Education in the Time of the Fourth Industrial Revolution
DALLAS, TX / ACCESSWIRE / October 5, 2021 / Education 4.0 is a call for a different future for education. With an uncertain future and a race to digital and technological supremacy, economies demand a workforce with a different character and skillset. The homogenized and rote education of old served the needs of the first manufacturing revolution — some 200 years past — and requires a revolution in thinking. It adapted to Education 2.0 by introducing some tech into the classroom and then took advantage of MOOCs with the user-generated content of Education 3.0.
The fourth industrial revolution is one of AI, personalization, innovation, and global connectivity. As Mark Gong of Neoscholar Education explains, “In this context, an individual has one advantage to take to the workplace – their humanity. Creativity is a cornerstone of this Education 4.0 for this reason, as is the resilience and an ability to adapt to the ever-changing challenges we will face.” While digital literacy is crucial in Industry 4.0, so is the capacity to do what the machines cannot: think illogically, imaginatively, and with compassion.
Education the World Needs
In a 2019 report, the World Economic Forum laid out “eight critical characteristics” of Education 4.0. The characteristics include global citizenship, creativity, technological skills, interpersonal skills, personalized and self-paced, accessible and inclusive, problem-based and collaborative, and lifelong and student-driven. It is an approach that requires the learner to be playful and curious, to get out and experience the ideas, to innovate with technology, and to communicate in multiple literacies.
Current educational models seek to push a personalized K through 12 curriculum. The demand is for a model that empowers the individual to seek tailored skills and character-based learning throughout life, no matter where they are. In short, a monolithic institution that has existed for 200 years needs to transform itself into a mirror of the future of work. COVID-19 increased the urgency of these changes.
Educators and Researchers Respond
While governments are slow to change funding and qualification models hindering revolutionary change, educators and researchers are taking up the challenge. There are examples around the world of innovative learning projects, creating a fit-for-purpose educational model for the 21st century.
Global Citizenship and Real-World Action
The Green School, which first opened in Bali and has expanded to New Zealand, South Africa, and Mexico, is a model of learning that prompts learning in the real world. With a focus on sustainability and creating the next generation of green leaders, The Green School promotes the curiosity, empathy, and creativity of young people to solve the problems of our planet.
Everything about the space in which the young people learn is focused on a broader view of the world. There are classrooms without walls and structures made entirely from bamboo. Young people are encouraged to apply entrepreneurial thinking to real-world problems, seeing everything as a critical thinking problem to resolve.
Computational Thinking for a Technological World
The real world that The Knowledge Society embraces is the technological environment as opposed to the natural one. Based in Canada, this approach to learning mirrors the working environments of the major tech giants, introducing young people to the latest technological innovations such as robotic, AI, and blockchain.
This program is offered extra-curricular over three years and marries the soft and hard skills needed for modern work-readiness. Developed as an online learning platform, the organization partners with major innovative companies across North America to support students with real-life challenges.
Research-based Learning as a New Frontier of Education 4.0
Neoscholar Education is a private education provider based in Asia that introduces young generations to research-based learning experiences at a much younger age. The idea of a “project” has been widely encouraged in education for years, and Neoscholar Education moves this one step further by encouraging the curiosity and experimentation needed to challenge the existing boundaries of any academic fields.
Encouraging students to ask questions, analyze data, and seek solutions with critical thinking and well-designed experiments empowers students with the learning behaviors that put them in charge. One of the fundamental assumptions is that it takes courage to propose a hypothesis and test this for success or failure. By introducing this thinking at such a young age, the minds are shaped to approach the world with a mindset to find innovative solutions to obstacles.
Neoscholar is using online education tools such as Zoom to make research-based learning with renowned researchers more accessible and inclusive, without the limitations of geographic borders. In addition to collaborating with Zoom, Neoscholar Education is developing an in-house learning platform, which incorporates research skill development courses, writing courses, and subject-focused foundational courses, to create a personalized and self-paced environment to make the introduction of academic research to students smoothly.
The Same Difference
While each of these example models for Education 4.0 takes different approaches, they are founded on the same beliefs. The learner needs to be out in the real world, encouraged to problem solve and use curiosity and creativity powerfully. While technology is inherent within most Education 4.0 models, it is not the driver but the enabler. The purpose of this revolution in learning is to accentuate the human qualities that we bring to the workplace, which can be enhanced by technological innovation.
Follow Neoscholar Education on Twitter at @torhea_group.
If you’d like to hear more about Education 4.0 and EduTech, please contact Mark Gong at mark@neoscholar.us
SOURCE: Neoscholar Education
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