Automation, scalable learning, free time and the role of institutional education

We are living in a time of digital transformation, which influences all aspects of society. Jobs will disappear, will change and new jobs will be defined. In person, I’m thankful that engineers and other techies develop innovative tools to make our lives more easy. I see an evolution from “have to work” to “choose to work or create”. This gives us, as human beings, the possibility to strengthen our talents and competences. We get the benefit of self-development and creation.

The Impact of automation

The application of technological innovations usually leads to more efficient work. Routine actions or processes are automated. Certain jobs are lost… new ones are born.

Some jobs have a more emotional aspect: the human connection is important. Those are more difficult to automated. Artificial intelligence will have a tough task to gatter enough data on emotions. It is not yet for tomorrow hat AI will give subjective advice. Professions, with a strong emotional aspect, will therefore increase in appreciation.

Scalable Learning

Learning will become lifelong learning. Learning isn’t limited to the classical learning periods as we know today. Our current systems of learning will no longer meet. Today we transact determined knowledge to pupils in ordre to change pupils into productive workers. In the transforming world, knowledge is created constantly. To capture opportunities new skills are required. All those changes happen with an enormous speed.

Instead of gathering information, processing and assimilating new knowledge and applying skills to different domains, will be the new norm. It is important to be able to cope with the learning uncertainty. We call this scalable learning.

Besides intelligence quotient (IQ) and emotional quotient (EQ), adaptive quotient (AQ) will become more and more important.

Lifelong learning will gain importance. Through technological advances, we evolve towards individual learning moments, which are independent of time and space. What an opportunity for edtech business!

Free time, feeling valuable and the role of education

Another consequence of digital transformation: the amount of free time will grow. A larger group of people will hav emore free time. Until today the social status, and self-esteem depends on “to feel useful“. Today people don’t feel useful if they don’t have a job…

• How can we define “feel useful” differently? Can we, as a society, solve this by thinking out-of-the-box?
• How can we define the role of institutional education in all this? Will this “institutional education” still exist as a result of the various edtech solutions?
• How can we prepare teachers, professors, … for their new role?
• We evolve from a knowledge ( information) society to a society of talents and competences. How do you deal with knowledge, how do you work in team together, what do you feel?
• Do we drill a new intelligence based on emotions, feeling, intuition and adaptability? Feeling gets a place next to the cognitive mind and will we evolve to a balance?

Anyway “progress and productivity will only be given by linking talent and skills to humanity”.