunity to be on the front line by presenting itself as the competent supplier of the critical digital skills needs in Europe.
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Lead
The future of learning is less and less in the classroom and more infiltrated in day-to-day work in different formats. This requires creating an environment and a context where people feel safe and comfortable to experiment, risk, make errors and learn.
Learning must be incorporated into all aspects of the organization through educational actions and methodologies that must extrapolate the traditional classroom.
“Hard” skills dominate conversations when we speak in the digital world, but collaboration, empathy, and meaning are key to this transformation process. Cultivating and provoking a persistence and passion mentality are also essential for success. Organizations will assume processes of machine learning; of Gamification; two Moocs; of Elearning 4.0.; of the robots that educate and form, but also in many sectors in which the artificial intelligence and the study of the algorithm is the focus of that innovation.
An exceptional time? Or, in fact, are we moving towards the advent of the Education/Training business in such terms that some predict it to be on top by 2030 by overtaking social networks like Facebook and dethroning Amazon?
Well, precisely what is missing? For all we know that forming (and much more educating) consumes resources and demands professionals (teachers and new generation educators) of another kind. But, especially a Leader(s) that is able to be put in the field a vision of alignment in purpose for the action, based on a format and methodology of collaboration and exploration of the digital resources that are available. Ah, but that’s the hardest thing to do…
As Thomas Piketty states on p.457 in his book “Capital in the 21st Century” (2014) – “In the long term, the best way to reduce inequalities in relation to labor, and also to increase the average productivity of labor and the overall growth of the economy, is undoubtedly to invest in training. “
Inspire
It’s not the digital technology that creates social change, it’s the people that do it! Investing in people and broadening access to lifelong learning opportunities are as important as investing in digital technology.
That’s why they have to follow closely. Digital technology can support and improve people’s learning, and equally important, as opposed to many resilient decision makers and opinion makers, lifelong learning opportunities enable people to use digital technology effectively, efficiently and responsibly and take full advantage of their “digital experience”.
They are like two in one.
Technology is learned and used. Learn to learn, he said, instead of marrying the words. António Guterres, in his very recent doctoral “honoris causa” ceremony granted by his Higher Technical Institute, was inspired by his student days reminding him of what his school gave him, the ability to “learn to learn”.
This was the great principle the Secretary-General of the United Nations wanted to give to young people – at least new ones responsible for the different levels of the education system. More than “get drunk [with knowledge]”, as some teachers demanded before (1965-1971), one must learn to learn, because “what is going to happen in the next few decades” and “the contents that will be studied will be quickly overcome” is unpredictable.
So, yes, our children should (also) learn to learn. Therefore, it becomes so relevant that adults do so now too.
The coming of revolution 4.0 also brings the certainty that the world will become increasingly obsolete every decade, and therefore individuals should develop a self-teaching ability during their professional lives, as before in their academic life, in order to be able to continue learning through life without the extreme dependence of having to return to the classroom.
In this sense, schools should become centers for the development of competences, abandoning definitively the position of spaces of replication of knowledge.
Conclusion
Augmented reality, virtual reality and gamification, associated with other communication/learning/training technologies such as quizzes, podcasts, applications and videos, among others, present adaptive and personalized learning strategies and contribute to the creation of learning ecosystems innovators.
