12. Preface: Individualized Digital Learning

What purpose would education serve in our days unless it helped humans to a knowledge of the environment to which they have to adapt themselves? (Maria Montessori)

If one would conduct a historic review of educational systems one observes a coevolution of society and education. In the agricultural period education was characterized by an apprenticeship model which reflected the needs of the prevailing family and community settings. The current educational model was formed by the industrial revolution (“first machine age”) and is often referred to as the factory model. Today’s world, however, is characterized by the automation of cognitive tasks designed to substitute human activities with software based machines, the so called “second machine age”. This is triggering a new era of complexity with large scale social changes. While the concrete implications of that shift are still unclear, certain patterns with implications for an adjusted educational model can be detected. The digital champions of today are no longer relying primarily on an efficiency and cost savings focus, on hierarchical structures, and on placing the shareholder value at center stage. Thus, the hierarchical build factory model for education, which focuses on rote learning and standardized testing, with an emphasis to efficiently produce graduates, is put into question as well. A knowledge based, creative and innovation economy, which is less‐hierarchical and is focusing on customer value, requires a different set of skills. In a nutshell, I argue that it requires the ability to maintain a lifelong lasting curiosity and to be collaborative. Only a curious mindset, inquisitive and open to new situations, can transform complex problems into manageable situations. Collaboration is thereby the imperative for acting in complex settings. Our educational system has not yet adapted to the new requirements of the digitalized world. Rather than producing mines of information, educational institutions should foster curiosity and collaboration.