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First, the holistic approach to individuals.
Learning is not only about
working with knowledge as such.
It is also about working on
know-how and behaviour,
working on emotions,
working on the body too,
not just the brain.
Learning much more tailored
to people's requirements.
It is much easier
to access knowledge.
All that is changing the way people learn.
It is also moving it away from
the business realm.
Another idea, which is quite close to that,
is experimenting,
learning by doing.
Experimenting means making mistakes,
and starting again, but it increases agility.
From where I'm standing,
mediating and observing relationships,
I can see a fairly clear shift in relationships
between people who teach
and people who learn.
The emerging relationships are no doubt
more horizontal.
Teachers will become facilitators,
and learners will become much more involved
in their learning processes.
Technology has always had a key impact
on learning methods.
It started with books,
which revolutionised access to knowledge.
Printing duplicated knowledge.
Today, technology tools
are changing across the board.
The Internet, of course,
participation via the Internet
(i.e. learning by participating)
and sharing knowledge
(i.e. learning by sharing and cooperating).
We are also learning in modules
(like the e-learning modules you develop here),
learning through video links,
or by distance tutoring.
The way we learn is changing radically.
Learning is facilitated, and user-friendlier.
We are also seeing
new learning places appearing.
Over and above the tools,
techniques, and technologies
(especially digital technologies),
a number of places are appearing today.
Those places as learning spaces.
Technology is obviously boosting them
because we can build on and share that knowledge
in a new type of space, i.e. the Internet.
There are other new spaces,
which are physical places:
I am thinking about third places,
and co-working spaces,
which are also physical places
where we will find different profiles,
different people,
cooperating with each other,
exchanging with others,
and learning from each other.
I would like to add that all these approaches
involving open innovation, open science and
open knowledge, which are developing quite fast,
are ushering in a systemic approach
to our environments.
They are building a multidisciplinary approach.
We can gain a lot if different scientific
disciplines cooperate with each other.
Amateur professionals can contribute a lot
to expert scientists' work,
and vice-versa.
So it's all about cooperation and access.
I also believe that experience
is very valuable in learning.
I am talking about starting with ourselves
and our experiences to share something
with someone who wants to learn.
I think that is very valuable
and that experience-sharing
will gain prominence over coming years.
As regards geographic distance,
the technologies to bridge that distance
are becoming necessary add-ons
and they will certainly grow,
because we need to be synchronised
and physically in the same place
to learn.
Technology makes it possible to
learn asynchronously
(even in a group)
and in a different geographic location.
At the same time, I get the feeling
we are reinventing the notion of 'closeness'.
We are realising that it is much easier to access
knowledge that seemed far away
or the people who have that knowledge.
They seem far away, but they are not.
We can talk to them over the phone,
exchange via collaborative tools,
exchange e-mails or chat by video links.
The notion of closeness is becoming multifaceted.
We can be physically in the same room,
we can be geographically close,
and we can be close in trusting communities or
through shared interests. All that is emerging.
Individuals who are learning and know,
who are learning permanently,
who are experimenting permanently:
I think that trend will develop.
People will become more aware
that there is value in what they experience,
and that they can share that with others,
to enhance shared thought processes.
I hope we head towards learning organisations
that learn more and more.
We are seeing that trend picking up speed
in enterprising projects that are emerging
around the communities that start them.
We are really creating learning communities.
The project is all about experimenting,
feedback, and adapting non-stop,
using AGILE methods and the like.
Learning organisations are real today.
So is the idea that organisations have
a lot to share with their ecosystem,
a lot to learn from their ecosystem,
and a lot to give back to their ecosystem.